School Competition: Deadline extended to 22 April 2007

“Energy is our Future” focuses on raising awareness on how energy consumption affects climate change and how advanced materials such as plastics can help save energy and create a sustainable future. Participants identify and suggest renewable energy solutions and ways to save energy through a poster (painting, photo, drawing, computer graphic or collage) and accompanying text. The competition entries are expected to be the result of lessons organised jointly by Science, Foreign Language, Art and ICT teachers.

Why such an extended deadline?

Preparing classes to take part in the competition requires time and effort. Teachers are encouraged to organise one to several lessons focusing on the competition themes to ensure a good amount of preparation time for the competition entries which embed the students’ views on the project themes.

What are teachers saying so far?

Josephine Ebejer Grech teaches biology at Dun Guzepp Zammit Brighella Hamrun, Malta. After involving several classes in the project, she displayed all the competition entries in school. Josephine says: “Through this project, the students learned and became more aware about issues concerning energy. They now have more insight about problems and benefits, and how to live a better life when reducing pollution by using natural energy”. (Josephine's feedback, in English only, a video and an exhibition)

Nada Kadlecova, a Czech teacher, says that the project has significantly influenced her students’ behaviour in terms of energy saving: “The children later showed the situations when somebody didn’t save energy, for example, they were more alert when they saw an empty classroom with the lights on.” Nada and her students displayed their competition entries in the school and were honoured by visits from other classes and teachers, parents and other people from their local community. (Nada's exhibition)

Mioara Niculescu teaches physics at Brancusi School in Medgidia, Romania. She has particularly involved several classes in the chat on plastics and their role in reducing energy consumption. She mobilised the whole school to maximise the pedagogical and social value of the chat activity. (Mioara's exhibition)

About the project

The “Energy is our Future” project is run by European Schoolnet on behalf of PlasticsEurope, the association of plastics manufacturers in Europe. The project aims to inspire students to influence behaviour about saving energy in their surrounding environment, such as in their families and local communities.

Petru Dumitru

• Competition guidelines
• Competition rules
• Submission form
• Gallery