Veolia Víz Zrt.
Asztalos Sándor utca 4.
H-1087 Budapest
Tel.: (+36 1) 486 3710
Fax: (+36 1) 486 3711
The training program entitled "The discovery of water" is a genuine little mobile laboratory with a full range of teaching aids. In the course of 40 experiments, 12 to 16-year old students were invited to discover the properties of water, the secrets of the water cycle in nature, as well as the methods used to reduce pollution.
The program is built on the children's ability of observing, and it teaches them concepts in physics, chemistry and biology, as well as focusing their attention on respecting the resources of nature.
The "wizard's box"
The teaching kit was put together by teams of educators in co-operation with engineers from the Veolia Water "Anjou-Recherche" Laboratory.
This program is a teaching aid that enables children to learn with fun, applying it is absolutely safe and it helps children think in an environmentally conscious way.
In recognition of the high standard kit, in 1998 the kit received the quality certificate of the educational division of the French National Institute of Consumption (INC).
The concept of the program makes children participate actively in the practical courses. The children placed in the centre of the experiment become active players, instead of taking part in the class as passive observers. With the help of the experiment description in the workbook, the children can even control the course of the lesson.
This is not a lecture-type class where the teacher gives a lesson to a passive or bored audience, so making them indifferent to the topic. Group sessions organised with the use of the teaching aids in the kit enable children to learn to experiment, think about the things they discover, and formulate words about their observations. Teamwork also offers a way of preparing for social life.
The Veolia Water Group has distributed over 17,000 kits to schools worldwide.
This figure also reflects the significance of Veolia Water's global education activity.
In 2003 the Hungarian language version of the program was released, and 100 schools - mostly institutions placing a great emphasis on environmentally aware education - have already received it. In addition to schools, we also gave kits to institutions where children are given the chance to perform the experiments with the help of a teacher - this is how one of our "wizard's boxes" got to the Danube Museum in Esztergom, where sessions are organised regularly for students in the topic of water.
