Follow-up activities in Poland
Walking on the roof of the Environmental Education Center in Gliwice, Poland
On September 17, 2024, our School had the pleasure of hosting Prof. Tomasz Bradecki, who lectured on the design of the Environmental Education Center for the Waste Management Company in Gliwice, which he designed. Students of architecture classes could hear about the details of the design process, the difficulties in implementation encountered by the contractors and the interesting ecological solutions used in the building. These were especially interesting to us as we studied the rule of 5rs applied to architecture when implementing our Erasmus + project: "We are green Europe".
The lecture was an introduction to our visit to the Environmental Education Center this fall and an obligatory walk on the roof overlooking the beehives and sheep grazing on the reclaimed landfill site. The group of the project students took part in the lecture on the 5 R procedures employed in the Waste Management Company in Gliwice. We also visited the exhibition promoting the eco-friendly lifestyle.
We are pleased that such an innovative venue is located right in our city - Gliwice.
Polish students on the hike and a Clean-up event in the mountains
October is for mountain trekking and the best time to visit Polish mountains which delight visitors with the overwhelming beauty of the changing seasons. On 4 October 2024 a group of trekking enthusiasts who participated in the Erasmus + project "We are Green Europe" went to the Beskid mountains to check if autumn had already arrived for good.
But the more important reason was the clean-up of the hiking trails, which we were going to follow. The primary rule of our Erasmus project was to take care of our natural environment so we used that opportunity to clean the mountains. After the busy summer season, we expected the trails to be littered with some rubbish left behind by lazy tourists.
Equipped with cloaks, good shoes, and rubbish bins we faced the rainy weather and walked the two-hour route in drizzle. After an hour's hike, we reached the top on Hala Boracza and we visited a quaint mountain shelter. After a plate of hot soup, pancakes or tea with blueberries we were ready to continue our hike leading down to the nearby village. Although the mountains were still green, the toadstools we encountered testified that mushrooms were already there, and with them came irrevocably this year's autumn.
To our delight, there wasn't much trash to collect on our route, only one bag was filled with litter. It might mean that hikers are becoming more and more conscious of the eco issues and taking their litter home. We returned in the afternoon slightly tired, but very happy, as is usual after a trip to the mountains. It was a very good follow-up to our ecological Erasmus + project which we have already completed.