A very particular school year has just ended, which has put the whole school world in front of a demanding challenge. The Bolognese multiutility Hera also supported the activities, present in schools of all levels for over 10 years now with free environmental education and scientific dissemination projects, in which involving over 4.500 classes and 1.100 schools in Emilia-Romagna, with over 100.000 students, who again this year had chosen to follow the activities.
Thus, the multiutility has rethought their projects in digital mode and from the perspective of distance learning, with attention to the different needs of schools, thus making various solutions and ways of using the activities available, guaranteeing maximum adaptability with live lessons and digital materials for online and offline teachers. Overall, this allowed almost all the classes that had joined to complete the activities as planned.
There are different ways to use the project The Great Machine of the World in line with the indications of the MIUR for distance learning: the activities chosen for the 2019/2020 school year by over 3.600 classes were carried out digitally by 66.400 students from over 3.100 classes, to which are added the almost 7.000 students who had already carried out them in person until the closure of schools due to the health emergency.
Maximum flexibility, that's it the password of Hera's proposals for infant, primary and lower secondary schools. In fact, there were 12 courses specifically redesigned for digital, which maintained interactivity, differentiation based on the age of the students and naturally the focus on the key themes of the project: waste, water and energy. The teachers were able to choose between live video lessons, with the creation of real virtual classrooms, available on various platforms, or video lessons and digital materials that can be used independently. In fact, to overcome any difficulties associated with live connections with educators, teachers were given the option of requesting an alternative kit of digital teaching materials on the chosen topic, to be used to develop the module, within the timescales and with the IT equipment more comfortable for them.
It didn't stop either a well of science, the scientific dissemination and environmental education project dedicated to high schools. On the contrary, it has shown itself to be resilient, just like the leitmotif chosen for this 2020 edition, "Let's adapt again". Nearly 9.000 students participated in 120 classroom activities in February. Then teachers and young people were supported by the multi-utility with a specially redesigned path in digital and remote mode in the section of the site dedicated to virtual classrooms.
Thus, despite the emergency, the classes were able to carry out three practical workshops on the durability of materials in the environment, energy consumption and the functioning of photovoltaic panels, water quality and analysis. Nine online scientific video conferences with experts on topics such as agroecology, plastics, climate change, the availability of drinking water, resilient cities, moderated by science communicators: in just two months there were almost 6.000 views overall of the virtual classrooms section.
