Community events Bulgaria
Informative Meeting in Ivan Vazov School
May. 29, 2012
On May 29 the next consultation meeting was held, aiming for continuing our assessment of the characteristics of the target groups and their environment and defining the area for the local experiment. It was held in the third primary school in Berkovitza - “Ivan Vazov”.
Present were students from third and seven grades, some of their parents and grandparents, teachers, as well as senior citizens representative of the local association of the veteran’s-tourists.
At the beginning we gave presentation about Big Foot, its goals and partners. We started a discussion following our Questionnaire before the public meeting. Many of the present expressed the opinions that our experiment should concentrate in the macro-area of tourism. The students showed great interest in learning about the main touristic points in the area and many of the seniors also said that this will be an excellent opportunity for them to engage in an inter-generational dialogue and reintegrating their knowledge and skills and also provide for a venue for sustainable development.
THE NATURE-CULTURE MAP
The ideas from this and other consultation meetings we had and based on the research of the area we think that our experiment will concentrate in area of tourism. The experiment will include organizing excursions to mount “Kom”, the location of the 3 waterfalls named “Haidushki vodopadi”, the areas of “Zdravcheniza”, pick “Todorini Kukli”, “Starkovitza” and other touristic routes and destinations. All of these locations are trademarks for our area, are rich in history, and are located in Natura 2000. Besides physically visiting these places, the students will hear legends and stories from our seniors as well get familiar with any other written information about each location; learn about the protected birds and plants; understand topographic map and compass; use gps to take coordinates and find location; take pictures and videos. At the very end all of this information will be integrated into an interactive map where by clicking on every location we visit, all the relevant information- topographic, historic, visual, protected species, etc. will pop up. The seniors on the other side expressed strong desire to have the students teach them how to use personal computers. At the very end we collected permission forms from all parents and the director of the school for the students to participate in our project. The meeting ended with a treat for everyone.