intermediate report of Turkey

INTERMEDIATE REPORT OF THE TURKISH TEAM

• At the end of June, 2012, the Project named “ The European teenagers between culinary tradition and fast food”  was approved by the National Agency of our country. First of all, the school direction informed the teachers about the project and asked for assistance of them , especially the English teachers to work with Emin KUTLU, the coordinator of the project. All English teachers agreed to take part in the project.

• Secondly, teachers gave information to the students about the Project and chose the volunteers. There were   32 students chosen from 9th and 10th grades to work in the Project. Fort the next step, teachers held a meeting with the school direction, parents, and the students in order to plan the activities to be done during the Project.

• In October, we invited a nutritionist to let the students have wide information about healthy eating habits in childhood. The nutritionist warned the students on obesity and the harms of fast food. The students of the project also had workshops on home food and how it effects the human body positively.

• Between 30 October and 3 November , the first meeting of the project was held in Romania.15 teachers from Romania, Turkey, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Italy came together to represent their country. During the visit, each country introduced their educational system, school, level of students, and the country The teachers decided on the dates of the visits to be done to other partners, and the activities to be done during the projects. They named the blog “Mum’s food or Fast food”. Also they discussed on the mobility of the students to other visits. At the end of the meeting, they decided on a logo competition and a questionnaire.

• In November, the first thing to be done in Turkey was to organize a logo contest among students. The winner of this contest was Ali GÖKÇE from 10^th grade. By voting of the countries the Logo of the Spanish team was chosen to represent the project on blog. The second thing to be done was to make a questionnaire on “ fast food versus healty food”. The questionnaire was prepared by Sena ARITÜRK, Gizem SARI and Aylin YILMAZ and applied to the students. The data of the questionnaire was processed to represent in the next meeting to be held in Italy.

• In December, the students prepared a big billboard informing the students about what healthy food to eat and what harms fast food cause. Also the students chosen to go to Italy, prepared their presentations of school and Turkey. After that, we held a meeting with the parents of the students to inform them about the process of the visit to Italy.

• In January , the students started to prepare their portfolios moreover , the students of the project shared the information they have gained on fast food with their friends.

• Between 16 -23 February Turkish team ( 3 teachers and 5 students) went to Italy for the second meeting of the project. During the visit, teams had various decisions on Photo album to be prepared by the Turkish team, Virtual guide to be designed by the Portuguese team, and the design of the blog to be prepared by the Spanish team. Moreover, the teachers and the students had the chance to experience the beauties of Italy guided by the Italian colleagues and to taste marvelous Italian food. The groups also visited a pasta and a cookie factory during their visit in Montebelluna.

• In March, The team which visited Italy and a presentation and shared their experiences with the rest of the school. Then, the students of the project started to work on the “Food Pyramid” of Turkish  culture. In the conclusion of the pyramid the students had the data that in our country , although teenagers are fond of fast food, the also consume a great number of vegetables cooked at home and fruit as Turkey has a wide choice of various fruit.

• In April “The Orange feast” was held in our school. The slogan of the feast was “Have a balanced diet and do exercises” During the feast, students had fresh orange juice, played games, ate healthy food and talked about the process of our project and gave information about the blog of the project. During April, the Turkish team had their preparations prepared for the next meeting to be held in Turkey.

• Between 14-19 April, the meeting in Turkey was held by the participation of our partners. During the visit, we went to a yoghurt and milk factory, visited historical places around Antalya, and had a party for students full of different activities. The students also presented their work on fast food versus mum’s food and shared data. In the meeting of the partners, the teachers decided to have a food pyramid contest in their country, the Portuguese team updated the partners about the process of Virtual Guide, the partners decided on the reports to be sent. The countries were also able to taste the delicious cuisine of Turkey in various places.

• After the visits, the students also wrote reports about their experiences of the time they had spent with their friends and gave information about the other countries. In conclusion, the Turkish team thinks that this project widened the teenagers opinions about the importance of consuming healthy food in their daily diet. At the same time, they realized that teenagers all over the country shared the same experiences with them. I think, this project made my students have a different perspective in life with a positive effect. They had a lot of friends all over the world to share their dreams with. In my opinion, the project has  fulfilled its purpose up to now.

Emin KUTLU                   Burcu ŞAHİN