The 5th graders of the two classes of the 3rd Primary School of Thessaloniki, after being informed about what exactly NEMESIS is and what it entails, decided to implement their project entitled “One neighbourhood, a lot of stories”.

Several hours of discussion and recording of the neighbourhood problems followed, showing the intense concern and observation of the children about what happens every day in their neighbourhood, as well as their strong willingness to contribute to a positive change. What was impressive was the plethora of ideas and their willingness to make them a reality.

Under the supervision of the teachers, the children themselves decided to carry out the following activities:

The first class (E1) undertook to collect, digitally record and then translate into English information about the area’s streets. It is a fact that students make short daily trips from home to school or other places in their neighbourhood. They may have crossed a street countless times, knowing its name, but never wondered, up until today, how and why it got its name. Now, they are motivated as, thanks to NEMESIS, they will be able to search for and listen to the stories behind the street names which are part of their neighbourhood and are near their home and school. As part of this process, they will create stickers where all this information will be captured in the form of QR codes and will be posted in various parts of the neighbourhood by the children accompanied by their parents. In this way, anyone who wishes can easily scan the code with a mobile phone to obtain the information that will be provided.

The second class (E2) decided to write stories related to their neighbourhood that they have either heard from their grandparents and parents or will write them themselves. Then the stories will be illustrated with the help of the Visual Arts teacher and will be translated into English. Finally, an audiobook will be created that will be available at the Municipal Children’s Library of the neighbourhood in order to benefit as many children as possible as well as children with visual impairments and other difficulties.

Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has provided a lot of restrictions to schools and most importantly to teachers and students, it has thus not constrained their willingness and desire to improve their neighbourhood and collectively work towards bringing social value to their mission by telling all the untold stories of their neighbourhood reinforcing in this way the city’s culture.

On 30/11/2020 and during the Coronavirus lockdown in Greece, the Intercultural High School of Thessaloniki organized a digital co-creation lab. Teachers, students, SIPs and community members participated with the aim to reactivate the plans of students for improving their school that were interrupted due to the previous lockdown in Spring. 

Although the school is still closed, participants discussed their ideas for improving their school and raising awareness in the local community about the difficulties they face due to the lack of appropriate school infrastructures. 

By implementing the 5Ws exercise of the NEMESIS resource bank, students and teachers presented their firsts thoughts about their project idea and why it is important, who will be involved and who it will affect; as well as where and when it will happen. 

One of the teachers, Efi Damptsi, had invited in the co-creation lab Aris Chatzinikolaou. Aris is a SIP and he is leading the work of the Environmental Team of the university of Macedonia. Aris presented the various actions that the Environmental team of the university have done to make the inner and outer space of the university more environmentally friendly and thus inspire students about their social innovation project in their school. 

Participants stressed that they need to make big efforts to improve the school as both the building and the schoolyard has many problems – both aesthetic and operational. In this process, it was evident that they will need help and support from different people in the town. 

Alex Theodoridis, a SIP who is running the food waste NGO Boroume, suggested to the team to start by creating a video showing the problems in the school and students plans for improvement and share it with the local authorities and local community. In this way, students will be able to ask for the support of many different actors in their city. Alex mentioned that are many people out there who are ready to help. Teachers were very enthusiastic with this idea saying that it will be a great opportunity for making students voice heard.

Finally, participants said that their next steps are to make clear plans and as soon schools open to go into their school and create a video with all the problematic things that need improvement. In parallel, they will think about the skills they miss and the people they will need for fulfilling their goals. Aris mentioned that the environmental team of the University will be happy to help!

The co-lab meeting closed with a promise to keep the spirit up despite this extremely difficult period we are all undergoing.

Minority School of Dokos is one of the Greek schools participating in the second NEMESIS piloting period. Dokos is a small village located in Rodopi in Northern Greece, with the largest percentage of its inhabitants (around 1030 in total) being rural families working on the production of tobacco and cotton seedlings. Given the general socio-economic situation of the village, 3rd and 4th grade students wanted to examine and learn more on the cultivation and production of goods, starting from the early years until today, in order to think about how these could be formed in the future.

During this endeavour, the ultimate goal of their teacher, Mrs. Vasiliki Psaridou, was, on the one hand, to teach the Greek language to her students and on the other hand, to teach them possible alternative ways of connecting agricultural work using ICT in order to open their perspectives and see things with a different eye. Therefore, in close collaboration with both students and their parents, she felt the need to incorporate a more “playful” and interactive way to achieve this.

They began their quest by reading the European Union’s publication “Three Generations of Farmers” and leading students on a journey of knowledge covering the stories of three generations of farmers and the experiences they have gained over the past 50 years. This activity helped them better understand the difficult path that families have followed, the risks they were forced to take but also the support and incentives provided by the EU. 

Parents of students have been a very important part of this endeavour. They have searched for photographic material and found photos of farmers in the village during the 60s and the 70s, which they shared with the teacher. Students were thus given the opportunity to see how villagers had cultivated their crops, the tools they used in the old days, as well as discuss further the evolvement of crops throughout the years.

On top of that, one of the student’s grandfather also wanted to add his own touch by making a miniature of a plow like the one he was using when he was a young farmer. 

 They then started looking into the present trying to understand the role but also the importance of farmers and agriculture for the future of the rural community as well as the opportunities that exist and could be exploited. They started by planting organic plants, seeing how they will grow after carefully taking care of them on a daily basis.

The closure of schools, however, did not stop them from doing things for their project. During distance learning courses, their teacher prepared an ebook giving them instructions on how, together with their parents and the local shops that have provided them with all the necessary materials, to take advantage of their free time and to build a rocket from recyclable materials. Students did not lose touch with their project and managed to adapt their idea using recyclable materials instead of robotic tools. 

According to Mrs. Vasiliki, NEMESIS gave her students the opportunity to look and study different things, to understand what suits them best and how far they could go to achieve it. Through their work with the project “Cultivating on Mars”, the 13 children of the 3rd and 4th grade managed to combine, to the extent that the conditions allowed them until the closing of schools, in an alternative way computer science and robotics, which as subjects are not taught in the Minority School. 

More from this school remains to be seen from September 2020 onwards. 

During a unique day of solidarity and giving, Olynthos Primary School in Greece donated produce from their vegetable garden to the Social Grocery of the Municipality of Propontida as part of their NEMESIS project.

With the help of their teachers, the students with professional experience cut, cleaned, washed and then placed their organic products in boxes ready for delivery.

The representative of the Municipality and Head of the Social Grocery Mrs. Kalimeri Mona attended the event. She talked to the students about the value of solidarity and giving, and after thanking the students, received the “goodies” to share with the families of the Social Grocery during the Christmas distribution.

The president of the local community, Mr. Avgeris, also attended and spoke to the students. He made a special mention of the value of our vegetable gardens and the hands-on learning that the school offers through its actions.

“The value of these products you see is priceless! Because we give our students the opportunity to develop practical skills and to learn to work together, but at the same time to acquire knowledge of the natural sciences, the wealth of our country…. Love and offer are the messages of this day, because today we express our love for our fellow man, for all our fellow citizens who are affected by the financial and social crisis that affects our country and are deprived of even the necessary things”

– Headmaster, Olynthos Primary School

This NEMESIS school demonstrates its experiential character and openness to the local community through the initiatives and efforts made by everyone. We look forward to learning more about their social innovation projects.

Blog post on school website 

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