BCN day a day

Monday

We have begun the activities with a welcome speech in the school and then we went to Barcelona by train where we could visit “Casa Amatller” and “ Casa Batlló”.  Then we had a guided visit to la Pedrera and  finished the day visiting the Park Güell.  All the partners were delighted by the work of one of the most important Modernist architects Antoni Gaudí.  The Park Güell is unique and it is a real masterpiece .  Since 1984 it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Tuesday
All the Comenius activities are based on the topic “Healthy food”, so in order to be original, we have prepared two amazing visits: one to the Codorniu winery and the other one to the chocolate factory Simon Coll, both in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia.
First, we saw the modernist building designed by the famous Catalan architect Puig I Cadafalch. Our partners could know about the “cava” sparkling wine elaboration and taste it. Then we saw all the modernist buildings in the village and finished the day visiting the chocolate factory Simon Coll. Delicious!!!! Chocolate is healthy, so our tip is: if you eat a daily portion of chocolate, you will feel better and less stressed

Wednesday
Today the students of the different countries have presented their work in Powerpoints or films. All of them have worked very hard and have succeeded. That’s important. You can see all the presentations in the blog and in the school web.
Then we could taste the delicious dishes prepared by the students’ families (a Comenius cake, cookies, potato omelette, an enormous ice-cream, etc). Thank you mums.
After the delicious breakfast, we went to see the Boqueria market where the students took photos for the future project task. As we were in the Ramblas, we visited the cathedral, Liceo theatre, Pine tree church (where the giants were kept), Santa María del Mar and our trip ended in La Barceloneta. We went to the beach and students and teachers could admire the beauty of Mediterranean Sea.

Thursday

We began the day visiting our local Town Hall, where Mr. Lluís Esteve, (regidor d’ensenyament) the head of the education department in the Town Hall of Hospitalet made a welcome speech, explaining the importance of this kind of project for the students and the television of Hospitalet interviewed our students, asking them their opinion about the Comenius project and the places they had visited.

At lunch time the teachers went to visit CEMFO, our local catering school, invited by our Town Hall. We have to congratulate all the cooks, waiters and staff of that school for the delicious meal they prepared for us and thank the Town Hall for the invitation.

Then we came back to school to go on working on the project. In the afternoon the students went with their partners to buy souvenirs and some of them went to visit the Barça stadium.

 

Friday

It was the last day in the school for our partners, some of them left Barcelona that day and others on Saturday. We met in the school and while the teachers were planning the activities for the next meeting in Portugal, the students were playing a football match organised by our PE teacher.

At 10.30 we met in the gym and after finishing the powepoint presentations, we gave them the Diplomas and the event finished with an amazing Twirling show organised by 4 students: Katy Narvaez, Isabel Serrano, Alba López and a very young and future Comenius student Paula López.

Congratulations!!

Saturday

At 8.00 we met at Barcelona airport to say goodbye to our Italian partners.  It was a sad day for everybody, because after spending a wonderful week with them, our students didn’t want them to leave.  And the same thing happened at 12.00, with the Turkish team departure. The students began to cry, especially the girls and  they promised to keep in touch mailing or by facebook. That’s love at the age of sixteen!.  

To sum up, We can say that it has been an unforgettable experience for everybody.

Thank you Comenius organization for giving us this opportunity.

Welcome to Barcelona

Monday

We have begun the activities with a welcome speech in the school and then we went to Barcelona by train where we could visit “Casa Amatller” and “ Casa Batlló”.  Then we had a guided visit to la Pedrera and  finished the day visiting the Park Güell.  All the partners were delighted by the work of one of the most important Modernist architects Antoni Gaudí.  The Park Güell is unique and it is a real masterpiece .  Since 1984 it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Tourist Places in Barcelona

  

  

Spanish activities for the Barcelona meeting

Fats

Duties of fat in a human body

• They are structural part of cell. Phospolipids are an important component of a cell membrane.
• Glycolipids, lipoproteins and steroids work as vitamins and hormones as well.
• Fats are the most economical part of a human body after carbonhydrates.The amount of energy given by fat is (1 gr. 9,3 K cal.)  and it doubles the energy given by the same amount of carbonhydrates and protein.
• A large amount of metabolic water appears when fats are used in oxygen based breathing in cells. Energy is gained when stored fat is burned in bodies of animals travelling in long desert roads, and those which sleep in winter, during that period these animals supply a part of their water need as metabolic water appears from the burned fat.
• Fat beneath skin and around organs protect the living thing from cold and hits. Layer of fat beneath skin is really thick especially in whales, seals and other sea mammals.
• It is the source of A, D, E, K vitamins dissolving in fat and helps them to be absorbed
• It provides growth and normal metabolic events.
• It helps the saturation feeling to occur
• Essential fatty acids which cannot be synthesized in body can be taken by fats
• It is effective in protection of flexibility of human skin.

In conclusion:

Fats as nutrition:

• Saturated fats are butter, animal fats and tail fat , so they consist cholesterol.
• Margarines ( trans fat) is acquired from vegetable liquid oil in nutrition industry. Solid margarines are solid because they are saturated  with hydrogen in producing process and are  in the saturated fatty acid group. They consist cholesterol if animal fat and milk is added.
• People usually consuming  food with over saturated fatty acids may have cardiovascular diseases. In One of the diseases , arteriosclerosis, lipid accumulates in side of the blood vein . These accumulations prevent the blood to flood and decreases the flexibility of veins. In order to protect heart health, a little amount of saturated fat should be consumed.
• Saturated fatty acids prevent cleaning of low volumed lipoprotein in blood. As a result, they cause occlusion in veins as they form accumulation in veins. It is known to increase LDL cholesterol level and tendency to diabetes.
• Consuming fried food repeatedly rises risk of cancer as fried oil’s comical structure is destroyed. During cooking, it is known that multi unsaturated fatty acid is formed in fried oil.
• %25-30 of energy needed per day should come from fat .It is impossible to live without consuming fat.
• Calorie taken with saturated fatty acids ,although being the same with other fatty acids’ calorie, is the reason for gaining weight.
• Although the effects of single unsaturated fatty acids on LDL cholesterol is neutral,  it has an effect on increasing high volumed lippoorotein. Single unsaturated fatty acids are known to play a role in healing cardiovascular diseases’ risk factors.

There are a lot of positive and negative effects of fatty acids found in fats on nutrition and health. Saturated fatty acids are the reason for especially cardiovascular diseases and gaining weight with fat. Unsaturated fatty acids usually have positive effects. But, whole nutrition diet should be taken into considerate and enough and balanced fat should be consumed, fatty acids should be below limits and rated to each other. As a result of eating food consisting high amount of trans fat, rising in LDL cholesterol and decrease in HDL cholesterol occur. This situation leads to cardiovascular diseases. Consuming Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids has positive effects. But these two acids should be consumed proportionately. It is obvious that KLA is protective against cancer, positive effect in immunity system and cardiovascular diseases, and preventing weight gaining and obesity.

For a balanced diet, it is essential for the consumers to become conscious about fatty acids.

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

Virtual Food Guide