“The children change completely, when they present something themselves”

In the middle of October 2015, four Ukrainian schools spread all over the country implemented the second step of the project “Engagier dich - Збережи енергію”: With the support of Goethe-Institut Ukraine and the Association “Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine” they all organised comprehensive project days at their schools including a wide range of interactive, creative and always energy-related activities.

Previously, in September, teachers of the four schools in Cherkasy, Kryvih Rih, Kyiv and Lviv had been trained in innovative teaching methods, including the Energiekiste – a big portable box with many tools for energy experiments, which they had been presented with. Back at their schools, they were now the driving motor for the organisation and realisation of several project days at their institutes.

What did these project days include? They were as diverse, as schools and pupils can be, but they had one very important element in common: Everywhere pupils where active participants, such as experimentators, project managers or theatre actors, and sometimes they became even teachers for themselves. They used the Energiekiste and many other tools for experimenting, discussing, playing and developing future projects related to energy efficiency, renewable energy and environmental protection. Popular activities were self-organised experiments, flashmobs, lessons from older to younger students, development and presentation of small videos, interviews, and many other. German language was always present, too, for example in bilingual Ukrainian-German lessons on energy savings.

All four schools showed their capacity and motivation to actively engage themselves with energy efficiency and environmental issues. And even the teachers were sometimes surprised, how much self-initiative their kids showed and how professionally they acted. As one teacher in Kyiv summed it up, and as EECU representative Kilian Schubert could confirm for all schools: “The children change completely, when they present something themselves”.

Pupils and teacher have now around one month of time left to finalise their projects before they will present them to the public in the framework of Information Days, to be held in their cities in the second half of October.