Bulgaria

On 15th December 2011 at Vasil Levski High Professional SchooL of Architecture (Varna, Bulgaria) was held аn open session of the Ecology Interclub on the topic "We can’t live without energy". It was an integrated lesson in Chemistry and Environmental education and English, based on SPARE teaching materials and organized by the teachers T. Karadzhova and P. Zheleva.

The National school eco-parliament celebrated its 10th anniversary on 19th November 2011 with an opening of a photo-exhibition of student's work on the topic "The biodiversity of the country through my lens".

Vasil Levski school in Razgrad prepared a special weekly program around 11th November under the theme: we save energy, we protect the environment. On 9th November a press-conference was given for the presenting of the project of eco-club Shrek that had received the award of the public in the 10th National competition of natural science that took place 4th06th November in Smolyan, Bulgaria. The pupils who presented the project there were Radina Nedelcheva (6th grade), Atanas Atanasov (7th grade) and Ivan Markov(7th grade).

The day of energy efficiency was celebrated through various creative activities in the Bulgarian schools of the SPARE network. Participants made an exhibition and bulletin board on energy efficiency, had classes of physics, led a day without electricity, made an exhibition of paintings, posters, models and many other activities.

Eco-club «Shrek» in Razgard prepared a special weekly program on November 11 around the theme «We save energy, we protect the environment»: week of demonstration trainings «How we save energy at school», demonstration of electric car in the school yard, and others.

The results of the European project “PIMMS TRANSFER”, part of the program INTERREG IVC were presented during a press-conference in Sofia Municipality on 20th September. The project was coordinated by European programs and projects department, department Education with the cooperation of Za Zemiata Environmental Association.

The awards of the competition School Challenge were granted in Sofia Municipality on 28th June. The competition was about reducing the CO2 emissions in the commuting to school. Over 800 students from 11 Sofia schools took part in it.

The students of "Georgi Izmirliev"school in Gorna Oryahovitha are demonstrating their skills in the practice with the constructor-models that they have received in SPARE project.

International seminar and annual coordination meeting, devoted to the SPARE development in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia took place 27-29 of May in Ukraine. Participants discussed development of educational materials for schoolchildren, domestic practical project on renewable energy and energy efficiency, NGO capacity building and involvement to national energy policy.

On December 21, 2010 the school presented an ambitious program of participation in SPARE project. National SPARE coordinator Todor Todorov opened the «Renewable energy in Bulgaria — Proposals for action» exhibition in the school entrance hall in attendance of local authorities, business and mass media representatives.

Thirty teachers participated in the seminar for new participants in the SPARE network. The seminar took place in Varna on 26th March 2011.

Students from «Evrostandard» visited the College for design in Hojer, Denmark from 28th March to 7th April in the framework of the project «Together for clean and beautiful Europe», program Komenski.

During their visit the students had a seminar on «Global worming and the role of renewables». The students form Bulgaria introduced their work on the international SPARE project to the other participants and invited them to join in.

The national conference of the school eco-clubs was organized on 15th-16th April 2011 in Razgrad by Za Zemiata Environmental Association and the National school eco-parliament as part of the SPARE project. The participants in the conference — over 70 students and teachers enjoyed very much the intensive and interesting program. The most interesting parts of it were organized by the wonderful hosts from «Vassil Levski» school with principal Diana Parvanova.

On 28th April a wonderful celebration for the awarding of the SPARE competition was organized in Veliko Tarnovo by Vocational school for architecture and geodesy "Angel Popov". Greta Rasheva from 10th grade of the school won first place in the national SPARE competition for 2010/2011.

The International SPARE day of energy efficiency was celebrated in the Bulgarian schools of the network with many activities. We received a lot of information about the events and we would like to share it with all participants in SPARE.

The teachers and students from Sofia, participants in the SPARE network, were the core of the event called "Energy of the future", organized by the Sofia Municipality with the help of Za Zemiata environmental association on 27th October 2010. With the exhibitions, models of renewable energy installations and presentations the students of Sofia showed their vision about what the energy should be in the future.

The meeting of the teachers in the SPARE network who are actively participating in the program took place on 16th October in Veliko Tarnovo. The hosts was the American College Arcus — students from Arcus were amongst the winners in the national SPARE competition for the school year 2009/2010 with 3 awards from it. The meeting was attended by representatives from the Ministry of education and Ministry of environment — Mariana Bancheva and Mariana Baruh. Dag Hoystad from Norges Naturvernforbund/Friends of the Earth Norway gave an interesting presentation about energy efficiency.

The event was organized through the program SPARE, financed by Innovation Norway. The participants in the conference were students and teachers from Sofia, Plovdiv, Kavarna, Shumen and Silistra. They had the opportunity to meet and talk about solar installations with professor Mirchev in the Technical University of Varna, as well as to visit the solar laboratory of the University. They also had the chance to see instalation for biodiesel and solar panels.

The students from Ecoenergy — KavarnaThe environmental club «Ecoenergy» of «Yordan Yovkov» school in Kavarna, Bulgaria won the second place in the national educational competition PlayEnergy for school projects with theme: «Tracking the energy». Over 400 projects took part in the competition, made by more than 1000 students from 84 schools in the entire country. The winners were actively participating in the SPARE program.

On May 28th to 31st an international semonar on the development of the SPARE project took place in Minsk. An important theme of the workshop was the integration of SPARE project into the state education systems in the participants’ countries, as well as practical solutions for energy saving. Participants visited a straw house and a multistory house that was built with energy-saving technologies and was recommended as a model for construction in Belarus.

In May 2010 trip SPARE-delegation of children and teachers from the Central region of Russia took place in school - SPARE, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. The trip was successful and helped to identify the following positive steps in the development of relations school-SPARE different countries.

The winners of the national SPARE competition were announced during the forum "Environmental message for Tarnovo" organised elegantly by the American College Arcus on 15th March, 2010. The national coordinator Todor Todorov announced the results of the competition in front of a prominent audience - the mayor of the city of Veliko Tarnovo d-r Rashev, local and national media, representatives of the Board of the Arcus College, the management of the College, teachers and students.

In January 2010, students, teachers, and administrators of schools in Russia and Bulgaria held teleconferences to share their experiences using the principles of Deep Ecology to address health concerns related to energy programs. The regularly scheduled conferences were sponsored by the Minor Ecological Academy "Gymnasium № 1 of the Bryansk region," s.Glinischevo Bryansk region.

April 7th in the Ministry of environment and water. The event was hosted by Oddmund Otterstad who is the Chair of the Advisory Board of the program.

More than 100 participants took part in the SPARE seminar which took place on 5th Dec in Varna, Bulgaria. The seminar was organized specifically for the schools of Eastern Bulgaria due to the huge interest for the program.

National meeting of the school eco-clubs took place in Sofia on Nov 25th. Representatives from over 30 school environmental clubs were present – from the capital Sofia and from the rest of the country. The SPARE project was presented and materials were handed to the young environmental activists.

The SPARE program started very promising in Sofia. It was met with interest and curiosity by the teachers who were enrolled in the project in Bulgaria. The first SPARE seminar took place in Sofia on 21st Nov. More than 80 teachers from the entire country took part in the training.

October 20 Ministry of Education of Bulgaria has issued an official letter, expressed Minstry support for international SPARE project, where Bulgaria is rightful participant. Ministry conciders, that introduction SPARE to eschool education in Bulgaria will help to increase knowledges and practical sckills on the climate change, sustainable energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy.