School information
- School name
- Private Elementary School of Democratic Education
- School year
- 2025-2026
- School website
- City
- Košice
- Country
- Slovakia
- Sea basin
- Black Sea
- Region
- Inland: >20 km from the sea
Project information
- Project name in native language
- Hľadá sa živá voda
- Starting date of the project
- End date of the project
- Level of education
- Primary school (7-11 y.o)
- Project website
- Project contact
- Categories
- Biodiversity
The first and key objective of the project was to improve pupils´ understanding of water pollutants by direct data sampling, detecting and sharing. The project involves students observing and monitoring the quality of local water sources. Children learn why water is important, how to protect it, and the impact of pollution, including microplastics. Activities take place during nature, science and mathematics lessons, where students explore rivers and collect simple data. Parents and homeschool students participate in outdoor activities, helping with observations and practical tasks. The project encourages responsible behavior toward nature, strengthens community engagement, and provides hands-on learning experiences with real-world environmental issues. First, students participated in field trips where they collected water samples and observed the surroundings of local water sources. They examined the condition of the environment and discussed possible sources of pollution. The collected samples were later analyzed in school.
During the student research project, we collected 21 water samples, which confirmed the following pupils hypotheses:
Water near human settlements will be more polluted than water in the wild.
Water taken from a river in a city contains more microplastics than water from the wild.
Spring water will be the cleanest (lowest turbidity, low microorganism content).
We examined a wide variety of water sources and found microplastics in nearly 50% of the samples.