Early in 2018, MEdIES has once again teamed up with the National Water Awareness Centre of Malta, or “Ghajn” (= water-pond) to further strengthen the educational activities taking place at the Centre. MEdIES undertook to develop four experiential educational intervention / scenarios to compliment the learning experience offered already to the students who visit Ghajn regularly. Following an inception mission in March 2018 (more information here), the MEdIES team has developed four different scenarios, each to accompany the four existing touch screen games that are in use at Ghajn.

Between 16 and 21 December, the MEdIES staff I. Alampei, V., Malotidi and V. Psallidas visited Malta this time to ‘field-test’ the newly developed scenarios with students and experts. The four scenarios that were custom-made to fit-in with the educational needs of the Centre were ‘tested’ on four school classes (primary and middle school level), and a group of ~15 experts and teachers. We are very pleased with our trials and we collected very useful feedback and comments to help us finalise the scenarios, together with the team of the Ghajn Centre.

All scenarios will start to be implemented at Gjahn in the coming months, while four appealing brochures to be handed to students are also being prepared. The four hands-on programmes (and brochures) are about: (a) the Water Cycle (& responsible water use); (b) Water management in the past (mostly in forts); (c) The water systems in Malta (with emphasis on the Non-Conventional Resources ); (d) the ‘green’ elements of the Għajn Centre itself.

Moreover, an in-service training course is foreseen to be held with Maltese teachers (September 2019).

Read more about the Ghajn Centre here: https://bit.ly/2QeGD4o

Snapshots of the December Activities of MEdIES at Ghajn:

Applying with the experts the new educ. programmes

Playing with the puppets-heros of the educ. programme about the water cycle

Playing with the puppets-heros of the educ. programme about the water cycle

"Unfolding" the water monuments of Malta ("water in the past")

Discovering the old water vessels ("water in the past")

Assembling a model for rainwater harvesting ("water systems/NCWRs")

Assembling a model for rainwater harvesting ("water systems/NCWRs")

Assembling a model for greywater recycling ("water systems/NCWRs")

The interior of the Ghajn Centre

The Ghajn Centre