PARTNER MEETING IN HAUKIPUDAS

Elikana O. Ngogo

On Dec. 9th, the independence day of Tanzania, Haukipudas Upper Secondary School had a special theme day. The highlight of the day was the visit of our partners: Elikana O. Ngogo, a Tanzanian living in Joensuu, Finland and a group of 13 students from Haapajärvi, Finland, with their teacher Marja Iskanius.

During the day Elikana O. Ngogo visited an English class as well as a history class and the Haapajärvi students went to several classes to tell Haukipudas students about their recent trip to Tanzania. Marja Iskanius went to a biology class to share her knowledge about Africa and Tanzania in particular.

The whole school also spent a lesson listening to lectures given by Mr. Ngogo and Ms. Marja Iskanius. We heard very interesting facts and stories about Tanzania that certainly made us think. We also heard the Haapajärvi students sing the national anthem of Tanzania, in Swahili! The video and photographs shown to us truly took our breath away. I am sure we all would love to travel to Tanzania some day and witness the beauty ourselves.

We want to thank our guests for making our theme day a memorable one. This was one of the many steps we are going to take together.

Elikana

The national anthem sung by the Haapajärvi students

Marja Iskanius





a gift from Haapajärvi

Haapajärvi students and teachers

-by Anja Moilanen

SEMINAR IN HAUKIPUDAS

In November 2008 two groups of students in Haukipudas held a "cross-scientific seminar". One group consisted of our senior students (course English 7) and the other mainly of first year students (Biology 3). Before the actual seminar the students studied topics ranging from Finnish nature to our ecological footprint. Also Finnish World Heritage Sites as well as other man-made or natural sites that they found somehow meaningful to them personally or to this area were an important theme. The themes were covered in lessons and individually by the students. In the actual seminar the students performed in small groups. They showed Power Point - presentations and talked about their topic in English. All in all it was a good experience to the students as well as to us teachers (Esko Olkoniemi, biology, and Anja Moilanen, English) to combine forces and make two groups and two different school subjects work together. Here below are some of the presentations held by the students. In the comments - section there are their written presentations. - by Anja Moilanen