International comic strip competition 2003

Veolia Water launched "The adventurous journey of water" campaign in February, calling on primary school students from 7 countries to submit their entries.
In Hungary, 9 schools with a total of 22 classes joined the international competition.

The objective of the competition was to get fifth and sixth graders to acquire knowledge in connection with problems relating to the water supply in a playful way.

The participating classes received their assignments in the form of comic strips and they had to solve riddles relating to protecting the quality of water in every part of the series.

Feedback

According to the feedback we received from teachers, it was great fun for children to take part in the contest. Here is one of the acknowledgement letters:

«

Dear Éva Kelemen,

We came to an agreement on the correct answers in debates between groups, each 1/3 of the class protecting their respective standpoints. These debates were always very successful. I have been working in the field of environmental education for several years, however, as a teacher I still learn a lot in these courses, as here things are not black or white, but every solution does contain something good, and even the best answer cannot be perfect. This project is especially good at letting children see the problems in detail and solve the tasks in a creative and thoughtful way.

According to the recently widely referred to PISA survey, our methods of teaching are very "spoon-feeding", we spend a lot of effort getting children to memorise facts. This teaching kit is, however, a good example of how education in Hungary could be reformed, placing children in decision-making situations more often. It is also very appealing that polluters figured in the stories are not wicked, negative characters, only ignorant. Both the comic strips and the story are endearing, children like them. It may be worth letting the ministry (the minister) know about this way of educating!

We are pleased we were able to work in your program. Thank you!

Sincerely yours:
Irén Gerőcs
teacher
Ecumenical Primary School
1028 Budapest, Községház u. 10.

 »

The students of the "Strawberry" class of the Ecumenical Primary School expressed their opinions about the contest with their drawings.