Students win bet against parents

Created: 06/07/2022, 08:57

This is what winners look like: the Pöckinger elementary school students.

In their midst (from left) Steffen Rochau, headmaster Olaf Beck, Christian Schulz and Mayor Rainer Schnitzler.

© Andrea Jaksch

After the Pentecost holidays, the girls and boys of the Pöcking elementary school get a visit - a mobile chicken coop.

The students have earned this by winning a bet.

Pöcking

– In the weeks before Pentecost, 204 pupils at the Pöcking primary school dealt intensively with the environment, and even deliberately walked to school.

Getting chauffeured by mum and dad was taboo - at least if the students wanted to win the bet against the parents' association.

For the tenth time, the Parents' Council organized the Ökotrophy project, in which the students walk to school for 21 days or, if the walk is too far, take the school bus.

The primary school in Pöcking has been a certified environmental school since 2016.

Each school year, the school is dedicated to an environmental theme.

This year, the topic of “sustainable consumption” was given special attention.

In addition to the lessons, Christian Schulz and Steffen Rochau from the parents' association organized the Ökotrophy.

It is a competition in which the students competed against the Ökotrophy team (the parents' association).

In order to strengthen the sense of community, this year the entire student body bet against the parents' association - instead of the classes against each other as in previous years.

"The children should achieve a common goal," says Schulz.

80 percent of the points the goal - it was much more

The student body wagered that they would collect 80 percent of the possible total points.

One point could be collected for each way a child walked to school.

The children received a symbolic point in the form of a wooden coin from the school guides.

The students should then throw this into a large glass container in the auditorium.

The filling level of the 80 percent of the total points to be achieved was marked on the container.

The students won clearly, they reached 96.3 percent.

The award ceremony took place before the holidays, and the prize will be a mobile chicken coop for two weeks after the Pentecost holidays.

Each class is allowed to spend a day with the chickens.

A pancake day will then be held to use the eggs collected.

If the students had lost, they and the teachers would have had to spend a morning collecting rubbish in Pöcking.

Everyone was able to check the score on a website specially designed for this purpose, www.oekotrophy.de.

In addition, the website showed the CO2 saved so that the children could get a sense of sustainability.

"We want to set an example that a lot can be changed with small things," said Schulz.

The website was designed by Sabine Schön from the Parents' Council.

Further projects are already being planned

Mayor Rainer Schnitzler supports the project financially.

The municipality took over the costs for the utensils (dollars, glass containers) and the profit, the chicken coop.

According to Schulz, the campaign made an impression on the students – many continue to walk to school.

He was particularly pleased with the sportsmanship shown by the students.

If someone was ever driven by car, he said so in fairness.

Further workshops and campaigns on the topic of sustainable consumption are being planned, each class is planning its own project - but only after the visit of the chickens.