1. The project Saf(v)e water, sweet life, is the result of a Comenius 1 contact seminar held in Malta in June 2003, as part of the 1st Thematic Transnational Meeting of the Comenius 3 Network TEPEE (Towards a European Portfolio for Environmental Education). THE PROJECT

2. THE PROJECT Around the world, safe drinking water is seriously threatened. This project sets out to explore and study the importance of water to all living organisms. It will adopt a multidisciplinary, cross-curricular approach in which a number of aspects of water production, quality, conservation and usage are examined. The results of the study will be shared among the partners and other schools by means of a Website.

3. THE PROJECT Why study water quality in Alentejo? Alentejo is an area of Portugal with highest rate of drought. To change the quality of water has an impact on the life of all beings.

4. THE PROJECT In Alentejo, since 2002, the Alqueva dam created the greatest artificial lake of all Europe. Is it going to bring better quality of life to Alentejo population?

5. THE BEGINNING 20/10/04 Class Tutors meeting 27/10/04 Pedagogical Team meeting 28-30/10/04 Project Meeting at Serpa, Portugal 18/11/04 Working Group of teachers meeting

6. THE BEGINNING One class tutor from the Ciências e Tecnologias course was interested. The Informática technologycal course class had an appropriated curricula to participate in this project. So, two 10th grade classes (A and D) were involved in this project.

7. THE BEGINING The class A looked for water sources and class D prepared the presentations on computer support. Two more classes, A and B, from the eleventh grade, were interested to participate. These two classes went to the field to study plants which live close to water streams.

11. WATER/ POETRY In the past and in the present, water inspired poetry, legends, popular sentences. The students collected several examples of this inspiration. “ Ó mar salgado, quanto do teu sal São lágrimas de Portugal ! ” Fernando Pessoa

12. WATER / POETRY

18. For teacher’s evaluation of the students’ competences, some indicators were used: awareness of environmental issues , text analysis , information technology skills , team work . Students had also the oportunity to self-evaluate themselves. EVALUATION A B C

19. The students are aware of environmental issues EVALUATION The students, after some guidance, showed crytical thinking analysing information The students are able to deal with information technology, using it autonomously to keep in touch with students of partner countries. Team work was the most successful indicator

20. Negative issues: Few interdisciplinarity EVALUATION Positive issues: The students had a commitment since the very beggining and they were responsible The share of knowledge The relationship between school and local environment

21. EVALUATION The share of knowledge

22. Two years to go... WHAT NEXT? Creation of a website Water quality analysis See you in Istanbul!