FROschTOsch

by Karolina Krukowska (LOG)

Catholic Church usually celebrates Easter in April. It is the springtime Christian festival, a very specific period of time for all the believers. The celebration of Easter is preceded by Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday. Palm twigs are indispensable accessories of the events of this day.  At Easter we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection,  and His victory over death and sin. On Saturday we go to church to consecrate Easter food, like bread, sausages, salt, pepper, and especially eggs. Egg is a symbol of new life. “Pisanki”  are eggs coloured by various colors , with decoration. They are decorated with wax and then soaked in dyes. Like the reason for decoration, people can resort to their imagination: flowers, plants, Jesus, bells, sheep of Easter, rabbits. These beautiful eggs will be a decoration of the table of Easter and it will be eaten next day,  during Sunday breakfast. It is a big ceremony.
Easter Sunday starts with the mass of resurrection. Then, breakfast will be celebrated by the family. Because it is breakfast, known as “holy”, which is the time of meeting with family in Poland during Easter. People wish one another “Happy Easter” (“Wesołego Alleluja” in Poland) and have an occasion to talk together, too. Often breakfast continues all day, because Poles likes much to remain at the table.
On Easter Monday, it is “Smigus-Dyngus” or “Lany Poniedziałek- Wet Monday”. This celebration is only in Poland. During all the day, it is allowed to throw water on others, same unknown! The best idea is thus to remain at home all the day, because during a short walk or  even going on foot to church, we are likely to be wet! And there is not the right to be annoyed. Obviously, one should not exaggerate with the quantity of water thrown on an unknown person. We should cultivate the tradition but without making people angry. Formerly, “Smigus-Dyngus” in the Polish culture was very  particular among the unmarried women and men: the men tried to put the biggest possible amount of water on the girls whom they liked, thus showing them their interest and their feelings! The more received water – the more the girl was loved. And the girls said “thank you” by offering more decorated eggs! It is a beautiful  tradition. Easter isn’t a huge celebration in Poland, but it is the happiest one and it is also the symbol of spring.

- Do video games encourage violence? -

by Ailish, Frauke und Oliver (BvA)

Many experts are discussing if video games make young people aggressive. Some of them say that video games should be prohibited for adolescents.

In our opinion video games aren’t the worst thing leading to an aggressive youth; in fact, those who play them need special skills when it comes to reaction, logic and agility. Multiplayer games also encourage teamwork.

Most TV shows for children encourage violence even more than video games. If small children at about 6 years of age already watch cartoon characters killing each other in a bloody bout and see them laugh at it, to us that is a lot more violence-encouraging than adolescents’ playing e.g. ‘’Counterstrike’’ – that is just the next step on what has started in their childhood.

Video games can be violence encouraging, too. But those youngsters who really became a danger for the people around them were mentally ill before they started playing those games.

So, to us it’s clear that most video games aren’t as bad as it is always said after one of those killing frenzies. It depends on who is playing them and it’s impossible to judge all adolescents by some exceptions.

by Christoph Leppin (BvA)

On 28 September 2010, three students of the Bettine-von-Arnim Gesamtschule went to the Bayer CropScience laboratories, in order to compete against three other schools, each providing three students, at Bayer’s annual ‘Science Day’.

Our three students, namely Tanja Jockel, Philipp Maibaum, and Christoph Leppin, were eager to get to know the ‘real thing’, that is working in a professional laboratory, along with professional scientists and equipment. Although our school does offer a variety of equipment when it comes to subjects like biology and chemistry, their experience at CropScience was mind-blowingly different from what they experience in class.

This, on the one hand, was of course due to the more advanced and complex assignments they were to fulfil. On the other hand, they had never before been involved in the development of inhibitors (i.e. anti-catalysts), which have proven to be vital for modern agriculture’s fight against weeds, fungi and parasites. Basically, their assignment was to find out which inhibitor to use in order to block a specific enzyme of a plant. In addition they were to determine its optimal dose, examine how they interact and, ultimately, how they work on biochemical basis and what to improve. This might sound easier than it is, and, needless to say, has proven to be quite a challenge for every student involved.

While, in the end, our school did not turn out to be the winner, we were more than satisfied in achieving third place and returning home with an amazing experience, brand new iPods, and a prize of 1000€.

As one of the contestants, I would like to thank Bayer CropScience and its team for organizing the event and our biology teacher Mrs. Mosebach-Garbade for signing us in, thus helping us to this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

by  Jessica and Denise   (BvA)

Shopping in England is just great. For example “Primark”. Primark is a big shop for clothes, jewellery and so on. In Germany we just have two shops of that chain; they are in Frankfurt and Bremen.

But in Germany we’ve got a lot of H&M shops. That’s our Primark. But it’s more expensive than Primark & the quality isn’t as good.

We think that Primark is a nice shop and we spent a lot of time in it when we were in Birmingham.

In England they also have some H&M shops but not so many as Primark.

It was a new experience to see a shop in England because they’re different from ours in Germany.

by Meike & Katrin (BvA)

The 12^th grade went to Berlin by train from 3^rd to 7^th October 2010. We split up in two groups because the German Railway didn’t allow 90 people in one train.

The first evening we went to the Brandenburger Gate because of the German Unification Day. There was a fair all the way down to the Column of Victory where we went in little groups of 3 or 4.

The next day we visited the Parliament Building, the Reichstag Building, with the whole group. We listened to a lecture about the building and after that we met Ms. Noll and talked about her work as the MP of our home region. Then we went to the top of the building with its glass dome.

For lunch we all went to the 12 Apostle, an Italian restaurant. The afternoon was free to explore the city or go shopping. In the evening we had time to party which we took advantage of thoroughly.

On Tuesday we all had to go on a 2-hour-trip on the River Spree which runs through the city. For lunch we could go on our own or with the teachers, but we had to meet at the museum “Story of Berlin” in the afternoon at 3 o’clock. After the museum we had free time until the next morning. In the evening some of us (60 people) went to a brewery which actually was more like a bar.

On Wednesday we went to museums in small groups. There was the Art Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Museum of Nature and the German History Museum. After that we had free time again.

The last evening we all went to the brewery again, this time with the teachers, which was a little bit boring so that after about half an hour most of us left to go somewhere else. Some of us went to another bar with the teachers which was lots of fun.

The next day we left Berlin by train again in two groups.

All in all we had a great time and got to see a lot of the City of Berlin.

Von Charlotte Dwyer and Ellie Smith (LHS)

In unserer Schule treiben wir jeden Tag Sport, weil wir der Meinung sind, Sport wichtig ist . Montags spielen wir Fussball, Dienstags spielen wir Netzball und Federball, Mittwochs spielen wir Kricket, Donnerstags spielen wir Hockey und machen Gymnastik und Freitags spielen wir Basketball und Rugby. Wir finden Sport spannend und spassig! Es ist gut für unsere Gesundheit, und für Teamarbeit.
Die `Lady Hawkins’ School’ hat ein sehr gutes und erfolgreiches Netzballteam in der 10ten Klasse. Wir sind dreimal Meister in Herefordshire geworden und wir haben in unserer Region West Midlands gespielt.
Die Schule gibt Studenten eine Sportskrawatte wenn sie sehr gut in Sport sind. Auch werden Studenten Preise für sportliche Erfolge gegeben.

by Scott Johnson (LHS)

Am Freitagnachmittag 19.11.2010 haben wir während des Comeniustreffens einen Weihnachtsmarkt in Birmingham besucht. Joe und ich hatten eine wunderbare Zeit.

by Henry Beaumont (LHS)

On Monday the 22nd of  November the Comenius group went together to The Big Pit near Blaenavon in Wales. Once we arrived we headed into the Museum and headed into the waiting room for the Underground Tour. We were only allowed down into the mine in groups of around 17. Once we were kitted up into belts and helmets we stepped into the lift and were lowered 90 metres down into the mine. There we were taken around by a tour guide who had himself worked in the mine when he was younger, and it was there that we learned children as young as five worked by opening and closing flaps for elder men coming through with mine carts.

As we went deeper into the mine we were told about the other workers in the mine and the horses. Horses in the early days of mining were used to pull around trains filled to the brim with coal. Once they had been taken down into the mines many horses never saw daylight again. That was until a new law was passed that required that horses had to have semi-regular holidays. Even after holidays had been introduced once horses were too old to work they were killed. Only two horses from the big pit were ever retired.

Towards the end of our tour we were told about the danger of burrowing into the Welsh Ground and Carbon Monoxide poisoning. The Miners used Canaries to test for this Gas and at the end of our tour after riding the lift, in miners’s tongue “the cage”, back up to the surface we met two other canaries before moving on and having our lunch in the miner’s canteen.

After this we went into the virtual mining experience where we saw a miners’ shower room and many historical photos of their  working life.

by Holly Williams (LHS)

In meiner Freizeit tanze ich gern. Ich mache Ballett, Jazz, Gesellschaftstanz und Lateinamerikanischen Tanz. Am Donnerstag mache ich Ballett, am Freitag mache ich Jazz und am Samstag mache ich Gesellschaftstanz und Lateinamerikanischen Tanz. Ich tanze auch am Dienstag in der Schule. Zum Ballett trage ich einen schwarzen Turnanzug , eine weissrosa Strumpfhose und rosa Ballettschuhe. Zum Jazz trage ich schwarze Hosen und ein T-Shirt. Dieses Jahr habe ich an einer Show teilgenommen, die ‘The Tales Of Beatrix Potter’  heisst. Es war gut und spannend! Ich mag tanzen, weil es Spass macht.

by Joseph Attwood (LHS)

On Friday the 19th of November I went to the Think Tank Museum in Birmingham with students from  Tadeusza Kościuszki liceum Ogólnokształcące in Poland and Bettine-von-Arnim-Gesamtschule in Germany. We had a good time and saw lots of interesting things like the rail ton world land speed record car from 1938, which did an amazing 394 mph, an old Spitfire from the second world war , lots of pieces of machinery and a human brain!!!!!. We went to the planetarium which was cool because I learnt about the stars and far off galaxies. Afterwards we went to a café for pizza. After this we went to the center of Birmingham and the German market.  In the Bullring we bought stuff and gave Scott money. Then we got lost for ages. Then we found the German market and went home.