Paola school in 'The Milky Way' project

Guzè d'Amato Boys Secondary School, Paola, will be taking part in the Comenius project entitled "The Milky Way", which is being co-ordinated by the Comprehensive Institute of Monte Amiata in Italy.

A meeting for teachers from the participating schools was held in September in Rozzano, a small town about 10 km to the south of Milan.

Also taking part in the project are schools from Germany, Poland, Greece and Lithuania. The idea and formulation of this project was a joint venture between Raffaella Ratti, a teacher in Rozzano, and the local council of Rozzano.

The main objective of this project is to welcome diversity, not only within each school but also between the participating countries. All the work done by students during this project will be about milk and dairy products. On this theme, the project will provide a historical-geographic analysis, a study of traditional dishes and of the different uses of milk and dairy products. Milk products will be explored. The benefits to human health of milk and dairy products will also be studied.

The communication between the different partners will be done through the use of technology and traditional methods. Visual aids such as videos, graphs, pictures, posters, designs and printed material will be used as much as possible so that language barriers between the participating students are kept to a minimum.

The project kicked off with the schools sending their greetings in their own language accompanied by a photo of each class participating in the project. A questionnaire about milk consumption will follow. Other activities planned for this scholastic year are the exchange of Christmas recipes and Christmas traditions, the study of the geography of milk production in the respective countries and the exchange of handcrafts made from milk packaging.

Certainly this project, like all Comenius projects funded by the European Union, will serve as a means of exchange of knowledge and ideas between the participating countries. It is certainly a way not only to celebrate diversity within the EU but also of bringing the members of the Union closer together.