ITINERARY – MOBILITY TO GREECE (27 - 31 MARCH 2017)

MONDAY 27 MARCH 2017

 TUESDAY 28 MARCH 2017

  WEDNESDAY 29 MARCH 2017

 THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

 FRIDAY 31 MARCH 2017

This is how a German student experienced the mobility to Greece:

After our arrival on Sunday and getting to know the host family, we were received at school on Monday morning and learned about the nature of light through various performances by the guest students and their teachers, for example there was an experiment on how light is refracted in our eyes, which I found very interesting.

After that we were introduced to the basics of Constellations before we left for Kyllini. After the return, my guest student and I were picked up by her mother and I tried to explain to them what it means to be a vegetarian. This was more difficult than I thought.

Tuesday morning, we met at the school to get on the bus and drive to the village of Andritsaina. We went to a large temple of Apollo, where a woman told us some facts about the temple and Apollo in general and why the temple was oriented north.

We got on the bus again and back to Andritsaina for lunch, after a short break we went on. We walked once across the city, after seemingly endless kilometers we arrived at a historical library in which many rare books stood.

We watched a video about the founder of the library. After a rather hot return trip (the air conditioning didn't work), we went home with our guest students.

On Wednesdays, an important visitor came to the school, namely Xenophon Moussas, Professor of Space Physics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

He explained to us, the Antikythera mechanism and how it worked in a very exciting way. Afterwards we went to lunch where the local clergymen were also guests.

This was a great event for our guest students and us and we realized how important their religion is to them and that it is very different from ours. This visit was even pictured in the local newspaper the next day. A very impressive lunch.

On Thursday, we drove to Ancient Ilida and Ancient Olympia, where we learned a lot about sculpture, architecture, life at that time and the connection with different gods. In the evening in Varda, there was already a small private graduation party for us from our guest students, which I liked very much.

On our last day, we started with a visit to the next bigger city Patras, where we were shown the very modern Archaeological Museum and the Old Town. Afterwards we went back to the school where we practiced a Planisphere construction, because in the evening we had a large official closing ceremony at the school. Many astronomers with their telescopes had also come to this celebration.

So we could try out our made Planisphere and watch the evening sky through different telescopes. Especially the constellation Orion was very easy to recognize and I learned a lot about its history and peculiarities.

It was really hard for me to say goodbye to my host student the next day because she had taken really good care of me. I had so many presents with me that I was even afraid I couldn't take everything on the plane. We have decided to stay in contact and visit each other again soon.

Pictures

ITINERARY – MOBILITY TO LITHUANIA (01 - 05 MAY 2018)

1st May 2017

2nd May 2017

3rd May 2017

4th May 2017

5th May 2017

This is how one of the German students experienced the mobility to Lithuania

On the way to Lithuania I was very excited, but also a bit scared. I hoped that I would have a lot of fun with my partner and that I would be able to communicate with my host family.

When we arrived at the flat, I was first a bit shocked, because the flat was so small, that my exchange partner had to sleep on the couch in the living room, so I could sleep in her room. But my host family was very nice, and I really felt welcome, although I realized that I had sometimes problems finding the right words in English.

The week went over very fast with a lot of activities. We spent a long day in Vilnius, after that we were very tired and nearly frozen, but the biggest telescope of Lithuania, which we visited afterwards was so impressive and we could see amazing things like the structure of the surface of planet Venus, that we spent another two hours outside in the cold night. We also heard an interesting talk of a scientist who explained many astronomical details and talked about how our emotions and feelings are connected to the universe. During the week, we saw many sun dials all over Siauliai and Lithuania, which was very interesting for our group because we are going to build one ourselves at our school. We got many ideas from that and learned about how a sun dial works. The day which was used for analysis of what makes a man or a woman to a leader was very interesting. First we played little games like leading someone who is blindfolded, to understand which characteristic qualities you need to be a leader. Then we heard one presentations of every group about leaders and then we discussed common and different things in the personalities and in their CVs. It was very interesting that the different countries agreed in many points but also disagreed in a few points. I also liked the artistic workshops about stars because I liked to work with the materials like clay and wool. The team teaching lesson was about the big bang and Homer Simpson (or better evolution in general) and was interesting. I didn’t know much about the big bang but my group was successful in the game and one other group helped us a lot with the evolution part that we had to work out ourselves.

After this week I was really in love with my host family, because they really worked hard to make this a good week and were so nice and generous to me. I also realized my improvement in speaking English! I am more confident to use English and know more words about science and astronomy as well. In conclusion I can say I really had a lot of fun in Lithuania and made new friends!

Pictures

ITINERARY – MOBILITY TO ITALY (20 - 24 SEPTEMBER 2017) 

Wednesday 20th September 2017

Thursday 21st September 2017

Friday 22nd September 2017

Saturday 23rd September 2017

Saturday 24th September 2017

This is how the German students experienced the mobility to Italy

On September 19th, after school we all met up at the Karlsruhe main station to start our beautiful journey to Policoro, Italy. After some hours of train travelling we took our first flight from Stuttgart to Munich then a flight to Bari. From there we were picked up by a man with a van and a plan. Arriving in Policoro we were immediately greeted by our host families.

The first day we all met up at school where we met the foreign and local students, some were familiar but some faces were new to us. The students from the different countries presented their schools and their country’s culture. Afterwards we departed to a port where we were able to sail on a boat. It was pretty exciting.

On the following day we didn’t go to school but to the “Scanzano Castallena Grote”, a cave where one could see many stalactites and stalagmites which was really impressive. Afterwards we visited the Sun LAB where an astronomy scientist talked about the sun and the stars. The same scientist showed us some facts about the stars some hours later as it got dark. That marked the end of the day for us.

On September 22^nd we were in school doing painting and construction activities which were related to our main topic “Stars in Europe”. In the afternoon we prepared our TED speech on our paintings.

On September 23^rd we learned about the equatorial sundials and the sun arch. In the afternoon we drove to Nova Siri and the people from Italy organized a big surprise party. We sang Karaoke, every national presented a typical dance and in the night we watched the stars. The evening was very spectacular.

On September 24^th we drove by bus to Matera. There we visited the old city and the old homes which were built in the stones .In the evening we went to another party .At the party we danced and talked. Everybody presented their work for the Café litteraire. In the end everybody was crying because nobody wanted to leave the others.

Pictures

ITINERARY MOBILITY TO GERMANY (4^th – 10^th MAY, 2018)

Day 1 / 04.05.2018 – Friday

 Arrival in Germany – Transfer to hotel

 Students leave with host families.

Day 2 / 05.05.2018 – Saturday

 09.30 – Pick up at the hotel

10.00 – Guided multimedia tour through Karlsruhe with tablet computers in small groups (students). Teachers will visit the exhibition in the castle and the palace gardens.

13.30 – Lunch with view of Karlsruhe castle

14.30 – Time to explore the city in small groups

Afternoon: Students prepare tomorrow’s brunch with their host families, free time for teachers

 Dinner for teachers 

Day 3 / 06.05.2018 – Sunday

 10.10 – Pick up at the hotel

10.30 – Welcome Ceremony and an excursion at school

11.00 – International brunch at school

12.30 – Meeting for teachers – Evaluation, questionnaires, final report

12.30 – Representation of stars in fine arts – Educational programme and workshop (part 1, students)

14.00 – Excursion around Durlach for teachers

14.30 – Coffee Break for students

15.00 – Workshop part 2

19.00 – Dinner for all teachers (18.40 pick up at the hotel) and excursion around Ettlingen with our headmaster

Day 4 / 07.05.2018 – Monday

07.40 – Pick up at the hotel for trip to Straßburg/France

09.45 – Boat tour through the European quarter in Straßburg

11.45 – Lunch in the city centre

13.45 – Guided tour of the European Parliament in Straßburg (educational programme)

15.30 – Departure in Straßburg, tour through the Alsace region (rich European history)

16.30 – Visit of Castle Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg

20.00 – Arrival in Karlsruhe, Dinner for teachers

Day 5 / 08.05.2017 – Tuesday

08.30 - 11.15: Workshops about the short story “The Star” and light pollution (students)

09.25 – Pick up at the hotel (teachers)

09.45 –Meeting for teachers – Evaluation, questionnaires, final report

11.35 – Interdisciplinary lesson

12.30 – Lunch at school

14.30 – Reception in by major town hall

15.30 – Free time

18.30 – Pick up at the hotel

19.00 – Opening of the art exhibition at school with all the result from the project and presentation of the participating schools

20.30 – Public Erasmus party

Day 6 / 09.05.2018 – Wednesday

 8.45 – Pick up at the hotel

9.00 – Excursion to Heidelberg

10.30 – Visit of the Centre for Astronomy Education and observatory of the University of Heidelberg with educational workshop

13.30 – Walk to Heidelberg castle, picknick in the castle grounds

14.30 – Walk back to the city centre, Free time in Heidelberg

18.00 – Back to Karlsruhe

19.00 – Barbeque and farewell party at school

21.30 – Night-sky watching in the school’s observatory

Day 7 / 10.05.2018 – Thursday

Departures

Pictures