PEOPLES Project on schools

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CITIDEP - Research Center on Information
Technology and Participatory Democracy
PRESENTING CITIDEP WORK IN SCHOOLS IN SUPPORT OF
PEOPLE - Population Exposure to Air Pollutants in
Europe
CITIDEP is a partner in the Project PEOPLE...
www.citidep.pt www.citidep.net
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PEOPLE - Entities Promoting
PEOPLE - Partners in Portugal
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-L
VT, 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
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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.

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Contribution to objective 5 of Project
PEOPLE 5. Raising the awareness
of citizensWhy 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)
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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
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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)
  
• EB23 de Miraflores (Manuela Carrasco)
• EB23 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)

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 - Research Center on Information
Technologies and Participatory Democracy
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CITIDEP promotes network with scientists,
teachers and students
Lisbon schools were part of the Benzene sampler
net
Lisboa (Pt) Viana do Castelo (Pt) Açores
Islands (Pt) Nantes (Fr) Manchester
(UK) Edinbourgh (UK)

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

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CITIDEP PEOPLE - CITIZENSHIP PROJECT Inovative
educational tools
280 students 19 teachers 9 schools directly
involved (high elementary schools)

• 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

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CITIDEP Activities Before 22 October 2002
15 October 2002
lt- Lisboa Viana -gt
Activity Videoconference and Internet Broadcastin
g, with PEOPLEs expert, for students from the
10nd grade
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2002 - 2003 Highschool students with Elementary
school students
Activity Environmental game Learn with the
environment, playing!
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2003 Highschool students work with Elementary
school students
PEOPLE Videoconference and Internet broadcasting
II with chat for students from the 2nd and 3rd
grade
Students in Lisbon say goodbye to students in
Viana do Castelo
Activity The air exists, although we can't
see it
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12 June 2003
Activity Role-Play on PEOPLE issues
Characters Parliament member (PS) Cancer
specialist (M. Doctor) Smokers association
pro-active
Car Manufacture Industrial Oil Industry
Owner Querqus member (environmentalist) Gas Pump
worker
We wanted students to also use REAL results from
PEOPLE Unfortunately, the PEOPLEs results were
not made public before 12 June 2003
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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 cant afford
  private sector service prices.

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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

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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 lair 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 sest clôturé par une
vidéo-conférence diffusée dans 50 écoles et une
audience de 500 étudiants.
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In Agenda
CITIDEP - Research Center on Information
Technology and Participatory Democracy
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.
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