First activity: The “Chronothermometer”
Our first activity was in the Primary School of Ayia Varvara. The idea was to speak to the children about how much time waste need to degrade and how important it’s to follow the 3 R’s, Reuse-Reduce-Recycle. To do so we decided to use a “chrono-thermometer” to show how long the materials need to decompose. We decided to build a thermometer as example and then to let the children building their own thermometer. Of course, we instantly thought it looked like the best idea in the world…but then putting in place was a bit ‘more complicated than expected!
Anyway, we built our thermometer with a wooden panel, colored strings and the various materials; such as plastic bottles, cans, plastic bags, paper, tetrapack. Furthermore we created a new and “ecological” version of the famous Snake Game, to help children think while playing.When we arrived at the school all the children were so excited to see us, and especially to meet people from other countries. But also we found ourselves in front of a truly multi-ethnic class: there were children from Argentina, Romania, China, Syria, Philippines. Into the class we discussed all together about the time of degradation through a power point presentation.
Then we split the children in two groups; we asked the first group to color and cut the pictures of the materials that we already discussed on and in the other group to put on a cardboard panel the colored strings in different lenghts. Then the children have placed the pictures near the correspondent string and wrote down the duration that each material needs to degrade.
It was funny, because the children reinvented and personalized the work we showed them and they learned something by using their hands
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About us, despite it was our first activity, we did a good job!
The article in original is from Almyras EVS volunteers Blog:
