COMENIUS is a programm organized by the European Union for international exchanges and projectes. Schools from all over
Europe can participate in this programm. The aims of these projectes are to study culture, nature, etc. of foreign countries,
to communicate with people from other regions of the world, to improve language skills and find friends. The project is
mostly an exchange between two schools from different countries. Pupils of these two schools can visit the country of their
exchange partners and learn more about the foreign country during their stay. One Part of COMENIUS is also a project done by
all the pupils participating in the exchange - the topic can be different, but it always contains the possibility to learn
more about another country and the people living there.
The two schools participating in this COMENIUS-Project are the HCA-Gymnasium of Sulzbach-Rosenberg (Germany) and
Menntaskólinn of Laugarvatn (Iceland).
The HCA-Gymnasium is an average big school with about 750 pupils. It is situated right in the town of Sulzbach-Rosenberg and
pupils living up to 10km away from school visit HCA. Sulzbach-Rosenberg itself is a small town of 20,000 inhabitants situated
in the north-east of Bavaria. The region itself is rather famous for (former) industry and forest/forestry. Big forests like
the Bayerischer Wald are not far away.
Menntaskólinn is a boarding-school with about 150 pupils right in the centre of Iceland. Young people from all over the
country come to this school during week to study there. The centre of Iceland is famous for hot springs and many geysers.
And of course other regions of the country (like the capital city of Reykjavik or the vulcanic mountain range of Hekla) are
easy to visit right from the centre of the country.
The topic of the COMENIUS-Project done by HCA-Gymnasium and Menntaskólinn is: Tourism and the Environment - Nature in the
Minds of the People.
At first 20 pupils from Sulzbach-Rosenberg visited Iceland for two weeks and worked in several groups (togehter with their
exchange partners) on different subjects,
which are part of the main topic. Trips to other places except of Laugarvatn helped to gather information about culture and
nature of Iceland.
After that, the Icelandic pupils came to visit Sulzbach-Rosenberg for two weeks. There the second part of the project was
made and again few groups worked on different topics. Trips to other places like the National Park of Bayerischer Wald or
the Spa Triangle around Bad Füssing resulted in many experiences, which were written together in the group work.
