ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS PROJECT:

      Raising environmental awareness on fire disturbances through Soil Painting Competition                               

In October 2017, fueled by heat and wind conditions linked to hurricane Ophelia, a bout of wildfires raised public alarm as the number of human lives and material assets lost increased. To celebrate World Soil Day, and since this year’s theme, “Caring for the Planet starts from the Ground”, matched our goals, the Biology and Geology Department of IES Pontepedriña organized informative, research, and awareness activities. As a motivating and central activity, we organized an entry into the “Soil painting competition”. Through our entry we wanted to convey the destruction of vegetation and soil while at the same time emphasizing the post-fire efforts by several groups to mitigate its effects.

Cooperating with us is Rafael Zas, who conducts research in forest ecology for the Galician Biological Mission (CSIC). We also had the support of a group of volunteer citizens from the municipality of Pontecaldelas, whose population and homes were endangered on the night of October 15. This volunteers later employed mulching techniques to mitigate the impact of the fires in areas more prone to erosion.

World Soil Day was the starting point for the project “After the Fire”, but we shifted the celebration to the 30 of November for organizational reasons. Previously, we had our event registered in FAO-WSD site. We had t have already  On that day the mural would be painted in a visible area of the high school, surrounded by a photo exhibition that would be on display for several weeks. We also organized talks like “The wildfires in Galicia: a complex issue conditioned by unfounded opinions”, in which Rafael Zas discussed the environmental aspects and analysis of the causes of wildfires, and Gloria Bustingorri explained the organization of the post-fire tasks of volunteers.

We organized two teams among the 14-15 year old students in their 3rd and 4th years of secondary school (E.S.O.). One of the teams, lead by Estela Pintos of the Art department, focused on preparing vegetable and soil-based pigments for the design of the mural and on its realization in a public space. A second team, led by Anxa Novo of the Technology department, was in charge of recording the process, including a time-lapse video of the making of the mural for the FAO competition. In addition, there was a third group of students who performed the music for the video.

Besides the outings to gather soil samples for the pigments, which were among the preparatory activities that took place in November, we organized a field trip to the burned areas guided by forest researchers and forest rangers. Both teams learned about the issues related to wildfires, took pictures, held interviews and gathered ash and charcoal to be used in the making of the mural.

After been awarded first prize in January,  we completed additional awareness raising activities, highlighting the presentations by our award-winning students. The project is still going on, with additional  activities  scheduled for the next school year.

• In December 2017 (before FAO-GSP had anounced the winners) we organized the germination of  Quercus seeds on the lab to be planted in the next autumn, activity carried out  by most of our 12-13 year old students. At that moment, the Spanish Society of Soil Science (SECS) was showing great interest in our project and we began collaborations with them with our first publication and scheduling new talks.

• In collaboration with the Galician Section of the SECS we organized a second talk “Post-fire hydrological and forest recovery”, by Agustin Blond from the Forest Service in the  Rural Affairs Department -Xunta de Galicia.

• The first presentation was conducted in May 14, it was targeted to a group of visiting students from Bembibre secondary school. The second played out in June 13 was a presentation of our project to the media, participating soil science researchers and authorities of the Xunta de Galicia (including both Education and Rural Affairs ministers).

• In July we have been at the international conference "LandCare for the Future" presenting a  poster  (Fire Impacts and soil Painting: a Teaching Project).  Dr Jorge Mataix – president of the SECS was also there, and he visited our school to get into our project and enjoy the winner painting.

 
Project coordination: Nicolás Lucas, Biology and Geology Department

 We gatecrash Ivy League, sharing podium with Cornell University!

<<

 *        After the Fire_Despois do lume_(FAO-Pontepedriña)

 *          

  WSD 2017 Events around the Globe in pictures  (7 pages)
      (link to entire photobook a documento completo )

  <<< VIDEO submitted to 

    "SOIL PAINTING COMPETITION 2017"    

    Award-winning picture  (click to enlarge image)

Painting process in a timelapse video   >>

Timelapse by Nicolás Lucas / Music by Pedro Lucas

THE PROJECT IN THE MEDIA - PUBLICATIONS

• FAO > World Soil Day  > Worldwide Events - Interactive map (2017 map here)      Photobook:  Events around the globe , WSD 2017   Poster Events...

• FAO > World Soil Day >  Soil Painting Competition

• FAO > Global Soil Partnership > Pillars of Action > Awareness raising > Soil Painting Competition  

• SECS - Spanish Soil Science Association  (biannual newsletter)  > NEWS-SECS 2018.16 (viewer -  pdf)     Article on pages  20-21  
• SECS - Spanish Soil Science Association  (biannual newsletter)  > NEWS-SECS 2018.17 (viewer -  pdf)     Articles on  pages 11, 17-18, 25
  

World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (WASWAC) / Fire Impacts and Soil Painting: A Teaching Project, Hot News 02, 2018, pp.6-13

LandCare for the Future - Conference / Abstract / Book of Abstracts / Poster /

  LA VOZ DE GALICIA  (Local / regional  NEWSPAPER)

• (10/01/2018) "El IES Pontepedriña gana un concurso de la FAO..."
• (14/06/2018) "El mural de ceniza y tierra del monte gallego vencedor en el certamen de la FAO..."

  TVG (GALICIAN PUBLIC TELEVISION, Regional) Telexornal mediodía (Midday News).

• (15/01/2018) "O IES da Pontepedriña, premiado pola FAO por un traballo sobre os incendios"
• (13/06/2018) "Os alumnos do IES Pontepedriña dan unha lección de arte e bioloxía a través dun mural"

   CORREO TV (local TELEVISION, newspaper-linked) News. 

• (13/06/2018) Un traballo sobre os lumes, Premio  FAO para o IES Pontepedriña.

   RADIO VOZ.  (13/01/2018) Voces de Santiago (Local / regional  RADIO STATION)

    SOCIAL MEDIA, summarized in this dossier on MEDIA IMPACT

     XUNTA DE GALICIA - REGIONAL GOVERNMENT of GALICIA

Press releases in official sites

• (13/06/2018) Sala de comunicación (Communication Room)
  

• (13/06/2018) CONSELLERÍA de EDUCACIÓN (Ministry of Education)

• (13/06/2018) CONSELLERÍA de MEDIO RURAL (Ministry of Rural Affairs)

• (14/06/2018) CONSELLERÍA DE POLITICA SOCIAL. Dirección Xeral de Xuventude, Participación e Voluntariado. (Ministry ofSocial Policy - Youth,    Participation and volunteering Directorate).
  

>>>>>>  Xornais dixitais (e-NEWSPAPERS)  >>>>>>>>>>>>

•  (13/06/2018) COMPOSTELA24HORAS.com
•  (13/06/2018) NOTICIASDE.es

Interview in RadioVoz-- (audio mp3) "Voces de Compostela", Thursday 18/01/2018 (from 1:41:53)

GSP sixth PLENARY ASSEMBLY - Global Soil Partnership

(11-13 June, FAO HQ, Rome)

PHOTOREPORT

Filmmaker's team (ESO4) coordinated by ANXA NOVO:                               LOIS MORÓN, DANIEL MÉNDEZ, ARTUR VÁZQUEZ e LAURA CAEIRO

  Sampling in an amphibolite-soil profile near Viso, Compostela

ESTELA PINTOS (Art and Design Department) has new ideas and materias ready to test in every break for three weeks in November

Irene, Silvia and  Iria during first tests with edaphic pigments

Figurative designs had been evaluated as well >>

  Pontecaldelas, first sensations over a burnt area

 The little village is located on the top of the forested slope. This woodland was quite recent: the trace of the stone walls are visible now, showing the terraced farmland abandoned during 1960's migration of the local population.

 Getting ready to register Dr. Rafael Zas explanations, from MBG-CSIC

Willdfires devastate more that the visible vegetation, they also damage fauna...

 <<<   ... and soils, like this cambisol

Fire severity was low in sections of an oak grove where the canopy has survived; the falling leaves create a natural mulch covering. It's nearly level, so the little slope is going to limit water erosion as well .

    Soil erosion risk is also low in this section of the pine wood: gently slope and pine needle covering

Research results have shown that straw mulching is the most adecuate procedure to mitigate after-fire soil erosion in Galicia, specially where vulnerability is higher as in steep slope areas.

Preparations for recording an interview with RAFA ZAS 

Artur claps to allow audio synchronisation

 15-16 years oll students (4ºESO) had previouly discussed the questions to be posed during the  interview; coordination by MARILÓ LAGARÓN (Galician language dept.)

Laura and Cristina

Painting rehearsal at reduced scale; materials, techniques and secuence of paint layers to apply.

Painting should be a flowing process, as it is going to get registered in a video through a a sequence of photographs (time-lapse)

To set the frecuency shooting in the camera, we had estimated the painting process will last two hours and a half.

  Attaching the canvas -in fact a foam board- with a wrinkled paper glued on it to obtain the texture needed

 The five painters, in a white paint suit, grind straw coming from Pontecaldelas mulching to be used in the final step of the painting process. 

The setting is almost completed, although the edges of the canvass have not been covered yet

The painting team starts at 11:45 hours the underpainting layers. Public (students and teachers in their way to their classrooms) observe from the first and second stages converging in the central hall.

 Finalising the underpainting, it will be ready for the 12:25 hours break;  the job will be interrupted for 20 minutes to ease paint drying: the whole school community would appreciate the work at this point.

   The second part of the painting process begins as 12:45 hours; it includes the utilisation of ash and charcoal collected at                            . Pontecaldelas burnt areas together with straw from  the mulch covering.

Frame 1337

Frame 1420

Images obtained from the 2468 frame

sequence used to built the time-lapse.

Shooting frecuency had been set to

3 seconds.

       They  belong to the second stage

       of the painting process; including

       the finishing, when straw from mulching,

      seeds and leaves are disposed.

Frame 2034

Frame 2260

Frame 2410

After three exhausting weeks using every break for planning, material preparation, discussion and tests,  ESTELA PINTOS  pose with the artists:

   PAULA ALFONSIN, CRISTINA DÍAZ, (4º ESO)

         SILVIA FUENTES, IRENE GARCÍA, IRIA FEBRERO (3º ESO)      

 Celebrating World Soil Day : TALKS

Arrangements for  "Lamento della Ninfa" and guitar: VICTOR BLANCO

Audio recording and edition:  ANTONIO RIVAS

SILVIA FERRO (clarinet); ANA BALSA, NOA GARCÍA (cello) 

                          CRISTINA SANTAYA , MILAGROS ANGUEIRA (clarinet)

 
 December 2017

We tidy up,

the technical team - who study Information Technology with Anxa-  went ahead with the film editing during the remaining two class sessions  before the December long weekend.

We sent everything to FAO  just before the deadline.

Then exams and assessment come; but before ending the term we still had  two days left to germinate oak acorns.

ANXA NOVO

(Technology)

NICOLÁS LUCAS

(Biology)

ESTELA PINTOS

(Art and Design)

  Planting acorns

We have organized an oak (Quercus robur) acorn germination

to encourage knowledge and  participation in our project

"After the Fire" and thus widing its impact among the

school community. The activity was aimed to the youger

students: 12-14 years old ((ESO1 and  ESO 2).

These acorns had been gathered in Pontevedra's forests,

near the burnt area que had visited previously; Rafa Zas

supplied them during World Soil Day.

There were a second goal as well: to participate in a symbolic

reforestation during the next school year (autumn, 2018).

APRIL 2018- Our winner painting hanged for permanent exhibition.

The painting is located in the same architectural space

where it had been created. A prior stabilization work have

been necessary, it was conducted by Estela for several

weeks.

      Talk by Agustín Blond    (25 April 2018)

Agustín is in charge of reforestation in burnt forest areas for the Pontevedra's province. In his talk he explained us how to:

1) Prioritize sections with the highest soil erosion vulnerability, the steep slope areas with high runoff and poor soils.

2) Select convenient species, those likely to survive in these less favourable areas.

3) Select machinery capable of accessing to complicated areas, causing at the same time the minimal impact on soils. 

He also described how to prevent runoff transport of sediments to riverbeds,  therefore avoiding the damages linked to these kind of erosional processes.

ANA CABALELAS (departamento de Lingua Española) organizara previamente unha xornada literaria para  na que participaría alumnado de 4º ESO do CPI de Bembibre.

Decidimos que os nosos estudantes premiados podían presentar o   proxecto "Despois do Lume" ao alumnado visitante ese mesmo día.

A propia Ana os adestrou para optimizar a presentación oral.

 Ana Cabanelas inicia a recepción do alumnado de Bembibre

Distribution of the exhibition panels in the building's central hall, to facilitate the oral presentations.

 Cristina and Paula explaining the painting process.

Dende a Dirección Xeral de Educación manifestóusenos o interese en estar presentes nun acto de presentación do proxecto ante os medios de

    comunicación, no que tamén particíparía o conselleiro. Máis tarde sumaríase ao acto a conselleira de Medio Rural.

Invitamos a representantes da Sociedade Española de Ciencias del Suelo (SECS) e da Universidade de Santiago (USC)  a un acto no que o

    alumnado premiado foi o protagonista.

(1) Dr. NICOLÁS LUCAS, coordinador do proxecto  "Despois do Lume);

     detrás sitúase o alumnado premiado (frecha) que vai intervir

     secuencialmente na presentación.

(2) ESTELA PINTOS, responsable do deseño e coordinación da pintura

   gañadora do "Concurso de Pintura con Solos, FAO  2017).

(3) ANA CABANELAS, colaborou na preparación das presentacións orais do alumnado.

(4) Dr. EDUARDO GARCÍA-RODEJA, catedrático de Edafoloxía da USC (e director da miña tese), temén colaborou na creación da exposición permanente de edafodiversidade no Museo de Historia Natural. 

(5) Dr. ENRIQUE ZAS, catedrático de Física de partículas da USC, colabora con nós en diferentes proxectos.

 Nicolás Lucas explica como foi xurdiu e foi organizado o proxecto

 Profesorado e alumnado premiado acompañados da Dra. Monserrat Díaz (en representación da SECS). Detrás, o subdirector e o director xeral de Ordenación Educativa xunto co director do IES A Pontepedriña.

 LAURA CAEIRO explica o impacto dos incendios forestais en relación a dinámica -sucesión/perturbación de ecosistemas e solos.

 DANIEL MÉNDEZ incide nas técnicas de mitigación post-incendio para evitar a erosión de solos e a afectación a ecosistemas fluviais.

SILVIA FUENTES realiza a introducción ao proceso de pintado do mural

 IRENE GARCÍA detalla o proceso seguido para pintar a obra  na celebración do Día Mundial do Solo

 Estela Pintos e  Nicolás Lucas xunto a Rafael Zas, que desempeñou un papel fundamental no proxecto. Grazas Rafa polo teu entusiasmo e valía!

 Intervención de Ángeles Vázquez, conselleira de Medio Rural da Xunta de Galicia

 Intervención de Román Rodríguez, conselleiro de Educación da Xunta de Galicia >

CONSELLEIRA DE MEDIO RURAL           CONSELLEIRO DE EDUCACIÓN

  Conference participation: "LandCare for the future" 

 (16-18 July 2018)

 POSTER PRESENTADO (preme para ampliar)

 Unha copia do noso póster no stand da Delegación Territorial en Galicia da SECS, con Maite e Monstse - Dra. Maria Teresa Barral (USC) / Dra. Montserrat Díaz (IIAG-CSIC)

 The president of the SECS visits us    (17 July 2018)

Aproveitando a súa presencia en Compostela para participar no congreso "LandCare for the 

Future", o Dr. Jorge Mateix Solera -presidente da Sociedad Española de Ciencias del Suelo-

visitou o IES Pontepedriña para interesarse polos detalles do proxecto e admirar de cerca a

obra pictórica.

                      Javier Dapena, Nicolás Lucas, Jorge Mateix, Estela Pintos e Montserrat Díaz

Entregounos un DIPLOMA de recoñecemento do labor realizado.

Grazas Jorge, pois a a SECS xa valoraba o noso proxecto antes de gañarmos o premio  da FAO.

E tamén trouxo de agasallo unhas camisetas... 

   as do equipo da SECS gañador do bronce no

   mundial de Río (Soil Judging Contest 2018).

Que entregamos ao noso alumnado gañador do

   Soil Painting Competition 2017,  ao inicio do

   novo curso, en setembro.

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