A compilation of good practices developed for renewable energy and energy efficiency education during the Grundtvig project : E The project Grundtvig “Let’s do it Creatively … and Environmentally with Renewable Energy (CERE)” (2011 to 2013) was awarded in August 2011 to Ø Italy Euro Gestione Impresa, Reggio di Calabria, Ø Romania Record Radio TV City S.R.L. Ploiesti, Ø Ø 1. The Project The lifelong learning partners wished to share innovative and creative educational best practices in the field of renewable energy using the Grundtvig principle that "Sustainable Learning is for Living". This project aims to continue the fostering of the love of learning that was achieved in the project, "Let's Do It Creatively...For the Benefit of Adult Learners" with three of the core partners and one new partner (Italy) by using the Framework of Enjoyable Learning Approaches and further developing it by putting it into practice. The project wished to foster understanding of renewable energy in the 2020 European Vision through · building on the experience, skills and administration gained in "Let's Do It Creatively..." and our other experiences: 2009 European Year of Creativity and Innovation; · building on the Framework of Framework of Enjoyable Learning Approaches · number of informal local learning activities; · a minimum of 4 international workshops; · positive attitudes towards Lifelong Learning; · facilitating access to learning; · transfer and progression for a diverse learning community with different learning needs; · enriching the themes of renewable energy; and recycling · making contacts with other actors interested in the field of renewable energy; · developing training and research, · reflective exercises, the practitioners and adult learners hope to be inspired to continue innovative and creative practices in the context of facilitating learning rather than imparting knowledge in the theme of renewable energy and recycling as shown by the Framework. · motivation about renewable energy and waste recycling learning; we hope to show how we can improve our lives ,cheaply, safely, securely and legally. The project hopes to support the re-engagement of the unemployed, elderly, rural learners, those incapacitated after illness or accident, learners with financial difficulties, learners with lack of time back into education and ageing adult learners; · This project is to support adults to improve their knowledge and raise adult learner awareness of the language and culture of partners. In a small way, nevertheless a small important way, participants in the the project contributed a little to the understanding of the Europe 2020 Vision, especially in terms of renewable energies, especially the goal to have 20% of Europe’s from renewables. One UK participant who attended a local UK activity at the Lakeside Energy from Waste Centre , at Lakeside near Slough and Windsor has become climate change officer for Wiltshire County Council. To achieve climate goals, we needed to understand the policies of the states in the enlarged EU and see if there is a possibility for a “Zero Carbon Footprint in Europe”. We found the policies of partners still quite complicated in the case of Italy we were surprised that it was asking the EU for permission to suspend climate control statutes because of the Euro crisis. We investigated ways to reduce Carbon emissions and harness new technologies such as *wind power *solar power, *hydropower - hydro-electricity * and sequestration *affordable and practical ways to make our technologies of yesteryear more energy efficient and give our homes better and cheaper systems to prevent energy loss. * We need to discover. economic technologies to store the electricity we are producing. The partners were motivated to collaborate with each other and other actors, to exchange knowledge and experience of specific methodologies, tools and practices they, the partners, have used so far in their work with different target groups. Attempts were made successfully and unsuccessfully to learn the various contexts of working methods for sustainable learning and understand how the context affects the setting for adult learning; and adult learning processes. Attempts were made to improve inclusion of adult learners and avoid exclusion. We will discuss how we built on the ““Framework of Enjoyable Learning Approaches”
Zero Carbon Britain: Rethinking the future : click here
“We have acknowledged our historical responsibility as a long-industrialised nation and made our contribution to addressing climate change by reducing UK greenhouse gas emissions rapidly to net zero.” (ZCB) “Enjoy the weather ! Large (ice) hailstones fell during the night over Clapham South, London : ... some of the Arctic or ... Antarctic decidedly dropped and drummed on the conservatory roof this early morning at about 01:00. The din was at first alarming but the cacophony that developed might have been a mathematical orchestration. The northern night sky above London was bluish white, before this heavy storm: the reflection of Central London's street lights in the lighter rain could have come from a movie, special-effects studio. “ This happened on the morning of the 23rd of July 2013. “Climate-Change is here to stay. The Arctic will be non-existent by 2040. The Arctic sea will ice free during September”, said Colin Manson , Oceanographer, GRI Sustainability Advisor, at a London meeting on the 19th of July 2013. Crop failure will be experienced in the USA as well as below average global crop harvest in the next 3 to 4 years. The food supply in the USA will be reduced. Meat prices will double in price over the next 5 years. Millet harvests in Africa will be exported to rich countries and this will add to the famine problems there. In the two years of this project, global population has increased twelve times. In the two years of this project, 60 million youths became unemployed across Europe. “About 30 minutes ago in London, outside our Clapham Centre, we experienced a hailstone storm for a few minutes. This was followed by snowflakes for a few seconds. The temperature is 18 Centigrade now. As I write it has started to hail again. The roof here is covered in ice. 23rd of May 2013, 11:04 am ” On the 25th of June 2013 US President Barack Obama on Climate Change stated, “ Not on my watch!” President Obama showed that change matters in his presidential speech on Climate Change at Georgetown University . However Europe is falling behind. During the final year of this Grundtvig project, 3 applications were made by the UK partner with a sustainable environment theme and one with a literacy theme and only the latter was successful in obtaining funding. Our colleague in Italy, Dr Carlo Smaldone organises Environment In Service Training Grundtvig Adult learning workshops and at this moment (July 2013 he has difficulty marketing the last three places on these free courses. In Erfut, Thuringia, Germany, Claudia Kohler, Project Coordinator for Europa-Service-Büro für Mittelthüringen, wrote “Our local renewable / solar energy industry struggles a lot at the moment. A lot of companies related to renewable / solar energies are closing down.” What can we Environment Andragogists learn from this. Business failures are good for learning and for the economy but what can we learn from business failures. The global recession makes it even more important to make a greater effort to raise awareness and standards in Education regarding sustainable development, Eco-innovation and energy efficiency in the use of renewable energy in the environment. Due to the enlarged EU there are areas of greater poverty. And not only in Europe but globally. All adult learners, everywhere are being challenged on how to reduce the cost of cooking, lighting and heating : The basic necessities of life. There is much information about renewable energy but it is confusing, difficult to understand, or expensive to learn about. We want to do away with the confusion and secrecy and give adult learners and educators the opportunity to raise awareness. The partnership is a transnational initiative of four experienced partners from Italy, Romania, Spain and United Kingdom. with a proven dialogue. whose main objective is to promote creative learning in sustainable development, Eco-innovation, energy efficiency in the area of Renewable Energy and Environment. Learning must be enjoyable for all learners. Communication in learning can be difficult for some learners so the Andragogist ( the adult trainer ) has to consider creative and innovative methodologies to communicate complex ideas in a lighter form.
Since the 1970's in Europe, the price of crude oil rose dramatically, (We should remember that in 1976, one litre of petrol cost 0.1778 Euro and now costs 1.84 Euro on average), the cost of energy has risen thousand fold and sectors of the community in the second decade of the 21st century, the elderly and unemployed, and financially stricken sit indoors in sweaters and overcoats due to abnormal winter conditions and lack of affordable energy for heating. In May 2012 and 2013 the weather was at times cold. Yet European Community Advisers, like E.F.Schumacher as long ago as the early 1970’s predicted crises such as the Global Challenge we have now. Saving the planet need not cost the earth. The Affordability of energy is possible only if renewable energy environment education and employment is given and included into the national curriculum of all European schools more clearly, safely, legally and cheaply and its awareness raised in Andragogy (adult learning) so that the enthusiast and helpless learner can have some control over their future. As they keep saying in EACEA and on the Information Day of the 12th of November 2012. “Its never too late to learn”. “Environment Education standards in adult and mainstream primary and secondary schools as well as university needs to be raised. writes Maria Murckova, a Grundtvig Assistant at Joanna Pinewood Education. Most Environment Education is still at a post-graduate level and are taught by enthusiasts to enthusiasts at centres such as CAT : Centre for Alternative Technology which has excellent teaching links with Spain, Italy and same European countries. The Building Research Establishment BRE , Watford allows visitors to its Innovation Park to view some of the world’s most sustainable buildings, landscape designs and hundreds of innovative low carbon materials and technologies. However Climate-Changes are happening so quickly that inflexible curriculum in many European institutions is not catching up to educate the adult learner and work-force. As President Obama said changes must happen now. There have to be more opportunities for raising informal and non - formal learning of adult learners, as European Governments seek to reduce financial investment, to raise standards in Andragogy in formal structured education. Fortunately the European initiative “Erasmus +” might do something to correct the imbalance. Andragogy is the Earth’s greatest treasure. Civilisations have died but humankind moves on. Our greatest resource is human thought and the skills to think. Computers analyse and predict but it is human innovation and creativity that builds new industries. Adults need cultural as well as technological education. Technology education does not quiet the heart and spirit so the humanist education, the development of literature and writing as well as history and sociology are important to environment learning as well because it helps to change behaviour. We must not hide our heads in the sand and ignore the problems, take a Valium and hope that problems will pass us by. The environment problem is on target for our destruction much more than a Hollywood asteroid. There still has to be easier access of learning for education of topics in sustainable environment education such as human behaviour change mechanisms, energy insulation and cooling, energy inefficiency of utilities as well as better use of renewable energy. We tried to look at the use of digital radio for environment education but we found that it would need greater financial investment than this project provided. The safety and building laws surrounding these topics have to be made clearly available for adult learners and not surrounded in professional jargon that increase costs. In Poland, the Statutes of the Sejm and Senate are such that corruption and bribery are a growing sector in ecological and environment building projects. Such is the concern with fraud that a workshop on fraud prevention was hosted by the Polish Ambassador in association with the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, National Fraud Authority and City of London Police Fraud Squad. History has shown that classes of society are always blamed for other’s mistakes. In an interview by participants, of this project, with the Prefect of Regio de Calabria, he declared that his most difficult environmental problem was deforestation in his region. When we asked him why, he explained that it was due to the Mafia : criminal elements. Approximately 40% of Extremadura, Spain needs to have their awareness raised in environment education to improve production of new soil (chemical renewable energy). In the UK, small and medium enterprises employ 60% of the population and it is very difficult for such organisation to invest in sustainable, social, economic, environment education. The 40% larger corporations in the UK are required to have mandatory recycling of waste and sustainable report writing on their recovery, reuse, reflection and recycling; as this benefits the customer and improves marketing, many larger companies see financial profit in training human resource trainers to train their employees to change their behaviour with regard to environment and leadership education. It was fortunate that the UK oil extraction encouraged by politicians from the left and right to give the UK energy problem a quick fix, lobbied by the oil producers, suffered a blow. Extraction of hydrocarbon from the shale caused in the UK unheard of minor earthquakes causing damage to property and licences for this type of extraction came under review. In the Financial Times, 19th July, George Osbourne boosted “fracking” extraction from Shale by giving sizable tax reductions, whilst losing tax revenue he insists that £100,000 is given to the community per drill head and up to 1% of the the wells revenue. Poland is rich in shale containing hydro-carbon. As long as Poland’s Members of Sejm and Senate can be corrupted and not made accountable by Europe and other EU states, that support them financially through the Polish-European Social Fund and other, they will be easy prey to predatory international businessmen and natural resources will be extracted as cheaply as possible to make a greater profit for the companies involved in extraction and refining. Polish MEP’s, members of Sejm and Senate are known to advise and invest in farm land and hotels in east and south east Poland. Conflicts already exist between the Polish Forest Service about their wood cutting and environmentalists over sustainable management. Excessive wood and coal burning in Poland contribute to Carbon emissions over Europe. Polish wood cutters have illegally exploited this resource for space heating in Poland due to easy bribery. Working on topics of renewable energy and the environment gives adult learners a voice we have found in this project where argument and persuasive writing can be developed. Partners and adult learners have made good liaison with political institutions of local government, national government and institutions of the Commission in the European Union as well as other actors in environment education these past two years. Joanna Pinewood Education took 6 adult learners on a local informal learning activity to the Centre of Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Powys, Wales to for an informal meeting with CAT’s educators and to study their 9 acres environment centre which was an added inspiration for their participation in September 2011. They spent much time in CAT’s bookshop and joined the centre as family members so that we are able to receive Clean Slate ; the practical journal of sustainable living. The Centro de Educación de Personas Adultas, in Cáceres (ES) developed educational links with its City’s waste management office and with the region’s waste recycling park that ferments new soil from waste, recovering chemically energy rather than electrical energy. Euro Gestione Impresa, in Calabria (IT) developed links with the Prefect of Reggio Calabria, the local authority of the Ministry of Interior of the Italian Republic. Clydesdale Bank, during Autumn 2012, in London invited UK members to a morning breakfast and showed that there is economic growth in China, Ghana, Indonesia and Oceania. The analyst declared that in the UK’s major growth of business was in the export of Renewable Energy systems. They showed no growth in Europe. Global recession makes it is even more important to invest in education to raise awareness and standards regarding sustainable development, Eco-innovation and energy efficiency in the use of renewable energy without harming the environment. Bankers like Nat Rothschild persuaded London City investors to part with £707 million to back his idea, that there was serious money to be made from extraction of the vast coal reserves in Indonesia to feed the Chinese economy, which has an enormous appetite for energy. “Having raised money from investors and put up plenty of cash of his own, Rothschild suddenly feared what sort of business he had bought into. He suspected about $1 billion had disappeared from the Indonesian coal mines in which Bumi had a stake - and stepped down from the board in protest. Forensic auditors at PriceWaterhouseCoopers sniffed around, finding hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets could not be verified. The Bakries vehemently denied any involvement in financial irregularities.” 21 February 2013 Evening Standard. As long as global bankers, financial investors and politicians are greedy, selfish and not responsible and do not follow the GRI Sustainability Reporting Process then investors and stakeholders will find that they lose money in unsuitable energy and environment projects and investments. This is an important lesson because such loss affects the stakeholder’s families life style and their children’s education and every-ones future. Investors and accountants need Environment Education just as much as the unemployed person and needs to read the Zero Carbon Britain 2030 Report : a new energy strategy. The Chinese economy is an important market for Environment education. We need to learn about their environment problems, they are Global stakeholders, because their environment problems have an impact on Europe’s. China explained that its impact on Carbon Emissions is much smaller during the past three decades than Western civilisations during the past 200 hundred years. However it promised to cap its present emissions by 2015. We, European actors and stakeholders in Environment Education need simpler support from the EACEA to build environment education partnership projects with 3rd countries such as China, Indonesia, Thailand, Malay, Australia and Ghana. The new Erasmus + program might be a step in the right direction as learning projects from 2014 will include non-EU countries known as 3rd countries. The ex-Warsaw Pact satellites in the enlarged EU have contributed areas of greater poverty and lack of social cohesion and as forecast by General John Hackett, British Army, in The Third World War, 1978, ISBN 0-425-04477-7, there has been massive migration of East Europeans to South East,Western and Northern Europe in search of work both permanent and temporary. The criminal elements of the Soviet army that remained in the old East Germany and Poland, in the late 1990’s; this then new Russian Mafia, working with the Polish-Ukranian-Gypsy Mafia. Italian and French Mafia still have illicit billion of Euro dividends from prostitution and people smuggling, vehicle and aeroplane parts smuggling; and illicit drug sale involving Colombian connections in Spain and Portugal . These Mafia billionaires are a state within a state producing untaxed illicit dividends that are tenfold greater than in the EU states that they operate. They can afford to blackmail, bribe and corrupt officials so that they can invest in legal real estate and other legal businesses and so appear to be legal respectable business-persons They in the way of GRU and KGB penetrate European financial institutions. It is a tragedy that this and the self-interest of politicians fuels the continuous crisis with the Euro creating greater unemployment in many areas such as the 34% unemployment in Extremadura and the high unemployment in Calabria. In April 2013, the collapse of bank Institutions in Greek-Cyprus was blamed by UK media to be investment of Russian Mafia. Suddenly Cypriot graduate unemployment that was a handful converted to unknown thousands. Corruption is being seen now as the greater evil than Climate-Change in keeping a sustainable global society. Climate-Change is here to stay and the Arctic will disappear by 2040 but Reduction of Carbon Emission is still possible if corrupt businessmen and politicians are prevented. “One honest voice is louder than a crowd”. Adults , everywhere, are being challenged fuelling lack of social cohesion and civil unrest. The purchase of the basic necessities of life is rising in price by 9% per annum. (Clydesdale Bank 2012). Meat prices will double in price over the next five years. Food supplies in the Western world will be reduced. Out of Ashes by Tim Harford Journal of the Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank “Companies and politicians alike should learn that failure can be immensely useful, as long as the right lessons are learned” writes Tim Harford. “If we did develop a willingnes to experiment and to fail, that process would have three elements. First, we should tryout a large number of ideas, seeking Silicon Valley levels of pluralism. Second, these ideas should be small bets if possible -little experiments can tell us a lot, but need not be expensive if they do not work out. The third element is we need to understand which of them are paying off, and which are failing. And that's not easy - not when the truth is obscured by organisational politics, statistical subtleties and human frailties such as denial. Governments often fail in all three ways.” Crises and their debates in education such as climate-change and reduction of carbon emissions are therefore good opportunities for improvement. Organisations must respond better to society. More and more frequently scientists claim that we are at risk to reach an extremely dangerous threshold in the raising of average temperature due to emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is going to create several environmental problems and to lead to a great climate change all over the world. To deal with this problem and to prevent the situation getting worst, a group of researchers of CAT drew a new plan which envisages the reduction to net zero of UK greenhouse gas emission in 2030. This scenario is feasible using technologies that exists now in a smarter way and without the use of nuclear component. In short, according to CAT researchers, it is possible to avoid completely the recourse to carbon in producing an all energy supply which UK needs and will need in future years. To do that, it is important to expand the sector of renewable energies, especially the wind power, and utilise in a smarter way the electricity produced in this environmental friendly way: for example developing systems to store electricity surpluses which will be used in moments of shortage of wind. Also biomass are crucial in the new energetic model, because they will be helpful in all activities in which electricity is not enough to support energetic needs (for example in the case of industrial activities). Moreover, it is important to change the way in which the land is used in order to achieve different goals at the same time. Firstly, it is essential to cultivate energy crops needed for biomass; secondly, it is very important to restore natural habitats ( as peatland) and expand forested areas as well, in order to capture carbon and greenhouse emissions that cannot be eliminated from non energy processes. The use of land issue is strictly related to our lifestyle model, which has to be completely changed as well. In fact, in order to release areas destined to energy crops or carbon capturing, it is essential we change our diet style. A reduction in our consumption of meat and dairy products, which need an intensive use of land to be produced, it is necessary both to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas produced by agricultural system and to expand areas available for biomass fuel production. In this way it is possible to achieve in the same time a decrease of environmental impact of food production (since cow farms produce a huge amount of greenhouse gas emission) and an increase of carbon absorption (since forests and biomass crops will absorb it). Eventually, this low carbon diet style will have a positive effect on the population’s health as well, since people will have to eat more vegetables, fruit and cereals, thus decreasing consumption of more fatty nourishments. The “green new deal” designed by CAT’s researchers will affect positively also the UK economy, contributing to create new vacancies on the job market and a new demand for technical skills which will overbalance lost employment in traditional work sectors. Also, demand for goods needed for the energetic reconversion will be able to support and restart domestic demand, which will produce positive return on the whole economy. Moreover, UK will be able to meet entire domestic energy demand without imports; thus meaning that not only will UK not depend in the future on the other countries’ energy policies but also it will not have to pay for energy import.
“The key difference between this future scenario and that for which we are currently heading is that we have responded with the urgency demanded by current climate change science, taking a physically realistic perspective rather than adhering to what might be politically or socially palatable today. It is unethical to treat fundamental needs in the future, and the needs of others in the global community, as equivalent to our lifestyle preferences in the West today.” (ZCB)
3 THE PARTNERS Ø Italy Euro Gestione Impresa, Reggio di Calabria, http://moab.altervista.org Ø Romania Record Radio TV City S.R.L. Ploiesti, http://www.citym.ro/ Ø Spain Centro de Educación de Personas Adultos, Cáceres, NUESTRO CENTRO Let's Do It. PROYECTO GRUNDTVIG C.E.P.A. CÁCERESØ United Kingdom Joanna Pinewood Education limited, London. Joanna Pinewood Education JPEtutors Spanish partner: Centro de Educación de Personas Adultas “Maestro Martín Cisneros” of Cáceres is a public school that belongs to the Education Regional Authority of Extremadura, in the West of Spain. It offers formal and non formal courses to people over 18 in three modalities: Face to face, distance learning and on line. The CEPA of Cáceres was born some 35 years, due to the literacy campaigns of the 60’s. Since then it has cared for many thousands of learners spread out in small villages of the province. It started as a tool to eradicate illiteracy endemic in a rural society in which children had to leave school early to work and become shepherds or labourers at the age of 10 years. Many others, who lived in the countryside had not even the chance to step into a school. In the 60’s, these children, now grownups began to feel the need to learn, often associated with their need to emigrate to get a better life. The Administration responded to this need with "pedagogical missions" hiring pioneer teachers, soon to be the cornerstone of CEPA Cáceres and Adult Education across the province. Soon, it went a step further to supply formal basic education. The attention to adult learners scattered through little villages, given by Adult Centres and Classrooms, created in the larger villages and CENEBAD (Distance Basic Education Center), a network of teacher mentors to meet learners personally where they lived and during the hours that their tasks permitted them to attend classes. However, the education needs of the population were not limited to standard education. So The school has offered a wide catalogue of non formal and informal education courses and activities. Demand became wider. In the 90’s, changes in the Education Law in Spain brought up Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO). In 1994, CEPA Cáceres took care of this education segment for the population 18+ all around the province. We have to say that it is not compulsory for them but the diploma they can get is the most basic in existance in Spain. Until that moment, only Primary education teachers were working in the School. From that moment the Education Authority created Secondary Education Teacher posts in the School, which went on to offer face to face and distance education, including Secondary Education for Adult People (ESPA). Finally the Regional Administration in Extremadura solved the problem of new technologies with open source software based on Linux. They create management platforms to manage regional education, and @vanza platform to offer online education. Online ESPA in the province was allocated to CEPA Cáceres. The laws that govern formal education in Extremadura and the curricula fitting each level were made at that time. The common materials for all the students that study Secondary Education for Adult People, in any of the three modalities were also created and uploaded to the Government’s lifelong learning website for free. Right now, there are 44 teachers, primary and secondary education, and about 4000 students registered in the many different courses on offer. In addition to ESPA in the three modalities mentioned, There are a Reprographics Operator PCEPI (Elementary Vocational Training Course), preparation courses for Vocational Training entrance exams in the modalities in situ and on-line. There are also courses in English, French and Computing with multiple levels. Other teachings offered are music, drawing, reading and writing workshops, and support to students who find it difficult to follow the normal learning pace. The Education Center for Adult People “Maestro Martín Cisneros” in Cáceres has been involved in two consecutive Grundtvig projects: “Let’s Do It Creatively for the Benefit of Adult Learners” from 2009 to 2011, with nine other Institutions all over Europe, and this present one: “Let’s Do It Creatively and Environmentally with Renewable Energy” (CERE) with "Joanna Pinewood Education Limited" from London, UK, "Record Radio TV City S.R.L” from Ploiesti, Romania and "Eurogestione Impresa" from Reggio Calabria, Italy. The blog /Let's Do It. PROYECTO GRUNDTVIG C.E.P.A. CÁCERES disseminates the project in Spanish.  NUESTRO CENTRO (describes our CEPA school) El Centro de Educación de Personas Adultas Maestro Martín Cisneros de Cáceres es un Centro público de educación dependiente de la Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Extremadura. Oferta enseñanzas regladas y no regladas a personas mayores de 18 años en tres modalidades: Presencial, a Distancia y por Internet. El CEPA de Cáceres nació hace unos 35 años, producto de las campañas de alfabetización de los años 60. Desde entonces ha atendido a muchos miles de alumnos repartidos por las pequeñas poblaciones de la provincia. Comenzó siendo una herramienta destinada a erradicar el analfabetismo propio de una sociedad rural, en la que los niños tenían que abandonar la escuela muy pronto para trabajar y convertirse en pastores o jornaleros con menos de 10 años. Otros muchos, que vivían en el campo, ni siquiera tenían la oportunidad de pisar una escuela. En los años 60, aquellos niños y niñas, ya mayores, comenzaron a sentir la necesidad de aprender, a menudo asociada a su necesidad de emigrar para tener una vida más digna. La Administración respondió a esta necesidad con las “misiones pedagógicas” contratando a los maestros pioneros que pronto serían la piedra angular del Centro de Adultos de Cáceres y la Educación de Adultos de toda la provincia. Pronto se dio un paso más y apareció la oferta de la enseñanza básica reglada. La atención a los alumnos adultos repartidos por los pueblos se prestaba a través de los Centros y Aulas de Adultos creados en los pueblos más grandes y del CENEBAD (Centro de Educación Básica a Distancia), que tendió una red de maestros para atender personalmente a los alumnos donde vivían y a las horas que sus tareas les permitían asistir a clases. Pero las necesidades de formación de la población no se limitaban a la enseñanza reglada. La oferta de enseñanzas no formal e informal por parte del Centro ha sido muy amplia y variada, y la demanda ha sido siempre superior a la oferta. En los años 90, los cambios en la legislación educativa en España determinaron la aparición de la Enseñanza Secundaria Obligatoria. En 1994 el CEPA de Cáceres se hizo cargo de este segmento educativo en la población de más de 18 años de la provincia. Para ello la Administración creó plazas de profesores de Enseñanza Secundaria en el centro, que continuó ofertando enseñanza presencial y a distancia, incluyendo la Enseñanza Secundaria para Adultos (ESPA). En su momento, la Administración autonómica de Extremadura apostó decididamente por las nuevas tecnologías y por el software libre basado en Linux. Creó plataformas de gestión de la educación regional y la plataforma @vanza para ofertar la enseñanza on-line. La ESPA de la provincia a través de Internet fue atribuida al CEPA de Cáceres. En esta época se elaboraron las leyes que regulan las enseñanzas regladas en Extremadura y los currículos correspondientes a cada nivel. También se elaboraron los materiales comunes para todos los alumnos que cursen Educación Secundaria para Personas Adultas en cualquier centro extremeño y en cualquier modalidad de enseñanza. Están colgados en el Portal de Educación Permanente del gobierno regional, a disposición de las personas que los necesiten. El Centro en la actualidad cuenta con 44 profesores, maestros y profesores de secundaria y unos 4000 alumnos matriculados en los diferentes programas ofertados. Además de ESPA en las tres modalidades citadas, imparte un PCEPI de Operario de Reprografía, cursos de preparación para las pruebas de acceso a Ciclos Formativos en las modalidades presencial y on-line. También imparte cursos de inglés, francés e informática con varios niveles. Otras enseñanzas ofertadas son música, dibujo, talleres de lectura o escritura y clases de apoyo a los alumnos que encuentran dificultades para seguir el ritmo normal de aprendizaje. El CEPA Maestro Martín Cisneros de Cáceres ha participado en dos proyectos Grundtvig consecutivos: “Let’s Do It Creatively for the Benefit of Adult Learners” desde 2009 a 2011, con otros 9 centros de toda Europa y el actual “Let’s Do It Creatively and Environmentally with Renewable Energy (CERE) junto a "Joanna Pinewood Education Limited" de Gran Bretaña, "Record Radio TV City S.R.L. Ploiesti" de Rumanía y "Euro Gestione Impresa" de Italia. 4 MEETINGS As we had planed, we held four international meetings: 1) In Ploiesti, Romania from 15th to 19th of February 2012 http://letsdoit.citym.ro/new/index.php/ploiesti-mobility 2) In London, UK from 2nd to 5th of May 2012. 3) In Reggio Calabria, Italy from 21st to 25th october 2012. Links to agenda 4) In Cáceres, Spain, from 24th to 28th of April 2013. Johnny we need a button to translate pages we don’t have time to do translations Links to the materials? google do First Meeting in Ploiesti, Romania 15th to 19th February 2012  Éramos 5 españoles, 4 británicos, 1 italiano y los anfitriones rumanos, incluido un grupo de unos 30 alumnos de 16 años que participaron en los talleres del viernes por la tarde. El día 16, en el ayuntamiento de Ploiesti, se desarrolló la recepción por parte del coordinador del proyecto, Krzysztof, y de las autoridades de la región de Prahova. Dicen estar muy sensibilizados con el tema de las renovables y que ya están por encima del 202020, (proyecto europeo de reducir el consumo energético el 20% y aumentar la producción procedente de energías renovables hasta el 20% antes de 2020). El "consejero" de medio ambiente nos explicó lo que han hecho y lo que tienen entre manos a este respecto. Nos pareció muy interesante. Más tarde fuimos al museo donde hemos celebrado todas las reuniones para comenzar con nuestro trabajo. Primero se presentó Eurogestione Impresa, la asociacion italiana de Carlo Smaldone Villani, que se dedica a crear materiales para educación, y que está integrada en un conglomerado de empresas e instituciones que trabajan en este ramo. La más destacada es Euro Gestione Impresa. Luego nos presentamos nosotros. Presentamos al centro, el blog y las actividades que hemos estado desarrollando este tiempo. Por la tarde se presentó la empresa de Krzysztof, Joanna Pinewood Education Limited, que da apoyo a inmigrantes y a gente que necesita prepararse. A continuación, Daniela nos presentó su empresa, Record Radio TV City. Es una empresa familiar, que además de radio por Internet organiza cursos de formación para adultos en Administración y Nuevas Tecnologías. En la pausa los coordinadores asistieron a un programa de TV en directo para hablar del proyecto. El programa se alargó más de lo previsto. Cuando volvieron, el equipo
anfitrión nos presentó un programa informático interactivo, diseñado para mostrar el incremento o la disminución de la producción de energía eléctrica generada por una turbina dependiendo del diámetro de la tubería por la que sale el agua y del desnivel desde el que cae. Esto se refleja en el número de hogares que se podrían suministrar con esa energía. Luego se hace el mismo estudio con molinos de viento, dependiendo de la fuerza del viento y del tamaño de las aspas. Nos pareció un programa muy interesante. El jueves 17 nos levantamos muy temprano porque nos desplazábamos al valle Doftanei para visitar la presa Paltinu y el sistema de centrales eléctricas que han montado con el agua que recoge. La travesía en autobús por en medio de un mar de nieve blanca, con un sol deslumbrador fue espectacular. Al adentrarnos en el valle, con el río totalmente blanco a los pies de la carretera, se nos pusieron los pelos de punta. Nos permitieron visitar una de las minicentrales río abajo y pusieron en marcha una de las turbinas para que viésemos y oyésemos cómo se genera la electricidad. Luego nos subieron a la presa y nos explicaron el proceso de construcción, algunas características y su capacidad de producción de electricidad. Cuando subimos al muro de la presa nos encontramos con que toda la superficie del agua estaba cubierta por un metro de nieve. En algún sitio se veían las huellas de algún animal despistado o demasiado curioso. Camino del restaurante donde comimos, en el camino que rodea a la presa, nos cruzamos con unos camiones enormes cargados de troncos espectaculares procedentes del bosque que rodea el lago. La comida se desarrolló en un hotel rural que trabaja con alimentos producidos en el lugar y productos ecológicos. Nos recibieron con la tradicional copa de aguardiente de ciruela caliente que nos gustó una sesión de educación ambiental con el grupo de alumnos de Daniela que mencionamos al principio. También estaba la vicedirectora del colegio y algunas profesoras. Los alumnos, por grupos, tenían que diseñar una ciudad ecológica. Cada grupo defendía su propuesta en público, en inglés. Luego realizaron una encuesta con preguntas destinadas a conocer los hábitos medioambientales de la gente, y expusieron sus hallazgos. Concluida esta actividad, el Centro de UK propuso un taller de pruebas de eficiencia de los molinos de viento, dependiendo del tamaño de las aspas, del tamaño del magneto y de la proximidad de la fuente de viento. Los ejercicios se realizaron conectando a los magnetos molinillos de papel de diferentes tamaños, comprados en los chinos, y haciéndolos girar con el viento producido por ventiladores. El problema es que la fuente de viento estaba demasiado focalizada y los resultados no eran muy fiables. En un túnel de viento se hubiera evitado la distorsión. Más tarde fuimos todos a cenar a un restaurante con música en vivo. La cena estaba muy rica, pero tras la comida del mediodía, resultó inabordable. Nos sobró la mitad del primer plato, y el segundo lo probamos por no hacer el desprecio. Esta vez las esperas en los restaurantes han sido largas, pero mucho menos que el año pasado. El sábado presentamos el horno solar que habíamos hecho aquí con los alumnos del PCPI. A continuación procedimos a fabricar uno in situ, menos bonito y más pequeño, pero lo hicimos en un rato. Comimos en el mismo museo la comida proporcionada por un Catering. Después de comer, los coordinadores nos reunimos para hablar del proyecto y de los productos finales que trataremos de obtener. Tras la reunión, estuvimos de compras por la ciudad y luego, nosotros solos, nos fuimos a cenar a un restaurante precioso. El domingo 19 por la mañana a las 10 montamos en los coches y nos fuimos todos a Bucarest. Nos llevaron al hotel Christina y dejamos las maletas. Luego nos dieron una vuelta turística por la ciudad en el coche. A nosotros nos dejaron al lado del palacio del Gobierno, el que construyó Nicolae Ceaucescu en el corazón de la ciudad y los demás continuaron hacia el earopuerto, pues el equipo británico marchaba ya para casa. Tras la visita turística del palacio comimos y paseamos por el barrio francés de Bucarest, descubriendo de vez en cuando en entre la nieve alguna joya ortodoxa en medio de edificios que nos traían al barrio de S. Michel de París. En nuestro deambular encontramos casi todos los puntos que recomendaban las guías de google. La nieve comenzaba a derretirse y era peligroso acercarse a los edificios. En las aceras, en vez de hielo pisábamos puchas. Y a veces había que evitar pasar por los lagos semiocultos en los cruces de senderos en la esquina de dos calles. Los sumideros estaban aún bloqueados por la nieve. En el hotel nos esperaba una agradable sorpresa. Para darnos la bienvenida nos obsequiaron con una copa de vino y una tabla de quesos. Luego terminamos de cenar en el hotel y tomamos otra copa de vino en el salón de la entrada. Fue una velada muy agradable. Por la mañana del lunes la compañera Nieves se encontraba mal. Algunios salimos a visitar el barrio próximo y llegamos hasta otra pequeña iglesia ortodoxa que nos habían recomendado en el hotel y regresamos para pagar y dirigirnos al aeropuerto.Al tratarse de un aeropuerto pequeño no tuvimos problemas. El vuelo salió y llegó puntual.El coche de alquiler nos estaba esperando en Madrid. Al llegar a Cáceres fuimos directamente al hospital y dejamos a Nieves en buenas manos. Luego comenzó el reparto casa por casa. A las mil, cansados, pero satisfechos, nos fuimos a la cama a esperar el martes de carnaval que en mi caso no dio nada de sí. Materials and presentations: Recycling used edible oil Spanish. English + LINKS TO making the oven in Ploiesti Second Meeting in London, United Kingdom - 1st to 6th May 2013 ZERO CARBON EUROPE An outline 
See more : LET’S DO IT CREATIVELY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY (CERE) Links to presentations and materials?? 2ª REUNIÓN INTERNACIONAL LONDRES 2 / 6 MAYO 2012
Entorno a esta idea hemos desarrollado ponencias y debates, compartiendo los avances que se han producido en nuestros países, los planes de futuro auspiciados la Unión Europea y las iniciativas de estudio y concienciación que hemos llevado a cabo en nuestros centros con nuestros alumnos. Nos hemos reunido unas 25 personas de los cuatro centros implicados en el proyecto. Las sesiones de trabajo se desarrollaron el día 3 de mayo en el barco-escuela Elsdale en uno de los canales del sistema inglés de vías acuáticas, que pasa por Uxbridge, un pueblo del cinturón londinense. El día 4 nos trasladamos en metro hasta la 2ª sede del Centro anfitrión, Joanna Pinewood Educación Ltd. en Claphan, otra localidad al suroeste de Londres.Las comidas fueron ligeras y las tomamos en la aulas. Las cenas fueron multiculturales: tailandesa, india, polaca y finalmente, el sábado inglesa típica en un pub tradicional del centro de Londres.En la tocante a las ideas, Kye Gbangbola, de International Standart for Environmental Management, nos habló de la importancia creciente de los informes de sostenibilidad y de las ventajas que están suponiendo para las empresas que los incorporan en su funcionamiento.También se habló de las actividades que hemos desarrollado en los centros dentro del proyecto y de la regulación, resultados y perspectivas de futuro de las energías alternativas y renovables en nuestros respectivos países.Llegamos a la conclusión que primar el desarrollo de las energías renovables puede parecer caro, pero que las alternativas serán inasumibles medioambiental y económicamente a medio plazo. El sábado 5 la agenda cultural obtuvo la primacía, pues nos esperaba el Londres tradicional y preolímpico. Más información sobre la reunión Materials and presentations Electricity production mix in Spain 3ª REUNIÓN INTERNACIONAL REGGIO CALABRIA 21-5 of October 2013 Italia https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8K2yaEC5UFxSzFuV0hoeWZDNmM/edit Links to presentations and materials?? Viaje de ida El viernes 19 de octubre, al filo de la media noche, una revolución de maletas y coches y despedidas da la señal de partida. Los representantes del CEPA Martín Cisneros de Cáceres inician el camino hacia Reggio di Calabria para la 3ª reunión internacional del Proyecto Grundtvig "Let'sDo It Creatively and Envitonmentally with Renewable Energy"CERE. Los últimos días han sido de prisas y de agobios para tenerlo todo listo. Tras varias horas de carretera sin poder tomar un café, porque todo estaba cerrado a esas horas, llegamos a los alrededores del aeropuerto, donde nos esperaba una sorpresa: el GPS del coche de alquiler nos invitó a un tour por las traseras de un parque industrial semiabandonado, hasta llegar a una carretera cortada por otra que se ha construido cruzándola, creando un talud de varios metros de altura. Tras varias vueltas y revueltas llegamos al primer destino: la T1 del aeropuerto de Barajas para dejar los papeles y el coche. El vuelo de Alitalia sale puntual. La escala en Fiumicino ocurre sin sobresaltos y sobre las 10.30 de la mañana del sábado llegamos indemnes al aeropuerto Tito Miniti de Reggio di Calabria. Reggio di Calabria Los taxis contratados por el socio anfitrión nos conducen a los hoteles reservados y comenzamos nuestra andadura italiana guiados por Tatiana, simpática y eficiente colaboradora de Eurogestione Impresa de Reggio di Calabria. Recorrimos los caminos más interesantes de la ciudad y disfrutamos del excelente clima con que nos acogió. Escapada a Sicilia El domingo por la mañana, tras saludar a D. Carlo Smaldone Villani, nuestro anfitrión en jefe, que acudió temprano al hotel para darnos la bienvenida, cruzamos hasta Sicilia para visitar Messina. Además de los monumentos y las subidas y bajadas continuas a las que nos obligaba la orografía, nos sorprendió el hecho de que durante mucho tiempo fuésemos las únicas personas que circulaban por aquellas calles. ¡No había ni coches! Luego nos explicaron que podía ser culpa del comienzo de la liga de fútbol. A una hora prudente regresamos al continente para encontrarnos con la delegación Británica que había llegado por la tarde en el tren de Nápoles. Nos reunimos para cenar y nos retiramos a nuestros aposentos para rumiar todas las emociones del día y prepararnos para el trabajo del día siguiente. Comienza el trabajo El lunes 22 Carlo Smaldone Villani inauguró la reunión en el palazzo Foti, de la provincia de Reggio. Nos habló del nuevo proceso par conseguir financiación por parte de la UE. A continuación nos mostró el vídeo sobre nuestro proyecto grabado durante nuestra primera reunión en Ploiesti (Rumanía) y emitido en directo por un canal de la televisión rumana. A continuación visionamos la “Historia del Mundo en dos Minutos” Smaldone continuó explicando que todo proyecto europeo debe crear artefactos o vídeos o cualquier otra cosa que más tarde pueda ser utilizada por otros como herramienta didáctica. Tras la comida en un self-service que había junto al lugar de reuniones, nos encontramos con la delegación Rumana que se incorporaba en ese momento, procedente de Catania, donde la habían llevado los vericuetos del transporte aéreo Low Cost. Saludos, abrazos, presentaciones, … y todos a esperar el autobús urbano para dirigirnos a la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad de Reggio donde tendría lugar la siguiente ponencia. Los tiempos de espera del autobús impidieron que pudiésemos presentar la actividad “Playing with texts” como aparecía en el programa. El incidente Finalmente llegamos a la universidad. La reunión tendría lugar en la planta quinta. Era una presentación por parte del profesor Santino. Utilizamos el ascensor para subir. Cuando subía el segundo turno, el ascensor se estropeó y se quedó varado entre dos plantas. Con muchos nervios y mucho calor aguantamos más de media hora hasta que llegaron los técnicos de mantenimiento y consiguieron rescatarnos. La Facultad de Ingeniería El professore Santino nos presentó sucintamente las actividades de su Facultad. Comenzó en 1987 con la especialidad de Ingeniería Civil. Más tarde, en 2000, incorporó Ingeniería Medioambiental y recientemente, en 2012 ha iniciado su andadura la especialidad de Ingeniería Energética, orientada hacia las energías renovables y con poco impacto medioambiental. Actualmente están desarrollando un modelo para producir energía eléctrica a partir del movimiento de las olas. Las pruebas físicas se desarrollan en el estrecho de Mesina, junto a Reggio. En resumen se trata de una estructura con una turbina movida por las olas. En el complejo hay 10 de estas estructuras interconectadas. Está concebido como un modelo para estudio, no comercial. Podría generar 100 KW/H. En la pruebas ya se ha conseguido que produzca suficiente energía para abastecer las necesidades de todo el equipamiento del complejo. Se ha estado trabajando con él desde hace un año. Un subproducto interesante es la regeneración de la playa que hay detrás del complejo en una zona en la que no pueden mantener la arena porque se la lleva el mar. El primer año de esta ingeniería se centra en las energías eólica y undimotriz. Pero en el futuro también incorporarán la energía solar, pues sol no falta en Calabria. La intención de esta especialidad es que todas estas fuentes renovables de energía contribuyan en el esfuerzo de rebajar las emisiones de CO2 y a prevenir el cambio climático. Respondiendo a una pregunta sobre la financiación privada del proyecto, el profesor explicó que están trabajando con una compañía inglesa. Regreso De vuelta al centro, realizamos una visita guiada de los elementos más significativos de la ciudad. Fuimos informados de la historia de Reggio Calabria anterior al gran terremoto de 1908, que destruyó casi por completo la ciudad. Luego disfrutamos de una apetitosa cena a base de pescado fresco y nos fuimos a la cama. Martes El martes 23, a las 9 de la mañana, nos recibió el prefecto de Reggio Calabria, señor Vittorio Pisticelli. Tras las presentaciones nos habla de los esfuerzos que hay que realizar para evitar los tremendos desastres que van a llegar en los próximos años. Las actitudes que deberíamos corregir se sintetizan en la fórmula “Careless or care less about the environment”, que significa ser unos “manazas” o ser unos “pasotas” en las relaciones con el medio ambiente. Deberíamos buscar procedimientos para animar a la gente a preocuparse por el medioambiente. Hay que tratar de influir en los niños y en las madres jóvenes a través de los líderes naturales de la comunidad: maestros, curas, etc. Lo único que sabemos sobre los desastres que vienen es que serán malos para todos. Las grandes compañías nos obligan a comprar lo que producen y con ello están retrasando los pasos que hay que dar en la dirección correcta. La idea correcta es la de que “Tu estela sigue a tu barco” es decir, que cualquier cosa que hagamos deja un rastro que será visible y motivará a otros para seguir las huellas. Es necesario promover cambios del comportamiento de la gente. Continuación El encuentro y las conversaciones posteriores con el prefecto se alargaron y el programa sufrió algunos cambios. Debido a los retrasos acumulados no fue posible presenciar el experimento preparado por el socio británico. La delegación del CEPA de Cáceres presentó el “Mix” de las compañías que nos venden la electricidad que consumimos en casa. Se trata de la distribución porcentual del origen de la electricidad que venden, la procedente del carbón, del gas natural, nuclear o renovables. Iberdrola está por debajo de la media del conjunto del sistema español en energía proveniente de fuentes renovables y por encima en emisiones de co2 y en residuos radiactivos de alta actividad. A las 12.30 nos embarcamos en un autobús descubierto para realizar una visita turística de Reggio Calabria. En el transcurso del mismo se nos proporcionó información sobre los edificios destacados y sobre los entresijos de la historia de la ciudad y su subsuelo, rico en huellas del pasado, desde la colonia griega y más allá. After lunch Después del selfservice toca volver a esperar al autobús para acceder a la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Cuando por fin llegamos, el profesor Antonio Mincione nos explica que imparten tres especialidades: Ciencias Agrícolas, Bosque y Ciencias Ambiéntales y Tecnología de los Alimentos. Su idea es llevar la granja del campo al ordenador para conseguir un modo sostenible de hacer agricultura, de modo que se aumente la rentabilidad y se proteja el medioambiente. Las prácticas de investigación las realizan en los bosques y en las empresas de alimentación. El profesor Antonio Mincione se muestra pesimista sobre la posibilidad de prevenir el cambio climático. Los objetivos de la educación ambiental deberían tratar de despertar la conciencia de los problemas y el conocimiento y la comprensión de todos los fenómenos que intervienen en el proceso. En la especialidad de Tecnología de los Alimentos están realizando investigaciones sobre aprovechamiento de residuos de la industria alimentaria, y sobre fórmulas que permitan aumentar el uso de los subproductos y aumentar con ello el valor añadido de las producciones y disminuir su impacto medioambiental. Han hecho estudios sobre el aprovechamiento del alpechín resultante del proceso de obtención del aceite de oliva. También están trabajando con los tomates. Como el mercado demanda poco tomate fresco, hay que procesarlo. De la cáscara se puede extraer el Licopeno que es un potentísimo antioxidante. La marca extremeña “Deguste” lo mezcla con aceite de oliva virgen y consigue aumentar el precio de venta al tiempo que diversifica la oferta. En el procesado de las semillas se puede sacar aceite que podría transformarse en biofuel. Pero la cantidad obtenida es muy pequeña. Por lo que no resultaría atractivo. Sin embargo puede ser muy apreciado como lubricante en aparatos de alta tecnología. Los ácidos también presentes interesan mucho a la industria cosmética. Parece que en EEUU y en Sudáfrica se cultivan grandes extensiones de tomate destinado a este uso. Para obtener los ácidos hay que comenzar con los disolventes que son muy agresivos con el ambiente. Por ello se está investigando para sustituirlos por otros en estado “supercrítico”. Así, utilizando dióxido de carbono se obtiene un producto mucho más puro que con los disolventes tradicionales. Tras obtener todos los productos útiles queda la biomasa apagada, que puede ser compactada para utilizarla como combustible. Concluye el profesor diciendo que sostenibilidad es equivalente a cooperación, y que sólo si todos los agentes cooperan en la búsqueda de lo mejor para el medioambiente podremos conservarlo. Scilla Tras las interesantes aportaciones del profesor Antonio Mincione realizamos una excursión en tren al castillo de Escila, encaramado en el traicionero cabo del mismo nombre, que compinchado con el de Caribdis en Sicilia devoraban a los barcos y marineros que se aventuraban o eran arrastrados al estrecho de Messina. Es un castillo espectacular y lo parecía aún más a la tenue luz del anochecer. De vuelta a casa, una gran parte de la delegación española se sentía muy cansada y declinó asistir a la cena comunitaria. No obstante una representación significativa del grupo hizo los honores asistiendo y disfrutando de la cena. Miércoles 24 El miércoles a las 9 de la mañana nos recibió el señor Doménico Giannetta, asesor de actividades productivas de la provincia de Reggio d Calabria. Nos habló del uso de las energías alternativas en la provincia, de las energías solar y eólica y del papel de la provincia en la financiación de la generación de energía procedente de fuentes alternativas. Viaje de vuelta Pasadas las 10 nos dirigimos al aeropuerto para abordar el avión que partía a las 11.15 rumbo a Roma y Madrid. Llegamos a Madrid pasadas las cinco y media de la tarde. Recoger maletas, formalizar el alquiler de los coches, … y vuelta a Cáceres. Llegamos a casa muy cansados, entorno a la media noche. A partir de aquí comienza el proceso de preparación de la visita de nuestros socios en el mes de abril. Fourth Meeting in Caceres, Spain 24th to 28th April 2013
Entre los días 25 y 28 de abril de 2013 se celebró la cuarta y última reunión del proyecto. Ésta tuvo lugar en Cáceres, en el Centro de Adultos Maestro Martín Cisneros. Las delegaciones británica, rumana e italiana llegaron, a distintas horas del día, a nuestra ciudad el miércoles 24, alojándose en el hotel que previamente habíamos reservado para ellos. Fue una tarde que, a muchos de ellos, les sirvió para descansar y tomar fuerzas ante las intensas jornadas de trabajo que nos esperaban. Sin embargo, otros decidieron darse una vuelta por la ciudad y disfrutaron de una de las tradiciones más arraigadas de Cáceres, la bajada de la Virgen de la Montaña, desde su santuario hasta la Concatedral de Santa María, donde muchos cacereños acuden a visitarla, casi diariamente, para rendirle culto o, simplemente, como una tradición que se mantiene a lo largo de los años.
Ya el día 25, y de manera puntual, comenzamos con las actividades programadas, en una agenda repleta, que habíamos estado confeccionando y perfilando hasta los últimos días. La apertura del cuarto encuentro no fue llevada a cabo por nuestro coordinador José Mª Calvarro, debido a una serie de circunstancias familiares que hicieron imposible su asistencia a ésta y a otras actividades.
En esta apertura y presentación de las jornadas participaron, por orden de intervención, la directora de nuestro centro, Araceli Rubio Miguelsanz, la asesora de la Unidad de Programas Educativos, Rufina Ortega, y nuestro inspector, Pedro Pablo Alonso. Al término de estas intervenciones, el coordinador general del proyecto, Krzysztof Bahrynowski, hizo un rápido recorrido del estado actual del mismo, momento que nos sirvió para recordar y refrescar algunos de los puntos más importantes.
Después de esto, tuvimos nuestro primer desayuno juntos. Quisimos que tuviera lugar en la sala de profesores de nuestro centro. Para nosotros era importante que nuestros otros compañeros conocieran a aquellas personas de las que, a lo largo de cuatro años, por dos proyectos diferentes, habíamos estado hablando. Fue un momento de degustación y charla muy ameno para todos.
Más tarde nos dirigimos a la Plaza Mayor de Cáceres, punto de encuentro con nuestro guía, que nos iba, no sólo a mostrar el impresionante conjunto histórico artístico de nuestra ciudad, sino que también nos contaría algún entresijo que otro de todas las épocas. Como era de esperar, nuestros colegas extranjeros quedaron impresionados por este gran museo y el estado de conservación en el que se encuentra. Al finalizar la visita era el momento idóneo para un refrigerio en un entorno inmejorable y con unas temperaturas, acompañadas de sol, que todos parecíamos estar dispuestos a disfrutar. Después de este descanso llegó la hora de la comida. Habíamos elegido para ese día un restaurante con exquisitos asados e inmejorables vistas de nuestra parte antigua. Fue una comida agradable y distendida.
La tarde estuvo compuesta por dos actividades. En una primera intervención, Olga Martín Cobos, hizo una presentación a la que tituló “There is a text for everything, there is a picture for everything”. En ella reflejó, por una parte, el uso de textos sobre medioambiente y energías renovables para desarrollar los contenidos del currículo de ESPA referidos a los tipos de texto; por otro lado, el uso de imágenes para actividades. Dicha presentación terminó con el visionado de las fotos presentadas por los alumnos en el concurso literario y fotográfico de este año. Al finalizar, llegó el momento en el que la Concejala de Medioambiente del Ayuntamiento de Cáceres, Mª Teresa González, nos dio a conocer todos los datos sobre la recogida y reciclaje de los residuos sólidos urbanos de nuestro municipio. Fue una interesante presentación en la que no sólo se nos mostró la forma de trabajo y las campañas de información y sensibilización que se llevan a cabo, sino que también estuvo cargada de cifras y porcentajes, datos que, en muchos casos, llamaron poderosamente la atención de nuestros compañeros extranjeros. Al término de esta intervención y, tras mantener una agradable charla con la responsable de nuestro ayuntamiento, era el momento de tener un pequeño descanso.
A última hora del día volvimos a reunirnos en un restaurante, donde tras una tranquila cena, con platos típicos como tortilla española y gazpacho, entre otros, nos fuimos a descansar. Algunos de nuestros compañeros quisieron seguir la noche y disfrutar de otros lugares y ambientes que también nuestra ciudad ofrece.
El viernes 26 fue un día largo, caluroso y con una agenda muy completa y variada. Bien temprano cogimos el autobús que nos llevó a Mérida. Allí teníamos previsto una serie de actividades, muy diferentes entre sí. Nuestra primera visita fue al Ecoparque de Mérida, una moderna planta de reciclaje, gestionada por GESPESA, dedicada a recoger, reducir, tratar y reciclar toda serie de residuos sólidos urbanos de ese municipio. Tras un video en el que pudimos ver los diferentes edificios que forman la planta, de acuerdo con los diferentes procesos y tratamientos que requieren cada tipo de residuo, pudimos pasear por todas las instalaciones, algo que por una parte resultó interesante y, que por otra, nos hizo tener algunos momentos de risas, viendo como cada uno de nosotros intentaba, de forma diferente, aguantar el insoportable olor de algunos puntos.
Al final de esta visita necesitábamos aire puro y fresco, así que nada mejor que un pequeño desayuno al aire libre, compuesto, fundamentalmente por fruta fresca que nuestra compañera Paloma tuvo la genial idea de comprar.
Ya repuestos, nos presentamos en el Instituto de Enseñanza Secundaria “Emérita Augusta”. Allí nos recibió Ana Mazo, compañera del Departamento de Inglés, y que había sido nuestro contacto para visitar el centro, que cuenta con el ciclo formativo de grado superior “Eficiencia energética y Energía solar térmica”. Nos esperaban dos de sus profesores, Ángel Ayala y Rafael Manuel Alejandre. Después de ver un video en el que se nos mostró en qué y cómo trabajaban los alumnos de este ciclo, nos enseñaron las instalaciones, algo sumamente interesante porque teníamos la oportunidad de ver in situ, varios sistemas de energía solar que se están utilizando en este momento. Hubo momentos para mirar, preguntar y tocar todo tipo de artilugios. Vimos suelos radiantes, paneles solares, diferentes tipos de calderas, como las de biomasa, que llamaron la atención, etc... Estos tres profesores respondieron a toda clase de preguntas con profesionalidad y simpatía. Por ello nos alegramos de haber pensado, con antelación, darles un obsequio, que consistió en una pequeña muestra de productos extremeños.
Ese día comimos muy cerca del teatro romano de Mérida. Para la tarde habíamos contratado un guía que nos enseñó y explicó los restos romanos más importantes de la ciudad. Aquellos que no la conocían quedaron maravillados de la grandeza de algunos de sus monumentos. Tuvimos también un rato divertido en el que Mary Perry nos deleitó con un improvisado monólogo en el escenario de este impresionante teatro. Más tarde comentaría que, incluso habiendo visitado en muchísimas ocasiones la ciudad de Roma, jamás había percibido, de manera tan intensa, lo que la civilización romana nos había dejado como herencia. Al atardecer volvimos de nuevo a Cáceres, donde tuvimos un pequeño descanso antes de terminar el día con una suculenta cena a la que asistieron también nuestros compañeros Luís Rivero y Jesús Sánchez, y que disfrutaron haciendo uso de sus limitados, pero bien aprovechados, conocimientos de italiano e inglés. El sábado 27 fue nuestro último día de trabajo. Según teníamos previsto en nuestra agenda, comenzamos a las 9:30 con la presentación hecha por la delegación italiana” Behaviours to preserve environment” y “Movies”. Para ambas se utilizaron videos en los pudimos observar, de manera muy ilustrativa, como la huella del hombre, sus actos y su implicación individual en la preservación del medioambiente, son inmensamente importantes para nuestro planeta. A través de una encuesta sobre nuestros hábitos de vida diarios, pudimos sacar resultados acerca del grado de implicación en el cuidado del medioambiente y, de esta manera, hacernos reflexionar sobre aquello que podemos mejorar.
Seguidamente fue la delegación británica la que expuso “Our experience en CERE Project so far”. El principal objetivo de nuestro proyecto, desarrollar y compartir todas aquellas experiencias que pudieran servir para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje, de manera creativa, de todo lo que concierne a desarrollo sostenible, innovación ecológica y eficiencia energética de las energías renovables, se pudo evaluar al final de estas jornadas. Además de ese breve repaso y evaluación del proyecto, se expuso un documento titulado “Care less o careless” en el que se nos hizo ver, de manera muy clara, la necesidad que tenemos de cuidar nuestro planeta y de las consecuencias que nos está trayendo esa falta de cuidado. Uno de los aspectos que más se destacó en el mismo fue la educación medioambiental, que debe hacerse desde la infancia. De la misma manera se hizo hincapié en la idea de educar a los hijos para llegar a educar a los padres en este terreno, ya que éstos son más receptivos ante cualquier idea que provenga de ellos. Tras una breve pausa para una café continuamos nuestro trabajo. Tuvimos que hacer algunas pequeñas modificaciones con respecto al horario inicialmente propuesto, ya que algunos tenían que partir pronto. La delegación rumana nos invitó a hacer un trabajo de grupo en el que, entre todos, confeccionamos el marco para desarrollar los conocimientos medioambientales en la educación de adultos. Cada uno de nosotros aportó lo que creíamos que sí tenía lugar y aquello que considerábamos que, aunque en algunos casos parece utópico, es totalmente necesario. Al terminar, entre carreras y risas, hicimos la foto oficial del encuentro en España. Fue el momento también de la entrega de certificados que, de manera entre formal e informal, siempre se hace al final de cada encuentro.
Ese día tuvimos una comida cerca de nuestro centro. Estábamos cansados pero disfrutamos de una estupenda paella que todos agradecimos. A esta comida asistió también Juani Gómez, hermana de nuestra compañera Ana, que disfrutó de nuestras conversaciones entre español, italiano e inglés y que, amablemente, acompañó más tarde a algunas de las actividades ineludibles en cualquier viaje, las compras.
Llegó el momento de hacer una evaluación del encuentro y, tal y como nos lo habían hecho saber, la evaluación fue totalmente positiva. Premiaron nuestro trabajo, nuestra coordinación y, muy especialmente, nuestra hospitalidad y simpatía, reflejo de la gran unión que existe en el grupo y que se ha podido vivir en cada uno de los momentos a lo largo de estos años.
Al finalizar, fueron los coordinadores de cada país los que tuvieron una intensa reunión para tratar de delimitar y perfilar cada uno de los puntos y tareas que aún quedaban por hacer: E-book, página web, diccionario… Había todavía mucho trabajo por delante. Algunas delegaciones partieron ese mismo día para Madrid. Fue momento de despedidas pero siempre con el sentimiento de que volveremos a vernos en otra ocasión. La delegación británica abandonó Cáceres al día siguiente, así que compartimos nuestra última cena con ellos. Estábamos cansados pero satisfechos por haber cumplido con nuestros objetivos y por la cantidad de felicitaciones que recibimos por ello. La sensación de un trabajo bien hecho es algo que se disfruta y así lo hemos sentido. Materials and Presentations. There’s an image for every topic. 4 ENERGY SYLLABUS (Link to the actual document )
INTRODUCTION The partners within the Grundtvig Project “Let’s Do It Creatively with Renewable Energy” (CERE) deal daily with adult learners. In their teaching experience they got aware of the needs their learners have. Talking about Environment and Renewable Energy, these students need to relate to a corpus of doctrine clearly set, well organized and easily accessible. Providing such a corpus is the main purpose of this work.We are not experts on Energy or Environment, so we had to resort to the Wikipedia and you-tube which become our main source of information. Generally we tried to adapt it to our purposes and needs. The document is set in two parts. The first part is table with the list of the words we have chosen in English, Spanish, Romanian and Italian, the languages spoken by the partners in the Project. The words are in English alphabetical order. In the second part we tried to group the words in context. So, the explanations of words go around some general topics, to provide the document coherence and cohesion. The main topics we introduced are: Energy, Electricity, as the most widespread form of energy, Environment and the problems threatening its stability and finally, some of the Institutions, private and public, that try to preserve a healthy environment.
ENERGY Energy is a physical magnitude that we relate to the capacity of making changes in the physical bodies. Water has energy because it can move a mill wheel, or drug rocks and mud in a flooding. A piece of wood has energy, because, burning it we can cook food for our family. Energy has been fundamental to achieving the development of mankind. Thanks to technological advances it has been possible to use different energy sources more efficiently and this has allowed the human life to be more comfortable and more enjoyable. Given that energy is a magnitude, it can be measured. The international energy unit is the Jule. However calorie and kw/hour are also used. Energy sources. There are two kinds of energy sources: renewable and non renewable sources. Non renewable ones are those that do not regenerate in a human scale period, because they developed in processes taking millions of years. Now the stocks are limited, and they will end up running out at the current pace of consumption. Some examples of non renewable sources of energy are oil, coal, natural gas, uranium, … Renewable energy sources are the ones that are constantly regenerated. They are produced by the constant flow of energy from the sun or the earth’s core.. Examples are: the sun, the wind, the movement of the different bodies of water, the Earth's internal heat, biomas, geothermical... NON RENEWABLE ENERGY Non renewable energy is energy that comes from the ground and is not replaced in a relatively short amount of time. Fossil fuels are the main category of nonrenewable energy. Fossil fuels include; coal, oil and natural gas. These resources come from animals and plants that have died millions of years ago and then decomposed to create a usable source of energy for humans. ELECTRICITY Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and flow of electric charge. Electricity gives a wide variety of well-known effects, such as lightning,static electricity, electromagnetic induction and the flow of electrical current. In addition, electricity permits the creation and reception of electromagnetic radiation such as radio waves. In electricity, charges produce electromagnetic fields which act on other charges. Electricity occurs due to several types of physics:
In electrical engineering, electricity is used for:
ENVIRONMENT
Sustainable development refers to a mode of human development in which resource use aims to meet human needs while ensuring the sustainability of natural systems and the environment, so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come. The term 'sustainable development' was used by the Brundtland Commission, which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social challenges faced by humanity. As early as the 1970s, "sustainability" was employed to describe an economy "in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems. Ecologists have pointed to The Limits to Growth, and presented the alternative of a "steady state economy in order to address environmental concerns. The concept of sustainable development has in the past most often been broken out into three constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and sociopolitical sustainability. More recently, it has been suggested that a more consistent analytical breakdown is to distinguish four domains of economic, ecological, political and cultural sustainability. This is consistent with the UCLG move to make 'culture' the fourth domain of sustainability ORGANIZATIONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY The European Environment Agency (EEA) is an agency of the European Union(EU). Its task is to provide sound, independent information on the environment. It is a major information source for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and also the general public. The EEA is governed by a Management Board composed of representatives of the governments of its 32 member states, a European Commission representative and two scientists appointed by the European Parliament, assisted by a committee of scientists. It was established by the European Economic Community (EEC) Regulation 1210/1990 (amended by EEC Regulation 933/1999 and EC Regulation 401/2009) and became operational in 1994. It is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. As an EU body, member states of the European Union are automatically members; however the Council Regulation establishing it provided that other states may become members of it by means of agreements concluded between them and the EU. It was the first EU body to open its membership to the 13 candidate countries (pre-2004 enlargement). The EEA has 32 member countries and seven cooperating countries. The European environment information and observation network (Eionet) is a partnership network of the EEA and the countries. The EEA is responsible for developing the network and coordinating its activities. To do so, the EEA works closely together with national focal points, typically national environment agencies or environment ministries. They are responsible for coordinating national networks involving many institutions (about 350 in all). The 32 member countries include the 27 European Union Member States together with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. The seven West Balkan countries are cooperating countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia as well as Kosovo under the UN Security Council Resolution 1244/99. These cooperation activities are integrated into Eionet and are supported by the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance. UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is an international institution (a programme, rather than an agency of the UN) that coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. UNEP also has six regional offices and various country offices. Its activities cover a wide range of issues regarding the atmosphere, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, environmental governance and green economy. It has played a significant role in developing international environmental conventions, promoting environmental science and information and illustrating the way those can be implemented in conjunction with policy, working on the development and implementation of policy with national governments, regional institutions in conjunction with environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). UNEP has also been active in funding and implementing environment related development projects. GREENPEACE Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.[ Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity" and focuses its campaigning on world wide issues such as global warming, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues. Greenpeace uses direct action, lobbying and research to achieve its goals. The global organization does not accept funding from governments, corporations or political parties, relying on 2.9 million individual supporters and foundation grants.,Greenpeace has a general consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is a founding member of the INGO Accountability Charter; an international non-governmental organization that intends to foster accountability and transparency of non-governmental organizations.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, rereenpeace search and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300 conservation and environmental projects. WWF is a foundation, in 2010 deriving 57% of funding from individuals and bequests, 17% from government sources (such as the World Bank, DFID, USAID) and 11% from corporations. The group says its mission is "to halt and reverse the destruction of our environment. Currently, much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world's biodiversity: forests, fresh water ecosystems, oceans and coasts. Among other issues, it is also concerned with endangered species, pollution and climate change. CAT : Centre for Alternative Technology The Centre for Alternative Technology is a state-of-the-art education and visitor centre concerned about sustainability and environmental protection. As charity, it is not financed by government founds for its activity; its costs are, in fact, supported by donations or by incomes that the centre realises by itself. The institution is located on the site of disused Liwyngwer slate quarry, in Mid Wales, where it was founded in 1973 as a pilot-project to show in what consisted the real nature of environmental problems and what could be possible solutions for them. Originally it was a community dedicate to eco-friendly principle and a “test bed” for new ideas and technologies in this field. Over time, it grew more and more, becoming a leading structure in Europe in this area. Nowadays, it consists of 7 acres of interactive displays which can be used as a living laboratory for visitors, as students or private persons interested in ecological and environmental issues. Moreover, the centre runs several one-day courses in the subject of sustainability, designed respectively for a general or a specialised public. The Centre runs also a graduate school that offers a range of postgraduate degrees in environmental architecture and renewable energy. The CAT is involved in several environmental projects as well, as the “ZeroCarbonBritain” .The aim of this project is to run a series of research and write reports which will help to reach the goal of reducing utilization of carbon as fuel in Britain and, consequently, of reducing Britain’s emission of CO2 to zero in an average time of 20 years. To know more see: www.cat.org.uk BRE British Research Establishment Innovation Park Providing a bridge between countries to exchange knowledge and enable collaboration BRE’s Watford Innovation Park is a flagship development that embraces a network of existing and future Parks in the UK and around the world.The Innovation Park in Ebbw Vale, Wales is already an important innovation demonstrator. It will be joined by Innovation Parks in Scotland, Brazil, China, Canada and the US, which BRE is now in the process of developing. The aim of the network is to provide a bridge for exchanging knowledge, to enable collaboration and unlock exporting potential. GRI Global Reporting Initiative Framework Global Challenge The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) drives sustainability reporting by all organizations. GRI produces a comprehensive Sustainability Reporting Framework (the Framework) that is widely used around the world, to enable greater organizational transparency. The Framework, including the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (the Guidelines), sets out the Principles and Standard Disclosures organizations can use to report their economic, environmental, and social performance and impacts. GRI is committed to continuously improving and increasing the use of the Framework, which is freely available to the public. Krzysztof Bahrynowski has been accredited a G4 reporter. 5 WORKSHOPS AND CASE STUDIES During local and international workshops and by email: activities and ideas were exchanged by learners and staff. Some work produced was complex and learners did complain that this topic was difficult still to understand. We used the original framework and methodologies from “Building European Methods” ISBN 978 88 7351 584 5. CEPA CÁCERES  MAKING A SOLAR OVEN. An example of best practise Prepared by Centro de Educación de Personas Adultas. Cáceres – Spain The main idea that forms our project is "Let's Do It", learning by doing. So, making a Solar Oven with our Basic Vocational Training (PCPI) students is a part of this idea. By doing so we hope to confront them with the idea of the Environment problems. We expect to raise their awareness of the energy constraints, the main induced global changes and the importance of acting quickly to avoid further damage. It is important for them to know that everything they do leaves a carbon footprint (in Spain we use the word hand print) that damages the environment. But it is more important that they know they can do something to lessen their negative impact and that it is not very difficult or expensive. Key competences addressed: Civic competences. Learning to learn. Civic competences By this activity we'd like to raise the students ability to display solidarity by showing an interest and helping to solve problems affecting the local and the wider community. Learning to learn. It comprises the disposition and ability to organize and regulate one's own learning. It includes the ability to solve problems, to acquire, process and evaluate new knowledge and to apply it and new skills in a variety of contexts: at home, at work, in education and training. The solar oven Roughly it is a box that allows solar energy to get in and keeps the heat inside, so that we can cook with that heat. In our case, the idea comes from an oven that had already worked. From this idea we proceeded to gathering more information. We found many, verhelpful web pages about the making of those ovens. Materials After looking at the information we decided that we needed two cardboard boxes, one a bit bigger than the other, a glass to cover the oven, so that the sun could get in, and the heat keeps inside by reproducing the greenhouse effect. Also we needed kitchen aluminium paper to reflect the sunlight, a dark iron piece to catch the heat inside the oven, and old newspapers to make the insulation layer between the two boxes. Finally we needed items very familiar to the students – cutters, scissors, rulers, glue- due to their book wrapping expertise. We had already the glass from the old oven -It came from an old window- and the piece of iron -a discarded bread baking plate. Then we bought the aluminium paper, and it was not difficult to get the boxes and the old newspapers. The tools and the glue were already in the school printing workshop. The making The idea and the remains of the old oven were presented to the students and the making process took off. The first problem to address was finding out how to do it, what we needed considering. There were two pieces that were not easily modified; the glass and the piece of iron. So, their size was our starting point. The big box should be, at least, as wide as the glass and the little box should be larger than the piece of iron and narrower than the glass to prevent its falling inside. The boxes were adapted to the size needed. To get a proper cover to the oven, we cut the upper part of the big box, and there resulted a big part, about 50 cm.(19 inch) deep and a 10 cm (4 inch) deep part. All the inner surface of the big box was covered with glued aluminium paper. The little box was 90 X 75 X 40. The glass was a bit heavy. The insulation under the box would be made of paper balls from newspapers. To avoid it being flattened under the weight, we decided to stick, on the bottom of the big box, some 10 cm cardboard strips on the edge for the little box to lie upon. Some students made paper balls with the newspapers while some others covered the inside and outside of the box with aluminium paper. Then it was placed inside the big one. After all the spaces were packed with paper balls it was time to join both boxes together and to seal all the cracks. The theory we formed, said that the covers of the little box were to be opened and glued over the big box. However, in doing so, the width would increase, and the cover we had would not fit the oven any more. Instead of bending them to stick them in the outside, we glued them on the inside part of the big box, keeping to the original size. Now the body of the oven was completed and all the cracks sealed. It was a greenhouse effect moment. Firstly the cover was readjusted to fit the oven. Then we opened a window the size of the little box (the mouth of the oven). The resulting flap was covered with aluminium paper. A couple of cardboard stripes allow us to rise the flap or get it down to reflect the sun into the oven. The glass was fixed to the inner part of the cover by cardboard stripes glued together. Now it is a coherent body, without cracks that keeps all the heat inside the oven. The students and the teachers involved are very happy with the results. Ejemplo de buenas prácticas. CONSTRUCCIÓN DE UN HORNO SOLAR. La idea clave que guía nuestro proyecto es la de aprender haciendo. La construcción de un horno solar con los alumnos de PCPI parte de este principio pedagógico. El trabajo con los materiales y herramientas necesarios para construirlo forma parte de su rutina habitual, puesto que trabajan con el cartón, la cola, el cutter, la guillotina,... en el área de encuadernación. Aplicar sus conocimientos en este proyecto les plantea la idea del medio ambiente y del ahorro energético. Les muestra que existen fuentes de energía diferentes a las que pueden acceder con creatividad. Y lo más importante es que les muestra que cada uno de ellos puede hacer algo que beneficia al medio ambiente y a toda la sociedad. El horno solar. Es un horno que funciona sólo con el sol, sin cables ni pilas ni otros tipos de combustible. Consiste básicamente en una caja que recoje el calor del sol y lo mantiene. Y sirve para cocinar. Una vez concebida la idea se pone en marcha el proceso. En el caso que nos ocupa partíamos de una experiencia exitosa, de un horno que ya había funcionado. Algunas de las piezas esenciales – el cristal, la pieza metálica- procedían de este. Primero es el proceso de documentación, de recogida y asimilación de información. Hallamos ideas interesantes en el gran almacén de Internet. Se puede hacer un horno solar con materiales desechables, concretamente con dos cajas de cartón, el cristal de una ventana vieja, periódicos viejos y una bandeja metálica en desuso. Para encolar utilizamos la cola del taller de artes gráficas. Sólo tenemos que comprar un rollo de papel de aluminio alimentario. Como los materiales que poseemos son muy heterogéneos, la primera misión es trazar un plan para armonizarlos, para que cada pieza encaje en el conjunto. Partimos de dos elementos que no son modificables: el cristal y la pieza metálica. Sus medidas van a servir de base al producto final. Una caja de cartón es muy grande, por lo que la despegamos y la rehacemos a medida. Una vez armada cortamos la parte superior para que sirva de tapadera al horno. A continuación forramos todo el interior de la caja con papel de aluminio para que refleje el calor hacia dentro. Como el horno es bastante grande y puede tener bastante peso, pegamos en el fondo de la caja varias tiras de cartón de canto para que soporten el peso del interior del horno, evitando que el aislante se aplaste y deje de cumplir su papel. En la segunda caja debe caber la pieza metálica y debe ser menos amplia que el cristal, para que se asiente sobre sus bordes. También debe ser menos profunda que la grande para que quepa una capa de aislante debajo. El primer paso es recubrirla de papel de aluminio por dentro y por fuera. Luego se coloca dentro de la otra rellenando con el aislante todos los huecos. La parte superior debe quedar diáfana, para que entre el sol y se pueda acceder al área de cocción. Por eso, se aprovechan las tapas para unirla a la caja grande.El siguiente paso es unir las dos cajas, pegando sobre la grande las tapas abiertas de la pequeña. Pero con ello aumenta el perímetro de la caja grande e impide que la tapadera del horno encaje. Cambiamos el diseño y se doblan y pegan las tapas en la cara interior de la caja grande. Así concluye la fabricación del cuerpo del horno. Falta modificar la tapadera para que ajuste en el horno, permita entrar el sol y mantenga el calor mediante el efecto invernadero. Abrimos una ventana abatible que coincide exactamente con la boca del horno. El interior la hoja de esta ventana va forrada de papel de aluminio para que refleje el sol hacia el horno. Unos topes de cartón nos permiten ajustar su inclinación a la del sol. Como el cristal es un poco pesado lo adherimos a la parte interior de la tapadera con una estructura de piezas de cartón superpuestas y encoladas, de modo que la tapadera forma un todo compacto. Esta actividad nos ha permitido desarrollar en los alumnos el sentido cívico y la conciencia de que todos debemos y podemos colaborar en el desarrollo de una sociedad sostenible. También aprendemos a aprender, pues vamos resolviendo sobre la marcha los problemas que se plantean cuando nuestro diseño original se aparta de la realidad. Record Radio CITY ROMANIA WORKSHOP: “If wasted, they remain wasted”. Lesson plan time: 50 minutes Objectives of Students : • distinguish between non-renewable and renewable natural resources. • Identify consequences of the fact that the waste is buried and will suggest alternatives to save non-renewable resources. • Explain inequitable distribution of natural resources everywhere. Methods: Students will take part in a simulation about the distribution of finite resources from around the world. Students will discuss how their simulated work represents the international competition for resource
Materials: • beads or balls: 400 red, 104 blue, 31 pink, 12 green, 1 orange, 1 yellow, 1 purple, 1 transparent • 6 plastic glasses • writing materials • table of the non-renewable resources • copy of the test • a large cardboard box which has a hole to enter as a hand. • beans, rice, corn, wheat, etc.. (To fill the box with these things)
Procedure: (1) Before the start of the hour the teacher will hide the balls when the students are not there. (Some in very visible places and other in places harder to find.) (2) Discuss with the class the next thing: When the country becomes more industrialized and developed the more it consumes natural resources. Natural resources are the sources of material wealth of the country: as wood, water, mineral deposits. Give students a test, saying that you want to see what they know about natural resources.
(3) Explain to students the difference between renewable and non-renewable sources. Renewable resources are natural resources that can be reclaimed by nature or human action (eg, forest and water). Make a list on the board with renewable and non-renewable resources. (Examples of renewable resources: wool, trees, cotton, silk. Examples of non-renewable resources: minerals, oil.) Then begin to explain the game. Balls of different colors that are selected are non-renewable resources. The number of balls reflects the proportion of resources in the world ,but does not mean that all resources are easily exploited. (See table game - which describes what each colored bead. means)
(4) Recreate the first three columns of table game on the board. Tell students that the ball will be part of game action later. (5) Divide students into teams representing countries. Number of pupils of a team is directly proportional to the country's economic power represented. (U.S. 6, EU 5, Iran 4, Japan 3, South Africa 2, Malaysia: 1 etc..) (6) Give teams time to look for resources (balls). They will collect the balls into plastic cups. At first, give them two minutes to look around the room then they return to their group. Repeat the search again but this time only for one minute. After each exploration students will evaluate the results, the number of balls that they have accumulated in glasses. Results can be compared with data from non-renewable resources table. (7) Discuss whether it was more difficult to find resources during the second search. (The competition became more intense in finding resources.) Discuss real cases in which countries compete for natural resources. (8) Balls in plastic cups are natural resources which were exploited and must be used in the economic process. Some natural resources will be used for many years, while others only briefly and then discarded in landfills. Talk about that in the future will probably lead to rediscover natural resources thrown in the past in landfills. To illustrate this, ask a group to put their balls in the box in which are the other things. After that, things in the box will be mixed well. This box is a landfill. To see how non-renewable resources are found in landfill ask students to find balls that put by them there. (9) Ask students what can be done to prolong the life of non-renewable resources. (Recycling of resources.) Unfortunately Romania does not have a waste recycling program. Ask students to say what they think can be done. (Use returnable bottles) What is the benefit if we prolong the life of resources? (More resources available in the future, fewer international conflicts, etc..) Ask students to tell the difference between Romania and the developed world countries (USA, etc..). Be sure to emphasize the following points. Weaknesses: (1) there aren’t non-renewable waste recycling programs (aluminum, glass, etc..) (2) no recycling points arranged for each city - district, making it very hard to extract and recycle waste. Strengths: (1) Romania still produce a large amount of waste compared to other countries (the U.S.). (2) The people of Romania have the habit of using every thing for many years. They do not want to change very often their car, TV, etc.. This means that we do not use non-renewable resources to produce other machines, televisions. What is dangerous now is that the influence of developed countries, there is a very strong temptation for people to use things "bigger," "better," "faster", this is huge. We must not make the same mistake as people in the UK, USA countries who now regret. Ask students: • Did you use something made from a renewable resource? If so, what? • Did you use something made of a non-renewable resource? If so, what? • What you can do to conserve natural resources? Evaluation: Give students the test again and evaluate by comparing results with correct answers. (1) c, (2) b, (3), (4) c, (5), (6) c, (7) b, (8) c, (9) a
Assessment test Ask students to answer the following questions by putting the letter that they believe is the correct answer in the empty space at the end of the question. A. Give an example of a resource that regenerates naturally ....... a) Metal b) fossil fuels c) plants A non-renewable natural resource ........ a) can be replaced b) can not be replaced c) may be wasted When you produce something, natural resources are ....... a) used b) preserved c) increasing When we throw the waste resulting from the use of products, they end up .... a) to be burnt b) thrown into the ocean c) disposed of in landfills . One way to conserve non-renewable natural resources is ...... a) reduce the amount of solid waste that we produce b) increase the amount of solid waste that we produce c) to close the landfill 6. To reduce the amount of solid waste, we can buy products ..... a) Disposable b) using plastic packaging c) which can be recycled Recycling means ..... a) clean trash b) to make new products c) burn waste ... using the old ones When we bury garbage in the ground (landfill), we also bury ..... a) new products b) things that can be burned c) natural resources b) Because non-renewable resources are limited ..... c) a) countries are competing against each other to obtain resources b) each country has the resources it needs c) countries do not require resources If they were wasted they remain wasted
Source: U.S. Department of Mining – 1994 Earth's non-renewable resources. Distribution in percent owned by countries.
RO Lecţia 25 – Dacă au fost epuizate rămân epuizatePregătirea lecţiei: 50 minute Desfăşurarea lecţiei: 50 minute
Obiective: Elevii vor: · Face distincţia dintre resursele naturale neregenerabile şi cele regenerabile. · Identifica consecinţele faptului că deşeurile sunt îngropate şi vor sugera alternative pentru a salva resursele neregenerabile. · Explica inechitatea distribuţiei resurselor naturale în ţările lumii.
Metode: Elevii vor lua parte la o simulare despre distribuţia resurselor finite din toate lumea. Elevii vor discuta cum activitatea lor simulată reprezintă competiţia internaţională pentru resurse.
Materiale: · mărgele sau bile: 400 roşi, 104 albastre, 31 roz, 12 verzi, 1 portocalie, 1 galbenă, 1 violetă, 1 transparentă · 6 pahare de plastic · materiale de scris · tabelul Resurselor Naturale Neregenerabile · copie după test · o cutie mare de carton care să aibă un orificiu cât să intre o mână. · boabe de fasole, orez, boabe de porumb, grâu etc. (care să umple cutia cu aceste lucruri)
Procedura: (1) Înainte de începerea orei profesorul va ascunde bilele prin clasă, când elevii nu sunt acolo. (Unele în locuri foarte vizibile şi altele în locuri mai greu de găsit.) (2) Discutaţi următorul lucru cu clasa: Cu cât o ţară devine mai industrializată şi dezvoltată cu atât mai mult va consuma resursele naturale. Resursele naturale sunt sursele de bogăţie materială ale unei ţări: ca lemn, apă, zăcăminte minerale. Daţi elevilor testul, spunându-le că vreţi să vedeţi ce ştiu ei despre resursele naturale. (3) Explicaţi-le elevilor diferenţa dintre resursele regenerabile şi cele neregenerabile. Resursele regenerabile sunt resurse naturale care pot fi regenerate de natură sau prin acţiunea oamenilor (de exemplu: pădurea şi apa). Faceţi o listă pe tablă cu resurse regenerabile şi neregenerabile. (Exemple de resurse regenerabile: lâna, copacii, bumbac, mătase. Exemple de resurse neregenerabile: minereuri, produse petroliere.) Apoi începeţi să explicaţi jocul. Bilele de culori diferite, care au fost selectate, reprezintă resursele neregenerabile. Numărul de bile reflectă proporţia de resurse răspândite în lume, dar nu înseamnă că toate resursele sunt uşor de exploatat. (Vedeţi tabelul jocului – care descrie ce înseamnă fiecare culoare a bilelor.) (4) Reproduceţi primele 3 coloane din tabelul jocului pe tablă. Spuneţi elevilor că aceste bile vor face parte din acţiunea jocului mai târziu. (5) Împărţiţi elevii în echipe ce reprezintă ţări. Numărul elevilor dintr-o echipă este direct proporţional cu puterea economică a ţării reprezentată. (SUA: 6, UE: 5, Iran: 4, Japonia: 3, Africa de Sud: 2, Malaysia: 1 etc.) (6) Daţi timp echipelor să caute resursele (bilele). Ei vor colecta bilele în paharele de plastic. La început, daţi-le 2 minute pentru a căuta în clasă după care se vor întoarce la grupul lor. Repetaţi căutarea din nou, dar de data aceasta doar pentru 1 minut. După fiecare explorare elevii vor evalua rezultatele, numărul de bile pe care ei le-au acumulat în pahare. Rezultatele pot fi comparate cu datele din tabelul Resursele Naturale Neregenerabile. (7) Discutaţi dacă a fost mai dificil să găsească resurse în timpul celei de-a doua căutări. (Competiţia a devenit mai intensă pentru găsirea resurselor.) Discutaţi cazuri reale în care ţările se află în competiţie pentru resursele naturale. (8) Bilele din paharele de plastic reprezintă resursele naturale care au fost exploatate şi urmează a fi folosite în procesul economic. Câteva resurse naturale vor fi folosite mai mulţi ani, în timp ce altele doar pentru scurt timp şi apoi aruncate la gropile de gunoi. Discutaţi despre faptul că în viitor probabil va fi necesar să redescoperim resursele naturale aruncate în trecut în gropile de gunoi. Pentru a ilustra acest lucru, cereţi unui grup să pună bilele lor în cutia în care sunt celelalte lucruri. După aceasta, amestecaţi bine lucrurile din cutie. În cazul acesta, cutia reprezintă o groapă de gunoi. Pentru a vedea cum sunt descoperite resursele neregenerabile din groapa de gunoi cereţi elevilor să caute bilele pe care le-au pus acolo. (9) Întrebaţi elevii ce se poate face ca să se prelungească viaţa resurselor neregenerabile. (Reciclarea resurselor.) Dar România nu are un program de reciclare al deşeurilor. Cereţi elevilor să spună ce cred ei că se poate face. (Folosiţi sticlele returnabile) Care este avantajul dacă prelungim viaţa resurselor? (mai multe resurse disponibile în viitor, mai puţine conflicte internaţionale etc.) Întrebaţi elevii să spună care este diferenţa dintre România şi ţările mai dezvoltate ale lumii (SUA etc.). Aveţi grijă să subliniaţi următoarele puncte. Puncte slabe: (1) nu există programe de reciclare a deşeurilor neregenerabile (aluminiu, sticlă etc.) (2) nu există gropi de gunoaie amenajate pentru fiecare localitate, ceea ce face foarte greu de extras şi reciclat deşeurile. Puncte tari: (1) România încă nu produce o cantitate foarte mare de deşeuri în comparaţie cu alte ţări (ca SUA). (2) Oamenii din România au obiceiul de a folosi fiecare lucru pentru foarte mulţi ani. Ei nu doresc să schimbe foarte des maşina, televizorul etc. Ceea ce înseamnă că nu folosim multe resurse neregenerabile pentru a produce alte maşini, televizoare. Ceea ce este periculos acum este faptul că influenţa ţărilor dezvoltate este foarte puternică iar tentaţia oamenilor de a folosi lucruri “mai mari,” “mai bune,” “mai rapide” este uriaşă. Nu trebuie să facem aceaşi greşeală ca şi oamenii din ţările dezvoltate care acum regretă.
Întrebaţi elevii:
· Aţi folosit ceva făcut dintr-o resursă regenerabilă ? Dacă da, ce? · Aţi folosit ceva făcut dintr-o resursă neregenerabilă? Dacă da, ce? · Ce puteţi face voi ca să conservaţi resursele naturale?
Evaluare: Daţi testul din nou elevilor şi evaluaţi rezultatele comparând cu răspunsurile corecte. (1) c, (2) b, (3) a, (4) c, (5) a, (6) c, (7) b, (8) c, (9) a.
Testul de evaluare Cereţi elevilor să răspundă la întrebările următoare punând litera care cred ei că reprezintă răspunsul corect în spaţiul gol din finalul întrebării.
1. Daţi un exemplu de resursă care se regenerează natural ……. a) metale b) combustibili fosili c) plante
2. O resursa naturală neregenerabilă …….. a) poate fi înlocuită b) nu poate fi înlocuită c) poate fi irosită
3. Când producem ceva, resursele naturale sunt……. a) folosite b) conservate c) în creştere
4. Când aruncăm deşeurile rezultate în urma folosirii unor produse, ele sfârşesc prin…. a) a fi arse b) aruncate în ocean c) aruncate în gropile de gunoi
5. O metodă de a conserva resursele naturale neregenerabile este …… a) de a reduce cantitatea de deşeuri solide pe care noi o producem b) de a creşte cantitatea de deşeuri solide pe care noi le producem c) să închidem gropile de gunoi
6. Pentru a reduce cantitatea de deşeuri solide, noi am putea cumpăra produse ….. a) de unică folosinţă b) care folosesc ambalaje de plastic c) care pot fi reciclate
7. Reciclarea înseamnă să….. a) cureţi gunoiul b) să faci noi produse c) arzi deşeurile folosindu-le pe cele vechi
8. Când noi îngropăm gunoiul în pământ(gropi de gunoi), noi de asemenea îngropăm….. a) noi produse b) lucruri care pot fi arse c) resurse naturale
9. Pentru că resursele neregenerabile sunt limitate ….. a) ţările sunt în competiţie unele cu altele pentru a obţine resurse b) fiecare ţară are toate resursele de care are nevoie c) ţările nu au nevoie de resurse
Dacă au fost epuizate rămân epuizate
Sursa: Departamentul Mineritului din SUA – 1994 Resursele Neregenerabile ale Pământului. Distribuţia în procente deţinută de ţări.
 CASE STUDY FROM JOANNA PINEWOOD EDUCATION LIMITEDWorking with wind power capture and generation of electricity by Krzysztof Bahrynowski using materials produced by Ionut Ionescu and others.Lessons on Working with Wind Energy Capture And Generation of Electricity adapted from – www.tryengineering.org To appreciate more about the physics of wind power: click and read by David JC MacKay “without the hot air” http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/withouthotair/c4/page_32.shtml http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/withouthotair/cB/page_263.shtml The following video and website provide visual learning that can be reinforced with repetition. A video about vertical axis wind turbine: http://www.quietrevolution.com/index.htm?gclid=COOk2-zM8LACFQQhtAodelT7uw You can even build your own horizontal or vertical wind turbine. More information here: http://learn.kidwind.org/learn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrp0RC3XTpw&feature=related http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/ http://www.thekevdog.com/projects/wind_generator/ To calculate the performance of your wind turbine: http://learn.kidwind.org /challenge/web/turbine_performance_calculator To know more about wind power and wind turbines: http://www.windandsun.co.uk/Wind/wind_marlec.htm http://www.lmwindpower.com/Blades.aspx Lesson Focus The lessons all focus on how wind energy could be converted into movement energy and electrical energy on a small or a large scale. Adult learner teams will design and build a working wind mill out of everyday materials and learn how they can produce energy. The learners’ wind mills have to be able to sustain the wind generated by a fan or a blow hair dryer. Using a KidWind kit, learners will build an electric motor to use as an electric generator. Teams of 4 will build generators with different numbers of coils, with the same gauge or diameter of copper wire, winding around a specially made axle. Measurement of electrical energy will be done on a multimeter. Adult learners will evaluate effectiveness of their coiling variable with one type of windmill. They will present their findings to the rest of the class. Lesson synopsis The “working with wind capture” activity explores the use of wind energy to generate or augment in businesses and homes globally. Adult learners work in teams of “engineers” with different natural groups e.g. one UK, one RO, two ES or one IT and one ES learner, to design and build their own windmill out of everyday items which will be available. The teams test their generators and windmills, collate any results on an excel spreadsheet, present the results as a graph and present their reflections to the whole workshop. Age Levels 8-18+ Objectives v Learn about electrical generators, their circuits and use of an electric multimeter. v Learn about wind energy and turbines. v Learn about engineering design. v Learn how engineering can help to solve Europe’s challenges. v Learn about teamwork and problem solving in a transnational project. Anticipated Learner Outcomes As a result of this activity, on reflection adult learners should develop an understanding of: v Wind energy. v Interaction of technology and society’s issues. v Data handling mathematical skills. v Engineering planning and design. v Teamwork. Lesson activity Learners explore the impact of how technology can positively impact the world by learning about wind energy and equipment used for both site testing and the conversion of wind to energy. Learners explore the technology behind wind energy, find out about site studies, and work in teams to develop a windmill out of everyday items. They test their windmills, evaluate their own designs and those of other learners, and present their findings to the class. Resources/Materials
Alignment to Curriculum Framework The workshop is appropriate for: - Key stage 2, year 6 - Key stage 3, year 7 to 9 - BTEC engineering - GCSE technology and physics; key stage 4 - Electrical apprentice courses - Tutor, teacher, instructors training courses - Hobbyist informal self learning Website links - TryEngineering (www.tryengineering.org) - National Renewable Energy Laboratory – Wind Research (www.nrel.gov/wind) - Wind Powering America (www.windpoweringamerica.gov) - European Wind Energy Association (www.ewea.org) - Danish Wind Industry Association (www.windpower.com) - Global Wind Energy Council (www.gwec.com) - Global Wind Day (www.globalwindday.org) - National Science Education s (www.nsta.org/publications/nses.aspx) - ITEA s for Technological Literacy (www.iteaconnect.org/TAA) Recommended Reading - Wind Power : Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business (ISBN : 1931498148) - Wind Energy Basics : A Guide to Small and Micro Wind Systems (ISBN : 1890132071) - The Homeowner’s Guide to Renewable Energy (ISBN : 086571536X) Optional Writing Activity (in the language of the participant) Write an essay about whether a wind farm, even if it would provide energy to the local energy consumer, would be a good idea to put in the centre of your home town. What about the River Thames in London or just off a resort beach area or a nature park? For Teachers and Tutors: T Resources Lesson Goal Learners explore the impact of how technology can positively impact the world by learning about wind energy and equipment used for both site testing and the conversion of wind to energy. Learners explore the science and technology behind wind energy, find out about site studies, and work in teams to develop a windmill out of everyday items. They test their windmills, evaluate their own designs and those of other Learners, and present their findings to the class. Lesson Objectives v Learn about electrical generators, their circuits and use of an electric multimeter. v Learn about wind energy and turbines. v Learn about engineering design. v Learn how engineering can help to solve Europe’s challenges. v Learn about teamwork and problem solving in a transnational project. Materials v Learner Resource Sheets v Learner Worksheets v Hair Dryer or Fan, and multimeter v Learners need to have a lap and memory stick, and a stopwatch found on mobile phones v One set of materials for each group of Learners: wooden stick, wooden spoons, small wooden (balsa) pieces, bendable wire, string, paperclips, rubber bands, toothpicks, aluminium foil, tape, dowels, super glue, paper, cardboard, plastic wrap, or other materials available to the teacher locally Procedure 1. Show learners into the various Learner Reference Sheets. These may be read in class, or provided as reading material for the prior night’s homework. 2. Divide Learners into groups of 4 Learners, providing a set of material per group. 3. Explain that Learners must develop their own working windmill from everyday items, and that the windmill must be able to withstand a fast speed fan for 2 or 3 minutes. The average has to be taken (Note: as an extra challenge, test the windmill’s ability to lift heavier objects as coins or washers). 4. Learners could be “budget” from which they will need to purchase materials you provide. Assign a cost for each item that will result in the average team being able to purchase at least 30 material parts. 5. Learners meet and develop a plan for their windmill prior to the lesson. They agree on material they will need, write or draw their plan, and then present their plan to the class. 6. Learners groups next execute their plans. Learners teams may request exchange materials or order more materials from the teacher, or may also trade unlimited materials with other teams to develop their ideal parts list. They will need to determine the “cost” of their design; the design with the lowest manufacturing budget will be considered the most efficient classroom design. 7. Next teams will test their windmills with the fan or the hairdryer set up. (Note: you may wish to make the fan available during the building phase so they can test their windmill during the building phase prior to the classroom test). 8. Teams then complete an evaluation worksheet, and present findings to the class. Time needed Approximately 1-2 hours, max 3 hours session. . Learner Resource: What is Wind Energy? Wind is a form of solar energy. Winds are caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth’s surface, and rotation of the earth. Wind flow patterns are modified by the earth’s terrain, bodies of water, and vegetation. Human use this wind flow, or motion energy, for many purposes: sailing, flying a kite, and even generating electricity. The terms ‘wind energy’ or ‘wind power’ describe the process by which the wind is used to generate mechanical power or electricity. By using energy from our environment, we can produce energy without producing greenhouse gasses. Wind power is free to use. The sail for thousands of years made the most important use of wind energy for transport across water. Wind have been used for centuries to drive windmills to make mechanical power for grinding of flour and pumping or movement of water. Today, wind is used to generate electricity using wind turbines. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power. This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain or pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical energy into electricity. How Wind Turbines Work A wind turbine works the opposite to a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind, like a fan, wind turbines use wind to make electricity. The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes electricity. Wind turbines, like windmills, are usually mounted on a tower to capture the most energy. Wind turbines operate on a simple principle. The energy in the wind turns two or three propeller-like blades around a rotor. The rotor is connected to the main shaft, which spins a generator to create electricity. Wind turbines are mounted on a tower to capture the most energy. At 100 feet (30 meters) or more above ground, they can take advantage of faster and less turbulent wind. A blade acts much like an airplane wing. When the wind blows, a pocket of low pressure air is formed on the downwind side of the blade. The low-pressure air pocket then pulls the blade toward it, causing the rotor to turn. This is called lift. The force of the lift is actually much stronger than the wind force against the front side of the blade, which is called drag. The combination of lift and drag causes the rotor to spin like a propeller, and the turning shaft spins a generator to make electricity. The generator then produces electricity which is carried along power lines to wherever it is needed. Wind turbines can be used to produce electricity for a single home or building, or they can be connected to an electricity grid for more widespread electricity distribution. Wind speed and the height of the blades both contribute to the amount of energy generated. An interactive game from the Danish Wind Industry Association (www.windpower.org/en/knowledge/wind_with_miller.html) lets you explore this concept in a game. This a very interesting website cleverly designed for those who wish to go deeper into this topic. Horizontal and Vertical Wind Turbines There are two types of wind turbines: the horizontal axis wind turbine and the vertical axis wind turbines. Horizontal axis wind turbine: This is probably the more familiar type. It has been modernized from the traditional windmill designs that have been with us for centuries. A nacelle installed perpendicular to the tower and horizontal with respect to the ground justifies the name of the turbine. These wind turbines have blades that face into the wind to gain energy from it. They must face into the wind in order to achieve maximum efficiency. To do this, the major part of these wind turbines has a tail or a weather vane, which acts as a sail, maintaining the blades facing the oncoming wind. This is mostly the case of the small turbines. The larger ones generally need a wind sensor coupled with a servo motor. Most have a gearbox which accelerates rotation of the blades until a speed more suitable for driving an electrical generator. Large wind turbines are now used in wind farms for commercial production of electric power. Small wind turbines can be used to provide some of the electrical energy that is needed to run your home. This energy can be used to either directly power some of the electrical devices or be fed back into the power grid to lower your electrical bill. Vertical axis wind turbine: These turbines have the main rotor shaft arranged vertically. The advantage of this arrangement is that the turbine does not need to be pointed into the wind to be effective. This is an advantage on sites where the wind direction is highly variable, for example when integrated into buildings. Manufacturers claim these turbines are quiet, efficient, economical and perfect for residential energy production, especially in urban environments. They are not as efficient as the horizontal ones because of a lower rotation speed, but they tend to be safer, easier to build, can be mounted close to the ground, and handles turbulence much better. The design is very diverse as you can see on the right. Learner Resource: Site Testing for Wind Energy Not all locations are suitable for wind energy development. They need to be evaluated to determine if the cost associated with installing a wind turbine will likely be balanced by the value of energy generated over time. One of the first steps to developing a wind energy project is to assess the area wind resources and estimate the available energy. To help the wind industry identify the area best suited for development, the U.S. Wind Energy Program works with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and other organisations to measure, characterise, and map wind resources 50 meters (m) to 100 m above ground. At the local level, towns and contractors will work with homeowners to determine the cost and likely financial benefits of wind turbine installation. Often the first step is to temporarily install an anemometer to test the wind at a farm or home over several months or even a year. European adult learners could as an assignment research the best sites in Europe and learn about wind energy programs of their countries. Using Anemometers to test Wind Potential An anemometer is a device that is used for measuring wind speed. Many countries and organisations offer anemometer loan programs, so a company or individual can evaluate the wind at their site to determine if enough wind energy would be generated at the location. For these test sites, an anemometer might collect wind-speed data in 10-minute intervals over a long period of time. Global Wind Day! “Global Wind Day” on June 15 of each year to raises awareness of wind energy worldwide. Thousands of public events are organised simultaneously around the world. More information is at www.globalwindday.org . . Learner Resource: Blade Options Blade Design Blade comes in many shapes and sizes, and there is continuing research into which design is best. It turns out that the optimal design really depends on the application, or where and how the blades will be used. Designers look at the “tip speed ratio” that determines efficiency. This is the ration between the speed of the wind and the speed the blade tip. High efficiency 3-blade-turbines have tip speed/wind speed ratios of between 6 and 7. How Many Blades? Most wind turbines use either two or three blades. Research indicates that as more blades are added there is an increase in aerodynamic efficiency, but this efficiency increase actually decreases dramatically with each added blade. For example, increasing the number of blades from one to two can yield a 6 percent increase in aerodynamic efficiency, but increasing the blade count from two to three yields only an extra three percent in efficiency. And, of course, there are cost implications too. Each additional blade in a design will increase the cost of the end product, so engineers have to factor in both the increased efficiency and the increased cost in manufacturing to determine a design that will be the best for an application. Aesthetics is also a consideration. A small, two or three blade design might be best for a residential area, where a homeowner just wants to pull from the wind enough energy to power their own home, and would prefer a quieter option. A giant 12 blades design would not look very nice atop their home and would perhaps generate more energy than they need and likely more noise too! Materials Early windmills were made of wood with canvas sails. These deteriorated over time and required care, but they represented the materials readily available! More recently, older mechanical turbine blades were made out of heavy steel but now many are made using fibreglass and other synthetic materials that offer strength at lower weights. And, lower weight building materials can result in larger blades to catch more wind applications where size and space are less of an issue. Manufacturers also use epoxy-based composites which may offer manufacturing advantages over other materials because the process has less impact on the environment and can result in a smoother surface finish. Carbon fibres have also been identified as a cost-effective method to further reduce weight and increase stiffness. Smaller blades can be made from light metals such as aluminium. Engineers will be working in this field for years to come to determine the optimal shape weight, and materials to generate energy most efficiently! Learner Resource: Blade Innovation and Testing Which Shape is Best? Turbines blades are made in many different shapes, and sometimes it is the application that determines which shape is the best. For example, a wind turbine blade design what researchers at Sandia National Laboratories developed in partnership with Knight & Carver of San Diego, CA promises to be more efficient than current designs. It should significantly reduce the cost-of-energy (COE) of wind turbines at low-wind-speed sites. Named “STAR” for Sweep Twist Adaptive Reactor, the blade has a gently curved tip, termed “sweep”, which unlike the vast majority of blades in current use, and is specially designed for low-wind-speed regions. The sites targeted by this effort have annual average wind speeds of 5.8 meters per second, measured at 10-meter height. Such sites are abundant and would increase by 20-fold the available land area that can be economically developed for wind energy. Sized at 27.1 meters long, it is almost 3 meters longer than the blades it will replace – and, instead of a traditional linear shape, the blade features a curvature toward the trailing edge, which allows the blade to respond to turbulent gusts in a manner that lowers fatigue loads on the blade. It is made of fibreglass and epoxy resin. Research and Testing Before starting production of a new blade model, a prototype is tried out in a test bed. The blade is subjected to a strain corresponding to 20 years of operating during the testing process. LM Glasfiber is a good example of a “component” manufacturer – this is a business that does not manufacture an entire product but focuses on a specific component – in this case turbine blades. LM Glasfiber has produced a total of more than 120,000 wind turbine blades since 1978. This amounts to more than one in three of all the blades in operation today, worldwide. One of the company’s goals is to develop new technology that makes wind turbines more efficient and extends the service life of both the turbines and the blades. The company points out that “developing new types of blades is based on concrete decisions regarding design, materials and processes. Any adjustment to one parameter also impacts the others.” This means that if they test a new shape, the may need to change a material as well. Learner Worksheet: Design Your Own Windmill You are working as a team of engineers who have been given the challenge to design a windmill out of everyday items. Your windmill will need to be able to withstand wind from a fan for at least one minute while winding a string or wire to lift a light object such as a teabag. You are working on a budget and will have to “purchase” materials from your teacher to create your design. You may return materials, exchange materials with other teams, but will need to determine the “cost” of your windmill – the least expensive design that meets the challenge will be considered the most efficient design! Your windmill may be vertical (pointing upward from a table) or horizontal (pointing off the edge of a table). Planning stage Meet as a team and discuss the problem you need to solve. Then develop and agree on a design for your windmill. You’ll need to determine what materials you want to use – keep in mind that your design must be strong enough to withstand from a fan or hairdryer and the base cannot move so it will have to be secured on a table or a shelf. Draw your design on the box below, and be sure to indicate the description and number of parts you plan to use. Present your design to the class. You may choose to revise your team’s plan after you receive feedback from class. Construction Phase Build your windmill. During construction you may decide you need additional materials or that your design needs to change. This is ok – just make a new sketch and revise your materials list and budget. Testing phase Each team will test their windmill using a classroom fan or hairdryer – each windmill will be tested using the same wind speed – medium – at a distance of three feet. You’ll need to make sure your windmill can operate for a minute at this speed while winding a light object up with a string. Be sure to watch the tests of the other teams and observe how their different designs worked. Evaluation phase Evaluate your teams’ results, complete the evaluation worksheet, and present your findings to the class. Use this worksheet to evaluate your team’s results in the “Working with Wind Energy” lesson: 1. Did you succeed in creating a windmill that operated for a minute that could lift an object? If not, why did it fail? 2. Did you decide to revise your original design or request additional materials while on the construction phase? Why? 3. Did you negotiate any material trades with other teams? How did that process work for you? 4. If you could have had access to materials that were different than those provided, what would your team have requested? Why? 5. Do you think that engineers have to adapt their original plans during the construction of systems or products? Why might they? 6. If you had to do it all over again, how would your planned design change? Why? 7. How did the most “efficient” design (the one with the low cost or budget) differ from your own? 8. Do you think you would have been able to complete this project easier if you were working alone? Explain... 9. What drawbacks does a wind turbine have as a reliable source of energy? What technologies exist that might compensate for these drawbacks? 10. What advantages does the windmill have as a renewable source of energy? . For Tutors: Alignment to Curriculum Frameworks for more formal learning Science Education (ages 4-9) CONTENT A: Science as Inquiry As a result of activities, all Learners should develop Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry CONTENT B: Physical Science As a result of the activities, all Learners should develop an understanding of Position and motion of objects CONTENT E: Science and Technology As a result of activities, all Learners should develop Abilities of technological design CONTENT F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives As a result of the activities, all Learners should develop an understanding of Science and technology in local challenges CONTENT G: History and Nature of Science As a result of the activities, all Learners should develop an understanding of Science as a human endeavour Science Education s (ages 10-14) CONTENT A: Science as Inquiry As a result of activities, all Learners should develop Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry CONTENT B: Physical Science As a result of the activities, all Learners should develop an understanding of Motions and forces Transfer of energy CONTENT E: Science and Technology As a result of activities all Learners should develop Abilities of technological design CONTENT F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives As a result of the activities, all Learners should develop an understanding of Science and technology in society Science Education (ages 14-18) CONTENT A: Science as Inquiry As a result of activities, all Learners should develop Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry CONTENT B: Physical Science As a result of the activities, all Learners should develop an understanding of Motions and forces Interactions of energy and matter CONTENT E: Science and Technology As a result of activities, all Learners should develop Abilities of technological design CONTENT F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives As a result of the activities, all Learners should develop an understanding of Natural resources Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges CONTENT G: History and Nature of Science As a result of the activities, all Learners should develop an understanding of Historical perspectives Technological Literacy – All ages The Nature of Technology Learners will develop an understanding or the core concepts of technology Learners will develop an understanding of the relationships among technologies and the connections between technology and other fields of study. Technology and Society Learners will develop an understanding of the cultural, social, economic, and political effects of technology. Learners will develop an understanding of the effects of technology on environment. Design Learners will develop and understanding of engineering design. Learners will develop and understanding of the role of troubleshooting, research and development, invention and innovation, and experimentation in problem solving. Abilities for a Technological World Learners will develop abilities to apply the design process. Learners will develop abilities to assess the impact of products and systems. The Designed World Learners will develop and understanding of and be able to select and use energy and power technologies. Learners will develop and understanding of and be able to select and use construction technologies. You can find the Zero Carbon Britain 2030 report which explains how the UK can become 100% Renewable in the production of Energy here (download the first file): http://www.zerocarbonbritain.org/resources/cats-previous-zcb-reports Preparation and tutoring Wind Power in London, UK and Ploiesti Romania by Joanna Pinewood Education Limited February 2012 Wind power Ionut Ionescu and Dan Petrescu produced, using Java, the following animation which can be used as a learning tool: www.danpetrescu.net/energy/wind.html It’s a simple animation were two variables can be changed. Virtual blade sizes can be altered to assess power production. The wind velocity can be altered to assess power production. The results need to be written down in an excel spreadsheet and then a graph can be drawn. Comparison of variables shows the character of the wind turbine. To start the experiment press on the windmill and slide it across onto a hill. As an example, compare blade sizes in multiples of 5m and you should make a table with the results below:
If you follow the above, you can with experience compare other multiples. The blade dimensions here are independent variable and the wind speed is constant (5m/s) and the dependent variable. Transfer the columns of information above to an excel spreadsheet. The one we used was Microsoft Office Excel 2007. To convert the table to a graph we used the following steps: 1) Select the data you need for the graph with the cursor; 2) Click on insert. This should show an assortment of graphs; 3) Click on “line graph”: in this example, we used a 2D line graph, it is the first to click; 4) You have now the graph on the spreadsheet; 5) You can select the data as functions of x (horizontal) and y (vertical) axis. You click right on the graph and you click “select data”; 6) For the horizontal axis, you can choose the variable data i.e. blade radius; 7) Click on “edit” in this column on the right of the window will appear the blade measurements. In the axis select the column you want in your table, in this case the blade radius. A dashed box will appear around the selected numbers and codes appear in the axis label range. Press OK, and the window “select data source” will appear again. 8) Then you have to select the y axis points. You need to deselect the x axis information in the column on the left of the window. “Blade radius” is shown in grey and you want to press “remove”. Click “remove” and that axis vanishes; 9) In the column showing “number of homes” and “energy” you can use the add button to select data from the same or other spreadsheets (here another variable can be added whenever you want); 10) If you click on the curve of the graph, that will highlight the column of results in the table; 11) If you wish to change or add labels or titles, click right over the labels. Using “chart tools” then “layout” you can change the chart title and axis titles. Click “axis titles”, then “horizontal axis title” then “title below axis”. A box appears on the graph, name your axis. For the verticals axis, click “primary vertical axis” and “secondary vertical axis” then choose how you want them to appear on your graph. Rename these axes. To choose a title click “chart title” and choose how you want it to appear. Rename in the title box; 12) If you have results of different units that you wish to appear on the same graph, you have to add a secondary vertical axis. To do this, click right on a series of the curve, and then select “format data series”. On “series options”, select “secondary axis”. Your graph is now ready. You can see just below the graph obtained with this procedure: To enquire about the algorithm that produced the graphic, please email Daniela Ionescu Romanian project manager (daniprofa@gmail.com). Contact Daniela about the hydro-electricity power experiment. If you wish to discuss other data and graphs you produce, please email krzys@joannapinewoodeducation.com . A Review of Dimethylfuran: a potential renewable biological fuel by Krzysztof Bahrynowski and Eloise Renouf Recently, this compound has been proposed as a potential biofuel, developed by a team of 4 American searchers from Wisconsin-Madison University, let by the Professor James Dumesic. They reported on the 21st of June 2007 (Roman-Leshkov et al., 2007) that this molecule can be produced rapidly and efficiently from the conversion of fructose (Figure 1), found abundantly in the plants, particularly in fruits and some root vegetables.  Fig.1: Simplified representation of the conversion of Fructose into DMF (Heiden & Rauchfuss, 2007). This reaction consists of a two-steps catalytic biomass-to-liquid process (Figure 2), via 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). The first step consists of converting fructose to HMF by dehydration in a biphasic reactor, by the removal of three oxygen atoms, using an acid catalyst in water, in the presence of solvents with a low boiling point (Figure 3, R1). These solvents are also excellent fuel components, which eliminates the need for expensive separation steps to produce the final liquid fuel mixture. Under the action of these solvents, the HMF is extracted from water. Even if various solvents can generate HMF, the team found that the use of 1-butanol as a solvent is advantageous for biomass application because it can be produced by the fermentation of biomass-derived carbohydrates. Furthermore, 1-butanol is inert in the hydrogenolysis step of the process. This reaction had been previously done by other research groups, but Dumesic’s team brought some improvements to make the HMF easier to extract and raise the production so as HMF can be produced in high yields. For instance, they added NaCl in the aqueous phase so as to decrease the formation of impurities and to improve the extraction of HMF from water without using high boiling point solvents. Recently, a new process for this step has been developed, using chromium chloride (CrCl3·6H2O) and boric acid (B(OH)3) as double catalysts in ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl), which show a better efficiency (Hu et al., 2012). The results showed that the highest HMF yield of 78.8% was achieved at 120⁰C for only 30 min. After the extraction of HMF, [BMIM]Cl and CrCl3·6H2O/B(OH)3 could be easily recycled with stable activity, after five successive runs. Tetraethyl ammonium chloride (TEAC) was also found to be a good solvent for HMF formation. Then, the extracting solvent containing HMF undergoes a purification step, with evaporation (Figure 3, E1). The water, the NaCl, the fraction of 1-butanol that evaporates, and 58% of HCl are recovered and recycled back into the biphasic reactor, while the purified liquid stream containing HMF and 1-butanol is sent for the second step of the process.
The next step is the conversion of HMF to DMF by hydrogenolysis of C-O bonds over a copper-based catalyst (Figure 3, R2). The normal boiling point of HMF is too high for it to be used as fuel, so the HMF extracted by the organic phase of the biphasic reactor has to be converted into DMF. A catalyst allows a thermal stability during the reaction and the copper catalyst is often used as a low temperature shit catalyst, because it is more active at lower temperatures. This reaction removes two oxygen atoms from the HMF, which leads to the diminution of the boiling point and makes it suitable as a transportation fuel, and involves two intermediates: 2-methyl,5-hydroxymethylfuran and 2-methylfuran (4 and 5 in Figure 2). Species 6, produced by way of 7, is a hydrogenolysis by-product that also posses excellent fuel quality. However, for this second step, the salt can diminish the production of DMF because of the interaction between chloride ions (introduced during the dehydration step and not completely removed during the evaporation step) and the conventional copper chromite (CuCrO4) catalyst. Indeed, when the (CuCrO4) catalyst is used, in a 1-butanol solution containing 1.6mmol-1 of NaCL, only a 6% yield of DMF is obtained. So the team developed a carbon-supported copper-ruthenium catalyst (CuRu/C), with a superior performance and a chloride resistance. The carbon-supported ruthenium catalyst is resistant to deactivation in the presence of chloride ions. Because copper and ruthenium are immiscible, and copper has a lower surface energy than ruthenium, their mixture creates a two-phase system in which the copper phase coats the surface of the ruthenium phase. Accordingly, the team hypothesized that a CuRu/C catalyst may exhibit copper-like hydrogenolysis behaviour combined with ruthenium-like chlorine resistance. With this catalyst, the team obtained a 61% yield of DMF. To end this step, DMF has to be separated from the solvent and the reaction intermediates (Figure 3, S1). The more volatile components (such as DMF and water) can be separated from the solvent and the intermediates. On condensation, the hydrophobic products of DMF separate spontaneously from water.  Fig. 2: The rationale for converting carbohydrates to DMF (Roman-Leshkov et al., 2007) Figure 3: Schematic diagram of the process for conversion of fructose to DMF (Roman-Leshkov et al., 2007). A few months later, another study improved the HMF’s production, without the need for acid catalysts (Zhao et al., 2007). This new method allows reducing the production costs, and also includes glucose as a potential feedstock for HMF. Furthermore, Mascal reported that cellulose itself can be converted into furanic products (Mascal & Nikitin, 2008).
2) Advantages: The awareness of global warming and of the necessity to decrease the use of fossil fuel reserves, which are exhaustible, lead the searchers to develop new sources of energy which can be more sustainable. Concerning the fuels, the only renewable liquid fuel used nowadays is the Ethanol (formula CH3OCH3), but its production is limited by several factors as its low energy density, a high volatility, and a potential contamination by the absorption of water from the atmosphere so it requires an energy-intensive distillation process to separate the fuel from water. All these factors contribute to the fact that this production is not enough profitable therefore it is necessary to develop fuels from other sources. Compared to Ethanol, DMF is chemically stable, has a higher energetic efficiency (by 40%) using the same raw material, a higher boiling point (14°C more) which make it less volatile and more practical for transportation and is not soluble in water, so it doesn’t absorb moisture from the atmosphere and it makes it easier to store. By the creation of DMF, we can transform an important amount of biomass into a liquid fuel usable for the transport, and probably decrease the use of petroleum-based gasoline. In fact, they share very similar physicochemical properties, even more than with Ethanol, so DMF can be a better substitute. Table 1: Main properties of DMF, benchmarked with ethanol and gasoline
Dimethylfuran is a heterocyclic compound, formula (CH3)2C4H2O. This is a derivative from furan, with methyl substitutions. This substance has a caramel odour and is often used for food flavourings. POTENTIAL AS A BIOFUEL: 1) Production: ng et al., 2011).
In the Dumesic study, the team conducted some experiments in order to compare the performances of DMF against Ethanol and gasoline. To do it, they used a single-cylinder gasoline direct-injection (GDI) research engine. The first results are very promising for DMF as a new biofuel: in fact, the combustion performance is similar to commercial gasoline, and the regulated emissions are comparable. Ethanol production creates 1.1 units of energy for every unit of energy consumed. This DMF process creates 2.2 units of energy for every unit of energy consumed. So DMF surpasses Ethanol in terms of resource efficiency, from production through processing. These results have been confirmed by another team, from University of Birmingham, let by Professor Hongming Xu; the preliminary results show that DMF can be used in spark-ignition engines without any modifications, and it presents very similar characteristics concerning the combustion and emissions (The Midlands Energy Consortium, 2012). Comparing to Ethanol, DMF allows a lower consumption, but the emission levels are the same. Other works were conducted to evaluate the engine performance and regulated emissions. As DMF is a new biofuel candidate, it is important to analyse the products of combustion. In a study (Guohong et al., 2011), is was a question of discussing the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), total hydrocarbons (THC) and CO2 emitted according to the fuel used. The CO emissions are lower with both biofuels compared to gasoline because of a greater oxidation of the hydrogen and carbon molecules. Ethanol produces the lowest CO emissions, due to higher combustion efficiency and oxygen content. This study also revealed that both biofuels produce higher CO2 emissions than gasoline; however they both have the benefit of consuming the CO2 in the atmosphere during their production, which would help to offset the increase in the engine-out emissions. The level of NOx were a bit higher with DMF than with both Ethanol and gasoline, because of a higher combustion temperature, which can represent an major issue because NOx is 20 times more toxic than CO that is why it is one of the most concerning engine-out emissions. But the NOx emissions with DMF would be reduced through the catalytic converter. Ultimately, the results of the whole study reveal that the engine-out emissions with DMF are similar to those with gasoline. Work is ongoing and more results are needed about the emissions, but these results seem promising. For DMF’s production, we can use the non-food biomass coming from food crops (for instance the inedible residues of maize production) to produce DMF as a second generation biofuel, and in this way reduce the competition with agriculture over land capacity. Contrary to first generation biofuel technologies (bio-Ethanol) which is criticised because it uses edible resources (production of biofuels is made to the detriment of the food production), second generation biofuel technologies can be manufactured from various types of biomass, even inedible. Since 2011, both Columbian and Ecuadorian governments suggest to use bananas to produce DMF: indeed, in Colombia, around 120.000 tons of surpluses are lost every year due to damage, overproduction or inadequate maturity. Banana fruit is mainly composed of starch and has cellulose in the skin, which can be hydrolysed to produce glucose, that can be transformed into HMF and then into DMF. Other wastes from banana crops as stalks, rich in cellulose, could be transformed into glucose monomers, then into HMF and into DMF. It could be an alternative process that adds value to wastes generated in the banana industry. Using only the inedible parts of plants and crop wastes, the biofuels with cellulose should allow of produce at the same time food and energy, on the same cultivated surface. Another advantage with the DMF is that the potential application, market and demand will be the same as Ethanol, so it is possible to develop a new more efficient biofuel without spending more money or needing to develop particular technologies. It is also possible to intend using it as jet fuel or aviation fuel for a future development. 3) Limitations: Even if DMF presents a huge long-term potential, its production face a lot of political or regulatory hurdles, at least for the immediate future. More research needs to be conducted before the commercialisation: · Safety issues must be examined. · Environmental health impact has to be thoroughly tested. · Neither IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) nor NTP (National Toxicology Program) has evaluated DMF’s human carcinogenicity (“No component of this product present at levels greater than or equal to 0.1% is identified as probable, possible or confirmed human carcinogen by IARC”, Sigma-Aldrich Safety data sheet, 2012). The little available information suggests that DMF is similar to other current fuel components. · It is well known that DMF’s blood concentration can be used as a biomarker for smoking because levels of DMF in the blood generally increase with the number of cigarettes smoked per day, and are generally undetectable in the blood of non-smoking adults (Ashley, 1996). In this kind of biomonitoring studies, if some DMF is found in the blood, it does not mean that the level can cause adverse health effects, there is no evidence for this at the moment. However, biomonitoring data can help scientists to conduct research on exposure and health effects. · Toxicology has to be well understood; we can’t state that the hazards posed are acceptable comparing to other liquid fuel components… Conclusions Since 2007, very little papers were published about DMF concerning the health and environmental effects, which can only suggest commercial interest in production. It might take 5 to 10 years before this fuel is available as it has to pass food and toxicology tests. At the moment, it is intended to use a lot of various sources to produce biofuels, as surpluses of beer or whisky production, or coffee grounds, or willow, or eucalyptus for the aviation. A third generation biofuel technology is also studied, using algae, which could be 30 to 100 times more efficient than terrestrial oilseed, because of a higher photosynthesis rate and a better CO2 concentration. This biofuel source can be produced with higher yields, making possible mass production without massive deforestation or competition with food crops.
The biofuel industry is at an early stage of its evolution. However, it is developing fast and it appears that it can represent an important contribution to the future alternative energy production.
References Ashley D L; Bonin M A; Hamar B; Mcgeehin M . (1996). “Using the blood concentration of 2,5-dimethylfuran as a marker for smoking.” International archives of occupational and environmental health / 68(3):183-7 Guohong, T., Ritchie, D., and Hongming, X. (2011). DMF - A New Biofuel Candidate, Biofuel Production-Recent Developments and Prospects, Dr. Marco Aurelio Dos Santos Bernardes (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-478-8, InTech, Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/biofuel-production-recent-developments-and-prospects/dmf-a-new-biofuel-candidate(consulted on May 2012). Heiden, Z. M., Rauchfuss, T. B. (2007). "Homogeneous Catalytic Hydrogenation of Dioxygen: a Step Toward an Organometallic Fuel Cell?” 129, 14303-14310. Hu, L., Sun, Y., Lin, L., Liu, S. (2012) “Catalytic conversion of glucose into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural using double catalysts in ionic liquid”. Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 16 May 2012. Mascal, M., Nikitin, E.B. (2008). "Direct High-Yield Conversion of Cellulose into Biofuel." Angewandte Chemie Internation Edition 47: 7924-7926. Roman-Leshkov, Y., Barrett, C.J., Liu, Z.Y. and Dumesic, J.A. (2007). "Production of dimethylfuran for liquid fuels from biomass-derived carbohydrates." Nature 447: 982-986. Sigma-Aldrich Savety data sheet, 2,5-Dimethylfuran http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/MSDS/MSDS/DisplayMSDSPage.do?country=GB&language=en&productNumber=177717&brand=ALDRICH&PageToGoToURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sigmaaldrich.com%2Fcatalog%2Fproduct%2FALDRICH%2F177717%3Flang%3Den(consulted on May 2012). The Midlands Energy Consortium – Impact of biofuels on engine performance http://www.midlandsenergyconsortium.org/Case%20Studies/engine%20performance%20and%20biofuels%201.pdf(consulted on May 2012). Zhao, H., Holladay, J.E., Brown, H. and Zhang, Z.C. (2007). "Metal Chlorides in Ionic Liquid Sovlents Convert Sugars to 5-Hydroxymethylfuran." Science 5831: 1597-1600.    6 LEARNING MATERIALS To see the learning materials open the links below. To appreciate more of the science of renewable energy enjoy this free e-book by David JC MacKay “without the hot air” 1) A New Biological Renewable Fuel : DMF DimethylFuran 2) Electrolysis and Biological Batteries- Explanations to support Cáceres' lemon juice experiments 3) How to engage the learner's interest of renewable energy use in transport by Veronica Campo 5) Renewable fuel - The Sun : An interactive exercise with learner audience by Isabel Ruiz Mattoon 7) Physics exam questions from the 1970's : page 8 asks a question about wireless electricity 8) Carriage of electricity along the European Grid 11) A video showing installation of voltaic panels on Joanna Pinewood Education Centre's south roof. 13) Video showing how UK produces electricity from waste 2012 14) Careless or Care less about the Environment by Krzysztof Bahrynowski and Maria Murckova 16)Environment and Mediterranean By Carlo Smaldone Villani 17)Mediterranean Environment : A Review and Methodology to Teach 18) Non-formal Environment Education by Prof. Daniela Ionescu 19) SPANISH LESSON
To make questions:
7 FRAMEWORK A Draft Framework to raise Environment and Sustainable Development Awareness in Adult Education By Olga Martin Cobos (Spain) and Krzysztof Bahrynowski (United Kingdom) and many other participants from Romania, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom. For Adult Learner ( including Andragogists) Need to conciliate Learning and personal life, becoming citizens, sensitive to environmental problems. Need of being motivated with diverse methodologies that keep them alert to environment issues Need of being encouraged to introduce environment habits in domestic and professional life. Need active citizenship to denounce damages to environment, social and economic fabric and practices that do not help preservation of sustainable environment. Need to encourage impulses of making them incorruptible spoke’s persons of environment tactics and strategies. For Teachers, Tutors, Trainers of Adults (Andragogists) Need to facilitate the raising of sustainable development/environment in Adult learners. Need to be alert to environmental issues making easy to have access to mass media. Need to by teaching be an example, introducing environmental habits in the education institute and in daily routines (responsible use of energy, selection of waste, reuse of paper, recovery, recycling and reflection). Need to Inform about vocational study or citizen study related to environment and sustainable renewable energy and sustainable reduction of carbon emission. Need to contribute to entrepreneurship showing the possibility of taking into account that environment is a job and as employment niches. For Environment Learning Atmosphere Need to develop learning atmosphere in favour of the protection of environment in education. Need to recognise that images and stories of environment accidents, criminal negligence and corrupt practices can motivate the adult learner positively. Need to debate, legally and emotionally persuade and argue that education institutions, local and regional authorities offer the necessary implementations concerning development of a sustainable environment. Need to use an approach like ‘Handprints Idea’ of Gregory Norris: “ The important thing for good or bad is the sum up”. Need to use flexible, interactive and motivating methodologies to develop activities: such as recycling; creation from used materials; printing of posters and leaflets; writing arguments and persuasive articles, reports and stories; and making slideshows and movies.
8 DISSEMINATION TOOLS AND EXAMPLES To see the dissemination examples click and open the links. To appreciate more of the science of renewable energy enjoy this free e-book by David JC MacKay “without the hot air” From the very beginning of the project we tried to disseminate all our activities and ideas. The project was disseminated in many ways, using a variety of tools: · Digital radio station : discussions and activities of the Ploiesti workshop were streamed through the digital radio to the Romanian public. · A project website on Wiki was easily spammed/ invaded, the website was rebuilt using Joomla. · Project website built by Joomla : Record Radio TV City S.R.L. Ploiesti. This website has had 1748 visitors. · A google website made by adult learners and assistants June 2012 : Joanna Pinewood Education · Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/333684699986608/ was created on the 17th of January 2012. It has 164 members and on average 30 to 64 members have looked at every published topic during 18 months. Whenever a partner or member of the page found something interesting to see or had something interesting to say they would put it up on this page. There are numerous useful videos, lessons and testimonials. There is an interesting video stored here about the secrets of Tesla. Maria Murckova a Grundtvig Assistant produced this page https://www.facebook.com/groups/527386563985049/ · YouTube : WYL TV - Letsdoit CERE video developed by Ionut Ionescu installed by Carlo Smaldone & Joanna Pinewood Ed · Blogs : Italian blog : http://moab.altervista.org/moab/home.html and Spanish blog : http://grundtvigcc.blogspot.com.es/ · Numerous written applications by partners for EU projects during 2012 and 2013. · This E guide to best practices. · Face to face or one to one; as well as committee and conference interaction. Dissemination occurred through staff and adult learners at informal meetings, and staff and adult learners’ social events. These were normally face to face. For example, during Christmas 2012, Joanna Pinewood Education had a Christmas, team building, social dinner and we discussed the feedback of this environment CERE project, future environmental applications and tried to solve shared problems. The Spanish, Romanian and Italian partners did similar activities. These informal social meetings with Adult Learners we found were the better way of participating in discussions about the energy and environment projects. For example in September 2011, 5 UK participants drove from London to Wales, informally visited the Centre of Alternative Technology, its venue, information centre and accommodation; met CAT’s staff and shared the information to the partners for our May 2012 workshop. In November 2011, 10 UK participants informally visited the EfW (energy from waste ) facility of Lakeside near Heathrow airport and disseminated the activity to our partners and other adult learners. As a result of the organisation of the UK May workshop adult volunteers from Staff and Adult learners contributed to its planning and implementation. Similarly in Romania, Italy and Spain. Our Spanish had funding for 12 mobilities from their National Agency and 25 Spaniards came on mobilities. In this way, partners disseminated the activities necessary to manage this project: deciding best methodologies; adult learners and staff offered their previous experiences; planned timetables and itinerary; adult learners learnt patience using their ICT skills when purchasing on-line tickets for workshops or writing presentations or essays; we had meetings over phone and email to discuss appropriate clothes, weight of luggage and the weather and in this way we learnt about the differences and identities of European countries.Through debate we learnt about our cultural differences. We argued, persuaded in the name of the project to airport staff that a lady’s shoulder purse is not hand luggage. We argued and persuaded frontier with police at airport border controls that our non-EU participants with Schengen visa were travelling for legitimate education purposes. Our confidence and experience to debate, argue and persuade were transferred to arguments for improvement to raise standards for Adult Environment Education. Partners had formal meeting in the community and involved their staff, Grundtvig and Leonardo assistants. Sometimes partners had opportunity of giving short impromptu speeches to business persons. Staff was encouraged to speak and network with business people and produce their own blogs. Joanna Pinewood Education’s Slovak Grundtvig Assistant Maria Murckova interested in Environment issues researched, wrote presentations and feedback for the CERE workshops in Calabria; disseminated this project to the Copenhagen University, Dept of lifelong learning and to her Slovak National Agency. As did Assistants Eloise Renouf, Veronica Campo-Alcolado, Isa Garbayo Martin, Isabel Ruiz Mattoon, Antonella Papapicco, and Abdullah Lamptey. Eloise Renouf showed us how to complete a review about Dimethyl Furan : a potential biological renewable fuel. Isabel Ruiz Mattoon gave her first English presentation in front of a sensitive and attentive audience during the May UK workshop : Zero Carbon Europe and overcame many barriers. Isa Garbayo Martin with a degree in Environmental Science taught us how to make video movies from photographs and won everybody’s heart at Caceres Extremadura CERE workshop on Energy from Waste. Isa contributed to the writing of “Catastrophic Climate Change”. Leonardo Assistant Antonella Papapicco persevered with Augmented Reality and found us a wealth of Renewable Energy models in the Trimble Database Library and showed us how we could use an ICT programme called sketchup for Environment Management and build 3D fuel molecules. Antonella wrote a summary about CAT and the new Zero Carbon Britain report. With the help of Veronica Campo Alcolado we learnt the importance of transport towards carbon emission which made Eloise Renouf tell us the story of Carbon Dioxide and Nucleation. Nina Margvelashvili supported Euro Gestione Impresa alongside Tanya Kostyuk and Orieta Llani in organising mobilities and research. All our assistants helped to motivate our adult learners and partners and this would not have happened if it had not been for this Grundtvig CERE project. In November 2012 Joanna Pinewood Education took its Grundtvig assistant Maria Murkova to the EACEA information day where we talked about new environment projects with other participants and EACEA managers. In 2011, UK communicated with Minnesota University in USA to learn about building wind turbines models and we built locally and in Ploiesti a number of different types of windmills and produced a practical lesson plan for this. We developed potential partners in Nigeria, Ghana and India and discussed this Cere project and future interactions. The Cere project developed considerable interest in Poland (not a partner) during ESF discussions in Warsaw during 2012-2013 and during a Leonardo preparatory visit in December 2011 ( with the community and mayor of Modliborzyce). The mobilities had considerable impact on staff and Adult learners alike. However, it was the weather which reminded us all the time about the significance this project on environment and sustainable development. In Ploiesti, during February, there was a yellow alert and two metres of snow. In London, the workshop was the wettest, windiest, and worst May for twenty years. In Calabria, the October weather was very hot and we were forecast monsoon rains the following month. In Caceras, the grass and trees were green and the distant mountain peaks had snow. On our last day, the morning was very cold and it rained during our return drive. In these ways we disseminated to staff, adult learners and globally. When this document is completed we hope it will be accepted in the GRI database. These are some examples of dissemination. Click on them to open the link. 1) Television Interview of 3 partners of Let's Do It Creatively ... and Environmentally with Renewable Energy CERE project. The Italian, Romanian and United Kingdom partners talk about this Grundtvig http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-DSPBxOFxQ&feature=player_embeddedproject on Romanian Television in Ploiesti during the 1st workshop during February 2012. This video was disseminated on the facebook of Ecorys, also through facebook it was disseminated to 5,000 members of the Polish Community in the UK. 3) Reflections on the UK Workshop “Carbon Zero Europe” by Miss Isabel Ruiz Mattoon 5) Blog 6) Press releases JUEVES, 10 DE MAYO DE 2012 EL CENTRO DE EDUCACIÓN DE ADULTOS “MAESTRO MARTÍN CISNEROS”
Un grupo de profesores del CEPA de Cáceres ha viajado a Londres donde se ha llevado a cabo una convención y puesta en común de distintos métodos educativos, talleres y campos de investigación sobre la reducción de las emisiones de carbono. 7) Ploiesti - Cere Let's Do It Creatively ... and Environmentally with Renewable Energy (February 2012)
Another testimonial on facebook of the Ploiesti worshop is by adult learner Aidan Cooper
The Spanish made a solar oven which I found to be very interesting as I enjoy cooking so I shall make one here in the U.K. and when we have some sun I shall use it.
All was white when we arrived in Romania on Wednesday 15th and it remained that way for the entire week, but it did not interrupt the daily routine in Romania either for us or for the locals. The only time when it did was when we visited a hydro electric dam and could only see one side of it as the gates in the tunnel through the dam had frozen shut. The hotel we stayed at was comfortable and conveniently located for the workshop events, and as there was only the Spanish and us from the U.K we were all staying at the same hotel. Top of Form Like · · Follow Post · Share · 21 February 2012 at 12:54 9 CONCLUSIONS
This Project has been a daring experience for our Partnership. Focusing on environment and renewable energy has meant we paid attention to environmental problems, and most of all, to our own attitudes and habits related to this topic. Our learners have had an entertaining way to get acquainted with the ups and downs of human (and personal) relationship with nature. Carrying out those objectives and aims devised in the project was very interesting, and a somewhat telling experience on us all. Many of us were able to link the global environmental problem of world scale policies and needs to the things each one of us does every day and to realize how our personal behavior does count. In taking care of the environment about us, every one of us, needs to do our part every day. This is true for Britain, Italy, Romania,and Spain as we have found out during our partnership. We raised awareness amongst ourselves, gained confidence, given ourselves a voice, found new colleagues and mentors, formed new networks and new skills for communicating learning. New adult learners and assistants from other countries are travelling to increase their environment learning, methodology and their communication skills to our centres and our workshops who will assist us to expand our knowledge. Unfortunately the theme of the project is unfinished and we have discovered that their still much more to do. Catastrophic climate change
Last summer the Arctic ice sheet almost completely melted, Greenland’s ice began to melt, globally farmers saw massive crop failures due to flooding and despite ambitious environmental targets, current energy policies are unlikely to deliver the change we need. In Italy, we learnt in Calabria 2012 that climate change laws have been suspended. In Poland, bribery and corruption in environmental affairs are rife. Carbon emissions are increasing exponentially. This is damaging the health of children. It is easy for many people to ignore this slowly developing and abstract threat of the devastating effects of climate change, but future generations will live with the consequences of our choices. We need to change! We need to change our behaviour! “Climate chaos is not inevitable, we can take action to mitigate the threat, and yet politicians seem impotent in the face of businesses and banks that prioritise profits at the expense of our fragile and beautiful Earth” quoted by Chris Moreton from the Centre of Alternative Technology in Machynlleth. Two years of working on the project “Let’s Do It Creatively and Environmentally with Renewable Energy” shows that we need to change the attitude and behaviour of people. People have been aware of catastrophic climate change for nearly 50 years. People cause climate change. Yet despite all solutions that have been achieved, climate change is still a real threat; the opportunity to prevent an average global warming of more than 2o C is slipping away and the devastating consequences of inaction are still not grasped by many people who still need to be woken up and educated in the appropriate responses necessary to prevent and mitigate the worst effects. European politicians for unknown reasons still misinform their electorate by not recognising the seriousness of climate change. People need to work together to promote renewable technology, reduce waste and carbon emissions and encourage healthier farming, towards the creation of an ecologically sustainable society. We need to continue making changes in our energy independence, renewable energy, environmental policies, clean air and water, environmental architecture, localised food production, community energy schemes, ecological sustainability and green jobs, creating a cleaner, healthier future and avoiding the dire effects of unmitigated climate change. Change will stop our economic recession. The challenge is to live within the renewable inputs. We have to question current lifestyles and reflect about a range of sustainable solutions. We need to change people’s attitude and behaviour. The lifelong learning partners wished to share innovative and creative educational best practices in the field of renewable energy for environment/sustainable development, pedagogy {Andragogy [Adult learning]} and didactics; and learning about European countries. The weather significantly reminded us about European Climate-Change. Key objectives in learning about renewable energy are being sustained in future activities. We debated, argued and persuaded using principle that "Sustainable Learning is for Living". We did practicals like building wind-turbines and developing eco-cities and most of the time made the learner the object of our attention. Much of the learning was informal and non-formal. Many outdoor activities were organised that connected us with the environment like sailing in an electric floating classroom along the Grand Union, visiting a hydro electricity dam in Prahova , climbing an active volcano in Sicily to experience geothermal potential and experiencing the smells of the Eco-Park in Merida, Estremadura of fermented new soil (chemical energy) from domestic waste. This project aimed to continue the fostering the joy of learning that was achieved in previous projects by the 4 partners using the "Framework of Enjoyable Learning Approaches" and "Building Education Methodolgies" further by putting them into practice. The project fostered understanding of renewable energy in the 2020 European Vision through · building on the experience, skills and administration gained in in previous experiences: 2009 European Year of Creativity and Innovation; in nevertheless a small important way, participants in the the project contributed a little to the understanding of the Europe 2020 Vision, especially in terms of renewable energy, especially the goal to have 20% of Europe’s from renewable. We learnt that more was being achieved but still not enough. To achieve climate goals understanding, we studied and reflected on policies of the 4 partners countries to see if there is possibility of a “Zero Carbon Footprint in Europe”, there is potentially but profiteering global investors and criminals are negating successes. · the Framework of Enjoyable Learning Approaches was discussed with adult learners and staff and used. Attempts were made successfully and unsuccessfully to learn the various contexts of working methods for sustainable learning and understand how the context affects the setting for adult learning; and adult learning processes. Attempts were made to improve inclusion of adult learners and avoid exclusion. · many informal local learning activities and workshops were made with adult learners and staff; report writing and literacy was improved by adult learners and staff alike. Also digital skills in video making was better understood. Staff members improved their skills; were accredited new qualifications. One local participant become Climate Change officer for Wiltshire County Council. · All 4 international workshops were attended and written about. We debated and wrote about ways to reduce Carbon Emissions and harness new technologies such as: wind, solar, hydro-electricity, carbon capture and sequestration. We studied nuclear fusion. We read about economic technologies to store the electricity. We learnt about waste management: recovering energy as electricity from waste and converting domestic waste. We have sufficient material to write another book and more lesson plans and two Grundtvig Assistants are joining Joanna Pinewood Education in September 2013 to develop what we have learnt further. Partners or their colleagues are taking what we have learnt further in the next two years or more. · Positive attitudes towards Lifelong Learning were encouraged: we studied "Europe Vision 2020" but also Carbon Emission Reduction policies for 2030, 2050 and 2080. It was difficult to stay positive when one learnt of corruption. What we learnt was used to develop learning partnerships in 2012 and 2013 but we found that social and economic problems need to be conquered as much to develop a sustainable balance. It is easy to help the enthusiasts to learn about environment but it it is harder to help the helpless. The project supported the re-engagement of the unemployed, {one started a gardening business}, retired found motivation, rural learners, those incapacitated after illness or accident, ageing , with financial difficulties, with lack of time back were encouraged to participate in mobilities and take an interest in Environment Education. Adult learners and staff learnt ICT skills to build a website. We improved our knowledge and raised adult learner awareness of language and culture of partners. The partners, staff and adult learners were motivated to collaborate with each other and other actors, to exchange knowledge and experience of specific methodologies, tools and practices on Facebook and at international workshops. |
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