CITIDEP is a partner in the Project PEOPLE...

PEOPLE - Population Exposure to Air Pollutants in Europe

PRESENTING CITIDEP WORK IN SCHOOLS

IN SUPPORT OF:

CITIDEP - Research Center on Information Technology and Participatory Democracy

www.citidep.pt • www.citidep.net

PEOPLE - Entities Promoting:

Institute for the Consumer Presidency of the Council of Ministers [Lisbon Project Coordination].

DCEA - FCT-UNL. Dept of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, New University of Lisbon

DRAOT-LVT, Regional Administration of Environment and Land Use Planning for Lisbon and Tagus Valley, Ministry of Cities, Land Use Planning and Environment.

CRSP-LVT, Public Health Regional Center for Lisbon & Tagus V. , Ministry of Health.

DMAEV, CML- City Department for Environment and Green Spaces, Lisbon Municipality

Quercus — National Association for the Conservation of Nature

CITIDEP - Research Center on Information Technology and Participatory Democracy

PEOPLE - Partners in Portugal:

PEOPLE- Population Exposure to Air Pollutants in Europe

• 1. Assessment of Benzene levels;

• 2. Learn the impact of outdoor and indoor emission sources (including smoking) on human exposure to Benzene, for risk assessment of populations in Europe;

• 3. Compare Benzene air pollution levels in European capitals, in function of emission sources, local meteorological conditions, citizen behaviour and air quality policies;

• 4. Assessment of the impact of air quality policies (EU directives), local abatement measures and personal behaviour on exposure levels to Benzene;

• 5. Raising the awareness of citizens about air quality and the impact of personal behaviour (transport and smoking habits).

• 6. Validation of pollution exposure models.

• Contribution to objective 5 of Project PEOPLE:

5. Raising the awareness of citizens…

Why Schools?

• POWER OF THE SCHOOL TO PROMOTE SOCIETY CHANGES

• “PEOPLE” ALLOWS PARTICIPATORY SCIENCE & CITIZENSHIP:

• Students help scientific data gathering• Students study and research the topic• Students join citizens debating results

CITIDEP PROJECT: “PEOPLE” FOR SCHOOLS

(targeting ages 6 to 16)

• Learn CITIZENSHIP through Chemistry:)

• Use new sampler technology to break barriers between science and citizens

• Use ITC to break geographic barriers and exclusion

• Use new methods to break barriers between high-schools and elementary schools

• Develop a critical learning of citizenship

Schools Participating• ES Pedro Nunes, Lisboa (Tânia Fonseca [Project Head], Helena Melo,

Isabel Medina, Helder Silvério)

• Colégio S. João de Brito, Lisboa (Angela Canêlhas, Domingos Aurélio, Maria Justina Correia, José Manuel Costa, Madalena Cabral, Silvia Sepulveda)

• ES Sta Maria Maior, Viana do Castelo (Paulo Tomé)

• EB2+3 de Miraflores (Manuela Carrasco) • EB2+3 de Fernão Lopes, Lisboa (Fatima Gasparinho)

• EB1, 29 do Jardim do Torel, Lisboa (José Carlos Gomes)

• EB1 de Monserrate, Viana do Castelo (Conceição Liquito, Conceição Martins)

• EB1 de Eirado-Eiras, Arcos de Valdevez (Beatriz Gomes)

CITIDEP - Research Center on Information Technologies and Participatory Democracy

And representing the following entities:

• E.S.E. do IP de Viana do Castelo (José Portela, Domingos Belo, Luis Fabião)

• uARTE (João Correia de Freitas, Alexandra Vieira, Helena Guerreiro)

• Project PEOPLE (DRAOT-LVT: Luisa Nogueira; FCT-UNL: Hugo Tente; Instituto do Consumidor: Ana Miranda, Ana Cabral; CITIDEP: Pedro Ferraz de Abreu, Tânia Fonseca, Isabel Medina, José Carlos Gomes, José Portela)

CITIDEP promotes network with scientists, teachers and students

Using Internet (web broadcast) and videoconference to allow access of remote areas and portuguese student communities abroad

Lisboa (Pt)

Viana do Castelo (Pt)

Açores Islands (Pt)

Nantes (Fr)

Manchester (UK)

Edinbourgh (UK)

Lisbon schools were part of the Benzene sampler net

IN THE CLASSROOM (9 months):

Student inquiry: Study Benzene as a pollutant

Lab sessions: Particles on the paper / Elastics and pollution

Environmental game: highschool students teach younger students

STUDENT INTERACTION:

15 Oct 02: Videoconference with PEOPLE’ expert & Web broadcast

18 March 03: Videoconf. + broadcast + chat with PEOPLE’ expert

12 June 03: Role-Play debating citizenship issues related to PEOPLE

Estimated audience: 50 schools ~ 500 students

CITIDEP “PEOPLE - CITIZENSHIP” PROJECT Inovative educational tools

280 students + 19 teachers + 9 schools directly involved

(high + elementary schools)

CITIDEP Activities Before 22 October 2002

Activity: Videoconference and InternetBroadcasting, with PEOPLE’s expert,

for students from the 10nd grade

15 October 2002

<- Lisboa

Viana ->

2002 - 2003 Highschool students with Elementary school students

Activity: Environmental game: “Learn with the environment, playing!”

2003 Highschool students work with Elementary school students

Activity: “ The air exists, although we can't see it”

PEOPLE Videoconferenceand Internet broadcasting II

with chat for students from the 2nd and 3rd grade

Students in Lisbon say goodbyeto students in Viana do Castelo

12 June 2003 Activity: Role-Play on “PEOPLE” issues

Characters:

Parliament member (PS)

Cancer specialist (M. Doctor)

Smokers’ association pro-active

We wanted students to also use REAL results from PEOPLE: Unfortunately,the PEOPLE’s results were not made public before 12 June 2003

Car Manufacture Industrial

Oil Industry Owner

Querqus’ member (environmentalist)

Gas Pump worker

QuickTime™ and aPhoto - JPEG decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Difficulties and Impediments• Zero funding. All done with CITIDEP network

solidarity and highly motivated teachers (paying expenses from their pockets), and the adoption of this project as the degree work of one teacher. That is nice and important, but not sustainable/replicable without at least some external support in the future.

• Level and quality of public technical support to schools (e.g.videoconference) is decreasing to the point of compromising the work of students and teachers. Last videoconference almost failed because kids could not hear anything for 1 h. This is the result of a wrong policy of divesting in public education. Poor schools can’t afford private sector service prices.

CONCLUSIONS

The decision-making process starts in the childhood:

• Young students had the access to the information, space and time to manipulate the scientific knowledge involved on the social scientific issue of air pollution;

• Their critical and reflective skills were developed;

• They became more active on their education process.

The information empowerment lead to an active participation and awareness of their responsibility towards the community

and environmental policies

Discours du

Commissaire Philippe Busquin (UE)

“A Lisbonne, PEOPLE a été associé à un projet didactique pour sensibiliser les élèves et les enseignants à la problématique de la pollution de l’air dans les villes. Ce projet, appelé « PEOPLE – CITIZENSHIP », regroupait 9 écoles, 19 enseignants et 280 élèves. Pendant 9 mois, ce projet a animé les cours et les activités parascolaires. Il s’est clôturé par une vidéo-conférence diffusée dans 50 écoles et une audience de 500 étudiants.”

In Agenda:• EU\JRC-IES -PEOPLE suggested CITIDEP to consider to extend PEOPLE-Citizenship to other cities in Europe, with partners of PEOPLE.

• PEOPLE-Citizenship was presented at the International Conference on Public Participation and Information Technologies, at MIT, Nov. 2003; several participants said they are interested (France, Austria, Slovenia). We need support to proceed.

CITIDEP - Research Center on Information Technology and Participatory Democracy

http://www.citidep.net/ • citidep@earthlink.nethttp://www.citidep.net/ • citidep@earthlink.net