The Comenius Project

(Lifelong Learning Programme)

The Comenius programme is a programme established by the European Union aimed at bringing students and teachers in different European countries together.  The target group is young people aged 14–19 as well as teachers.  Dollar Academy has worked on several Comenius projects over the past few years with a group of European schools.  The current project that the school is involved with is the CORE Europe project.  The other participating schools are  Le lycée Franco-Allemand, Paris, France , Gustav-Stresemann-Gymnasium, Fellbach, Germany, IIS Luigi Einaudi, Badia, Italy.

What has been achieved to date (June 2011)?

Partner meeting in Germany (Nov 2010)

• Tour of biomass plant. This was videoed for uploading to the project website.
• A blog was set up for the project.
• A solar panel engineer spoke with the group about Germany’s experience of using renewable energy.

Dollar (from August 2010):

• The Technology department constructed the wind turbines for each of the partner schools.
• Trialled recording of data from wind turbine. (View turbine test video)
• A solar panel was purchased and set up.
• A survey/questionnaire on attitudes towards renewable energy was produced by the Geography department.   These questionnaires were completed Form I and II pupils at Dollar Academy and a group of S1 pupils from Balfron Academy.  The questionnaire was translated into German, Italian and French for use by pupils in partner schools.   Several pupils in a Russian school were also surveyed.
• Interview carried out with official from Scottish and Southern Energy, a major power supplier in Scotland, interview was recorded for the website.
• Pupil trip to SEE hydroelectric plant in Pitlochry : a tour of the plant was recorded on video.

Partner meeting in Italy (May 2011)

• Two Form III pupils accompanied by two members of staff travelled to Italy.
• The wind turbine and solar panel at the Badia school were examined.
• Teachers met to discuss the blog and how the final results will be collated and displayed.   Use  of data loggers was explored.
• A Tour of SunEdison’s solar plant in Rovigo took place. Video footage of the tour was obtained.
• A Lecture about solar energy was given by Dr Nico Daldosso to both teachers and pupils.
• Pupils from Scotland and Italy delivered presentations on work carried out to date.
• Decisions were made on the settings for the solar panel installation, on what media was required for the blog and on the parameters for the synchronised readings scheduled for 6 June and for 4 consecutive Mondays commencing 19 September.
• Interviews with representatives from each school were recorded.

Dollar (from May 2011):

• The completed renewal energy questionnaires were collated and analysed by staff and pupils from the Computing department.  (View Survey Results Report)
• The solar panel was installed.

The first set of synchronised readings from solar panels is scheduled for the end of June.

Links to further information

Web links

http://coreeurope.blogspot.com/

Media links

• Wind turbine video May 2011
• Renewable energy surveys questionnaire May 2011
• Survey results June 2011
• Rovigo solar plant video May 2011
• Pitlochry Video
• Interview with SSE (Audio)
• Tour of biomass plant in Fellbach.