REPORTING SCIENCES - WATER EVERY DROP COUNTS

1. REPORTING SCIENCES - WATER EVERY DROP COUNTS Educational activity project “Watery solutions used in practice”

2. TEACHER : ADINA TUDORACHE • CLUB : EXPERIMENTAL CHEMIST • Project name: • “Watery solutions used in practice” is a local applied-chemistry competition for beginners (8th and 9th grade), activity that is organized and part of the multilateral project Comenius, “Water, every drop counts!” .

3. Purpose: • To evaluate the activity of the students in the Experimental chemistry club from the Children’s Palace; the unit that is to be evaluated is “Water – the most used solvent” with the following subunits: • The dissolution of substances in water • Factors that influence the substances’ dissolution • The concentration of watery solutions • Ways of indicating a solution’s concentration • The solubility of substances in water • Factors that influence the solubility • Watery solutions used in practice; • To encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities.

4. Planned activities/Stages of the competition • Practical lab work • Annex 1/ 8th grade/ The students have been divided into 4 groups (each group is made of 3 students) and they had to solve the tasks in Annex 1. • Annex 2/ 9th grade/ The students solved the tasks in Annex 2 individually. • The most creative amateur chemist • PowerPoint presentations with the theme “Water for life” – duration: 10 minutes. • Aims of the suggested activities • developing the skills specific to the experimental side of chemistry; • stimulating the interest in science and the availability to inform, organize and diversify;

8. “Water in all” – interdisciplinary contest • 21 MARCH • TEACHER : DARIE PAMELA • CLUB : EUROPEAN STUDIES • PROJECT NAME: “Water in all” – interdisciplinary contest addressed to grades 9-11 and organized within the multilateral project Comenius “Water – every drop counts”.

9. PURPOSE: The contest aims to stimulate the students’ interest for approaching and understanding the theme of the project from an interdisciplinary perspective; hence, they will be able to have a global and integrative view on the importance of linking contents that come from different fields (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology). Moreover, the contest aimed to encourage the development of analytical and coherent thinking as well as the development of their communication skills.

10. TASKS IN THE CONTEST: The students were divided into three teams. Each team answered two questions from each field; they had 1 minute to think of an answer for each question. • CONCLUSIONS: The great number of participants and the fact that they were well-prepared was impressive.

15. WATER – THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE • MOTTO: “Clean water for a healthy life.” • 22 MARCH • TEACHER : CRISTINA POHOAŢĂ • CLUB: VEGETABLE

16. Purpose: • Potable water, indispensable for life, has become an exhaustible resource. That requires the development of some educational approaches that would determine positive changes in the behaviour of people by including water management and conservation in the lifestyle of both students and the entire population.

17. Aims: • To discover water and its properties that play an essential role in maintaining life on Earth; also, to develop observation and the specific skills required for lab work or field work. • To stimulate ecological habits by taking part in extracurricular activities. • To encourage students to find solutions for maintaining the quality of water both on a local and national level. • To reduce the natural imbalances by initiating a program to maintain the quality of water. • To initiate the intellectual development of the students, their abilities to cooperate, be tolerant, have initiative and to form friendships based on collaboration and competition.

18. ApaVital rewarded children on the World Water Day • On the 22nd of March, ApaVital celebrated the World Water Day alongside with children from several teaching institutions from the Iasi County. Although it was rainy, the almost 30 students representing their schools and high schools persisted in fulfilling the tasks given. The activities in which they participated were included in the educational project “Water – the fountain of life”; the project came to life in partnership with the County’s Scholar Inspectorate and the Palace of Children from Iasi. • Students were equipped with blue vests personalized with the ApaVital and the Palace of Children’s logos, the Avi mascot and the message “Water – the fountain of life”. They distributed hundreds of flyers and leaflets that outlined how important it is to save potable water and suggested ways to do that.

19. The follow-up action was a visit to the Water Treatment Station near the Chirita Lake, where students were able to observe the journey made by the water from the Prut River to our houses and the processes it goes through until it becomes potable. In the end, at the rewarding festivity of the contest “Water through the eyes of a child”, the visitors were awarded over 60 prizes and gifts. The contest had three sections (drawing, collages and projects) and three age categories (grades 1-4, grades 5-8 and grades 9-12). • The educational project “Water – the fountain of life” was addressed to students from schools, scholar groups and high schools from Iasi, students who love and protect nature and who wanted to get involved in the activities that aimed to inform and raise awareness of water consumption and ways of protecting the environment.

20. Approximately 1200 students from Iasi participated in this project. • There were numerous activities that took place within the project, such as: presenting informative materials about the importance of water, cleaning the rivers near some of the main towns, organising contests and street campaigns in order to raise awareness of the waste of water resources and the importance of water in a healthy nutrition