School: Joan Ekzarh Language School
    Vratsa, Vratsa, Bulgaria

4 students, ages 16,16,16,16 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on March 18, 2008. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): 2008

Classes and Teachers: Dimitrinka Georgieva, Tanya Denova, Iva, Nicole, Nicola, Tsvetelinka

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://ezikova-gimnazia.vratza.com/

1. Description of Our Team

We are 4 classmates -Iva, Nicola, Nicole and Tsvetelinka. We joined together because we care about are country and its natural resources and want to help people understand that it is up to them to make things better and protect themselves from the harms of radiation. Every one of us had an assignment and we divided all the work. We gathered the information together, Iva and Nicole translated it into English, Nicola and Tsvetelinka created the Bulgarian version and for the really tough jobs we all helped each other. A big help to us were our teachers Dimitrinka Georgieva and Tanya Denova who helped us with the making of the web site and with the translation of the texts from Bulgarian into English.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our project is all about the environment and the nuclear power plants impact on it. We tried to raise the awareness of people and make them think about the energy and ecological issues that nuclear energy raises. We made people think about what nuclear energy does to the environment and if it could be replaced with an alternative energy source.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:less than 20

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We had to overcome a few problems related with our trip to Kozloduy NPP and our Internet connection. We didn't have any vehicle to go to the power plant and if it wasn't for our teacher who drove us there our project wouldn`t have started at all. The second problem was our Internet connection because only one of us owns an computer and we had to go to the school Internet room which was always full of students and in which we could use only two computers.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We were flattered to take part in this project and our participation was really a challenge. It helped us learn a lot about environmental issues and diplomacy. Our school is proud that its students are environmentally aware and still care about the Nature.

6. How did your activities and research for this Doors to Diplomacy Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

We learned a lot of new skills during this project such as making a site and working as a team. Now we understand much better the energy and environmental issues and we hope that we have made others understand them as well. This project was far more difficult than anything we have done till now but it was an unforgivable experiance. We learned alot about our educational system an mainly that it is very good but doesn't always affect some importan issues. And in the end we must say that using the internet is better than traditional methods because it helps us visualise everything that we need to learn.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your Doors to Diplomacy project?

We used a lot of tools such as books, TV programs, Web sites and advices to help us gather information for our website. Maybe the most valuable tool was the interview with the people in the plant in Kozloduy because it gave us a very view about what they thought about the plant and the survey with the people of the town to see their view of it all. And the most helpful technology was definitely the internet, because thanks to it we could find a lot of information and pictures for our website.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your Doors to Diplomacy project both on-line and in person.

We act mainly as 'ambassadors' for our web project. We are trying from the very beginning to raise the awareness of the people and we are doing it by giving out leaflets, filled with information, making surveys about peoples' opinion on environmental issues and trying in any way to make people think about the problems around us. We had many contacts with people during the project and many of them cheered us up and thank us for the work we are doing. Some of our fellow-students even wanted to help us give away the filled with information about nuclear energy, alternative sources and ecology leaflets.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

We hope that our project will make a difference and we feel that it already has began making one. Almost all the students in our school had seen us work in the i-net room and a big number of them have showed great interest in our work and have observed very keenly what we were doing. Many of them were really thrilled that we are trying to make a difference and we think that a lot of them learned new things from our project.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

We couldn't have done all this work without the help of the people from the NPP in Kozloduy who answered all of our questions freely and even made a presentation for us to show us how does the nuclear plant work and what are the safety limits. a help to us were also the teachers in the school who guided us and helped us with their experience. And, of course, we have to say a big thanks to our classmates for their support.