In the afternoon, the students visited a Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). Dr Cédric Tarayre​ explained the students about the various processes like pasteurisation, anaerobic digestion, blending and dewatering​ of waste sludges.

The researchers from UMons and ASE demonstrated a sampling of microplastics in the river downstream the WWTP. This sampling was performed in the frame of a global project of the University of Birmingham called '100 plastic rivers'.
The students could then use the same protocol to sample microplastics directly at the effluent of the WWTP.​
 ​

Our partner, secondary school Athénée Royal Louis Delattre started the building of the manta net. First phase: A scale model.

Visit to the National Institute of Water 
The National Institute of Water is a public institution, specialized in water resources management and also in  maritime and ecological engineering.  The objective of our visit was to learn about the manta net.


Many thanks to Dr. Špela Koren and Mr. Uroš Robič who welcomed us, gave us the possibility to  take photos of  the manta net (used in the Defishgear project) and kindly answered to all our questions. 

 Second day in Ljubljana. 
We planned to visit the secondary school of Gimnazija Vič. We met  Alenka Mozer who is responsible for the Pedagogical Sailboat project within the school. 
​Alenka is a very dynamic an unusual professor accustomed to travelling with her students to international competitions. Her students received in 2018 several medals at the Genius International High School Project Olympiad for their research projects in the field of natural science and entrepreneurship. 

Two of her students presented to us their project. They  ​created a special bird nesting room, in which she installed sensors — a non-invasive method for monitoring rare and endangered species.

Alenka and her students will work on the scientific pedagogy. No doubts that they will provide outstanding outputs related to the thematic of the pollution of microplastics.

ASE is in Ljubljana. The sun is shining there!
​Today we visited the National Institute of Chemistry. We were invited to a Visit to the labs. Dr. Andrej Krzan explained the functioning of an FT-IR spectrometer and the issues related to the identification of microplastics in a laboratory. During the afternoon, we went through the workplan of the "Pedagogical Sailboat project" and discussed future developments. Very engaging!

Tommorow an other meeting is planned at Gimnazija Vič  to discuss further our project. 

​Joining forces to link the pedagogical veil to school programs in French-speaking Belgium ​.

Ayam Sailing Europe organised a participative brainstorming session with the professors of the Athénée Louis Delattre to link the different skills that can be developed in a sailing boat to the educational programs of Wallonia Brussels.
One of the teachers said, "Finally concrete stuff in pedagogy!"

The session allowed us to lay the foundations of the referential skills of pedagogical sailing.

A big thank you to the professors of the Athénée Royal Fontaine l'Evêque for their enthusiasm, their precious advice and their active participation.
We do not forget the director and professors of the Athénée Royal de Gilly who participated in this session and members of Ayam Sailing, especially Piotr, who led the brainstorming session​

The project website is ready!
http://thepedagogicalsailboat.eu
All the info and project resources du projet will be available online. 

Partners of the project at the kick-off meeting of the Pedagogical Sailboat

A big thanks to the Athénée Royal of Fontaine l'Evêque and Mr. Noël Van Kerckhoven (mayor of Fontaine l'Evêque) for welcoming us warmly to their city​

ASE is pleased to announce that the Pedagogical Sailboat project has been selected for funding from the European Union under the ERASMUS + program.
ASE will coordinate the project, which aims to develop an innovative educational tool (The Pedagogical Sailboat) that will create a tangible link between education, scientific research and sailing.

The project will enable secondary school students and teachers to work on the field of sampling microplastics on the sea surface onboard a sailboat.
 
The consortium includes a leading research centre that will provide the necessary scientific backing for the project, a Spanish regional public administration,  and different secondary school.
 l'Athénée Royal Louis Delattre in Belgium, the European school IV of Brussels,  Slovenian secondary school Gimnazija VIC
the Royal Athenaeum Louis Delattre.
The European School IV in Brussels, the Slovenian High School Gimnazija VIC, the  city of  Fontaine l'Evêque and the  city of Castelló  are associated partners of the project.

The kick-off meeting of the project will take place on November 9, 2018. The city of Fontaine-l'Évêque will organise a reception at Château Bivort.

The consortium will use the schooner "Tirant Primer" of the Generalitat Valenciana.​