Excursions to seal populations, swamps and landfills, camera, paper and pen always at hand: Students participating in the project „Church Newspapers in Schools” of the Diocese of Osnabrück have been roving as reporters, true to the motto „On the Scent of Nature - Preserving the Integrity of Creation“ and producing a regular newspaper page for the Catholic weekly Kirchenbote.

Thus, the readers of the magazine learned that storks are faithful to each other for life, that bees show incredible flight performances and how old apple varieties can be preserved. Many participating forms took the opportunity to take action: they collected food to offer to people in need and well-preserved clothes and toys to sell in the social department store.

During the christian fasting times students wrote articles about gain through deliberate restriction: a reduced TV and computer game consumption can save energy, biking reduces pollution and keeps you fit. A class that attended the energy fair on the DBU premises gave useful energy saving advices.

The newspaper articles discussed various topics which had been covered in biology, environmental studies and religion. In Emden, for example, the project was integrated into the religious education lessons of the secondary school Herrentor.

Success Story and New Insights
A total of 41 teachers participated with their classes, the students ranged from year 3 to 6 - and the younger age groups did not have to hide their results. The interview with an ornothology expert of primary school pupils of Fürstenau is a good example of how children pose different questions and reveal new insights. “Do birds have hobbies?” “Yes - some of them have - ravens have been observed somersaulting and playing with sticks.”

Under the funding of DBU, the cooperation partner IZOP Institute developed educational material and offered work shops for teachers, on how the use of a newspaper could be developed in the lessons. Editor Andrea Kolhoff of the Kirchenbote visited the students and gave tips for researching and writing articles.

Many beautiful newspaper pages have been produced - to the delight of 915 participating children and their teachers and many readers of the Kirchenbote.


Project Operation
Kirchenbote
Kleine Domsfreiheit 23
49074 Osnabrück
05 41 318-500
05 41 318-530
www.kirchenbote.de

Cooperation Partner
IZOP-Institut
Heidchenberg 11-15
52076 Aachen-Hahn
02408 5 88 90
izop@izop.de

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