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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Students created some stories

How was Kehtna water reservoir created?

Once there lived Kalevipoeg's son. He was powerful, hard-working, a good man and strong. One day, when his chores were done he thought he’d create something. He was lying near the edge of the forest and was thinking. Finally he came up with a plan to create his own lake. He started to dig. When the excavation was completed Kalevipoeg's son thought how he could fill it with water. Then he remembered Rudolf Kuuse, who owned the River Kuusiku. He asked him if he could re-direct the river to make it flow there so that it would fill it with water. Mr Kuusk agreed and Kalevipoeg's son built a dam out of oak, so that there would be a lot of water and you could swim there. Kalevipoeg's son was happy about what he had done and everybody congratulated him.

Mark 8.A
* * * *
A long time ago, when Estonia was still uninhabited,  here lived mythical creatures named the Budokai. They were so powerful that they could channel their spiritual energy into energy blasts. But then their water reserves ran out. They thought what they could do about it, but none of them managed to come up with a good idea. Then an old wise man told about a legend where deep underground there was the purest water in the universe. The Budokais selected a good spot and began shooting their energy blasts into the ground. And guess what! Pure water started to flow, but it turned out that the water was poisonous for the Budokai. They decided to leave this place to  search for other resources in the world. And that is how the water reservoir was created. 

Johannes 8.B

 * * * *
A long time ago there was a deep hole instead of the present water reservoir. It was very dray and it rarely rained at Kehtna. Animals needed somewhere to get water. Then came an old buckskin horse, who went to the hole and dropped a tear. The tear suddenly started to fill the whole hole. And that’s how the Kehtna water reservoir was created.

Gladis 8.B

* * * *
Once upon there was a field instead of the water reservoir. People went cultivating the land  there. But one day people found a lot of diamonds from the field. Everybody wanted the field for themselves. They started fighting. One day vampires found out about the field. They also wanted it, so one night when there were no people in the field they dug up the entire field and took all the diamonds. Now instead of a field there was a deep hole. The next day when the people found out that all the diamonds were gone, they were very disappointed. They couldn’t believe that one man could dig the entire field. They settled their differences and went home. But the ghost of that field had found out and flooded the entire hole up with water. People started to use water and found out it to be healthy. The diamonds that the vampires had stolen, turned into soil. Later the hole taht had been  filled with water,  was called Kehtna water reservoir.

Liisbet 8.B

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Stories were translated by Johannes

Legends about the local water reservoir

The name probably comes  from the fact that the water reservoir lies near Kehtna. Older people call it also Räägu reservoir because the exact name of the location  is Räägu. Children call the reservoir simply ’’veekas’’. Reservoir gets its water from springs. Three spings have names: Eye Spirng, Golden Spring and Iron Spring. Legends about the springs were written by Paul-Eerik Rummo.

 Eye Spring story
Once upon a time the local Count had  very sick eyes. N o medicine was good enough. Then one man called Kalbu came there and suggested that the Count washed his eyes with spring water. The Count’s eyes got well. The Count gave a village near Kehtna to the man. This village is named Kalbu today. 

Golden Springs story

Once upon a time rich men rode from Tallinn to Viljandi. Near Kehtna water reservoir bandits attacked the rich-men. In a big fight the rich-men’s gold sank to the bottom of the reservoir where it is believed it still lies . .
Text was translated by Marten

Outdoor study

Establishment and usage of Kehtna water reservoir

Kehtna  water reservoir, also known as Räägu reservoir lies 58 54' N; 24 52' E. It is 57,5 m above sea level. The water resrvoir was created on the River Kuusiku ( lenght 20.9 km ) which begins at the border of the villages Palasi and Ohekatku and flows into the River Vigala. On the shore by the dam there is a stone showing the year of completion and a small sheltered sitting area. 

In 1970 Kehtna sovkhoz built a dam on the River Kuusiku. Originally the water reservoir was built there to pump water for watering the local pastures. Across the road there used to be mobile watering systems on big wheels where electrical pumps were used. Next to the reservoir there was a power substation which gave power for the pumps in 70s-80s. Thanks to the watering system, it was possible to make hay 4 times a summer and produce animal feed which was used for feeding local Kehtna sovkhoz cattle. The water reservoir has been used for swimming. Nowadays it is used for swimming and fishing too. Midsummer Day's bonfires are also lit there.

_____
Text translated by Kaarel-Eerik.


KIK - slide show

Wildlife

On our study day we found leeches, mudsnails and other species of  snails, arachnids, larvae of Mayflies (Ephemeroptera) and its imagos, larvae of dragonflies similar to Aeshna mixta  and of those similar to damselflies. Also larvae of Gyrinus sp, types of Dytiscidae  and species of Trichoptera, toads and their tadpoles. 

Speed of the water  flow
On our outdoor study we found out that the speed of the water flow was 0.7 mps (meters per second). We used the Winkler method  and VISCOLOR HE OXYGEN SA 10 kit. We measured the content of oxygen  on that spring day which was 8.4mg/l and on an autumn day 8.0mg/l.

Water limpidity

We measured that the water limpidity was 0.5 – 1.5 m.

Water colour

The water can be described as  yellowish.

Water pH value

Water pH value was 6-7 by using  indicator paper. 

_____
The summary was translated by Sten.

Thursday's meeting




Today we dealt with summing up a project which was funded by Estonia's Environmental Board and Environmental Investment Centre. The project very well links with our Comenius project .

 












Such environmental study took place at Kehtna Basic School from April 2011 till December 2011 with its title "The biological, cultural and economical value of a local water body." Classes 7, 8 and 9 were involved in this project work. 

As we wished to upload a brief summary of the project in English, Kaarel, Johannes, Sten, Marten  and  Larsen helped translating the text into English. Liisbet, Anu, Diana  and  Signe  prepared information board.  Signe and Diana filled in student profiles, which are needed for  the Spanish trip.


Next week we shall start with preparing the presentations for Spanish trip. 
 
 



Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Crosswords

Every Wednesday after lessons a group of younger students gather in teacher Katre's classroom where they do and create different crosswords, puzzles and word games. Today they created water crosswords. For sure we'll have students willing to solve them soon.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Waterdrop game

After quite a long break, we got together today again. We watched a  few videos recommended by the Spanish team and divided the letters which have arrived from Spain. 15 students got a penfriend from Ferrol.  Our students are expected to hand in their reply letters by Tuesday, so that  we can post them and send to the school in Ferrol. 
 

We also reminded ourselves that 2 competitions are going on till 11 March - Internet quizes and students can bring their water-photos or logos till March as well. Next Thursday we plan to go for winter picnic and a small walk in a snowy bog. Weather is expected to improve by then as well. (Today it rained and eit is so wet)


We also played waterdrop game. Every student imagined being a waterdrop and started moving from the first location (either lake, river, sea, mountain, cloud, ground, animal or human)  according to picked description  to a new location. So we had journeys from being a waterdrop inside plants and going  into animals  or being ina  cloud and evaporating into rainfall or "travelling" from the toilet.  There was no dead-end because the water is in a cycle. After students had passed at least 10 locations, they presented their journey to the others. no journey was alike. Diana, Hans-Martty and Evita managed to prepare a profound presentation within short time.

Partner schools

ESTONIA: Kehtna Primary School is situated in the village of 1,200. There are no big towns nearby, although the capital Tallinn is just 60km to the north. We are surrounded by forests, bogs, farmland and therefore paying extra attention to nature studies and the environment is important to us. We are a school of the Green Flag and a Health-Concious school. There are 155 students and 20 teachers in our school. Students are aged 7-17.

ITALY: Liceo Classico "Megara" con sezione scientifica annessa is a secondary school for students aged 14-19. It mainly offers three different courses for classical, scientific and social science studies. The school mainly serves students from Augusta. Our school is located in a very important area for its nature, history, archaeology and tourism. Our suburban town of Augusta is very near to Siracusa, one of the oldest and most important Greek colonies in Sicily. Our students are all members of "Legambiente" which is a national leading environmental organization which offers educational programs in schools. We live by the sea and our area is very rich in waterways, rivers and ponds.

FRANCE: College Claude Bernard is in a suburban city (Grand-Quevilly) with about 30,000 inhabitants. A town with 400,000 people called Rouen is near to us. The area has little industry nowadays following the closure of the chemical factories and the Renault car plant.

TURKEY: Tepeköy Ilkögretim Okulu is a public school serving children aged 7-15, starting from pre-school till the 8th grade. It is a rural school and caters for 226 students and 18 teachers. Our school is in Nevsehir (Cappadocia Region), being situated in agricultural region. Our region does not have sufficient water resources and we need to focus on environmentally-friendly options.

SPAIN: IES Concepcion Arenal is a secondary education centre located in Ferrol, a town with 70,000 inhabitants in the region of Galicia (north-west of Spain). There are 85 teachers and 700 students in compulsory (12-16 years old), post-compulsory (16-18 years) part and in vocational training.