Are young people involved enough in environmental issues?
On Monday, 15 March 2004, the Spring Day in Europe Web site ran a chat session with the topic: "The future generation in the enlarged Europe: protecting and preserving the environment". Margot Wallström, Commissioner for the Environment, was on-line and answered students’ questions.
Schools from twelve European countries participated: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. This school year Spring Day in Europe project is opened to all schools that would like to debate and celebrate the 5th enlargement of the EU.
The European Schoolnet chats are “live” activities organised on our Web sites. A topic, a common language and a suitable time are announced before. A guest is invited to answer questions addressed by participants. This school year the Spring team is running chat sessions in English, French and German.
Classes prepare the chat by checking topic-related resources. They then discuss the topic, collect and select the best questions. We normally recommend classes to divide in small groups and then to choose a group leader to type the questions. The leader has to prove good knowledge of the language of the chat and also good typing skills in order to communicate faster. Every group should watch the entire online dialogue and not only its questions and answers.
Schools enjoy the activity, as it takes place live, has a guest and offers the opportunity to learn directly from people about issues which most concern. This has a very positive impact on teaching and learning when getting immediately answers to questions. Normally, the participation is restricted to a small number of schools, as only one guest provides the answers. Furthermore, any guest is eager to answer questions to show students and teachers they care about people lives and which solutions may they have for their problems.
The
Spring Day in Europe website is available at 
