The Reggio Emilia Blog
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Monday 15th June
Aaron Lad
Iris and I visited Reggio Emilia in Italy for the biannual Hydrogen Academy General Assembly at the beginning of June. With the project’s midterm target of having over 500 schools in the Network 500+ already achieved, this general assembly was as much a celebration of our progress as it was a project update.
If you’d like to know more about the Hydrogen Academy Project, visit our website: The Hydrogen Academy. Lots of new school resources for the project have been created as well, which you can find here.
Wednesday 3rd June
As we were flying from Manchester Airport to Bologna, Iris and I met just before 10am at Birmingham New Street Station to catch a train to Manchester Airport. After a change at Crewe we arrived around midday with a few hours to spare before our flight. With some free time, Iris and I discussed the progress of some of the projects that we have been running with schools. In collaboration with Woodrow First School in Redditch, we are in the process of packaging up a series of lesson plans which utilise Mantle of the Expert as a teaching methodology. Iris and I were keen to brainstorm how we can best present these lesson plans to teachers who are not familiar with the methodology. We also have a project with the Central Regions School Trust (CRST), where eco-councils across the different schools in the trust are creating learning materials on green hydrogen, so we needed to discuss how best to design these materials and package them together.
Yousif Al-Sagheer from the University of Birmingham was also on the same flight to Bologna so we met him and our colleague Sile Brennan, from the University of Ulster, at Bologna Airport. Sile had arrived on a different flight, but at a similar time to ours so we all caught the Marconi Express into Bologna and from there a train to Reggio Emilia. It was great to see Sile and Yousif again, both of whom we have regularly collaborated with throughout the project in various areas, especially in school resource creation and designing the website.
Upon arriving in Bologna at 9pm, we were all keen to recharge from our travels with some dinner. Many of our project partners who had arrived earlier in the day had met at a restaurant in the town centre of Reggio Emilia, so we joined them for a catch up before walking to our accommodation for an early night before the busy days ahead.
Thursday 4th June
Iris and I met at 8am to venture into the town centre so we could have some breakfast before the beginning of the first day of the General Assembly. We had a typical Italian breakfast of a cappuccino and a pastry before we saw some of our project partners walking to the venue and so we joined them. The General Assembly was being hosted in Reggio Emilia at the Department of Education and Humanities, UNIMORE, by our amazing partner Tiziana Altiero, so we arrived at the venue to meet her and her colleague Veronica Testa. After all partners were present, the meeting began with updates from each of the work packages. These updates constituted the majority of the day’s meetings, with thoughtful discussions around a variety of topics from all partners.
A highlight of the day was Markus Lermen from DVGW presenting the children’s story book that we have been developing in the project: Katy and the Hydrogen Pigeon. This exciting story book was written by Chiara Puecher from UNIMORE and is illustrated by Sharonjit Sutton with Bertz Associates. It tells the story of a young girl who dreams of changing the world using green hydrogen. Katy and the Hydrogen Pigeon will be available in a variety of languages and will be linked to a range of supporting material developed by the Hydrogen Academy Project, so keep a look out for it!
For the project dinner, Tiziana and Veronica had arranged to eat at a local restaurant in Reggio Emilia city centre, so Iris and I walked there after a brief rest at our accommodation. I talked with Birgit Thoben and the project lead Robert Steinberger-Wilckens about the current outlook on hydrogen in EU politics and about the impact of the current political landscape and AI in the future of careers. I also spoke with Yousif about the project’s YouTube channel and how we can highlight our resources better on the website.
Friday 5th June
For the second day of the General Assembly, we again met at the Department of Education and Humanities at UNIMORE. The meetings and discussions were much shorter this time, although we still covered a significant amount of content. Importantly, we planned future meetings for the Network 100+ of universities and the Network 500+ of schools. Having these networks is important for the project so the resources we develop can be disseminated. Therefore, keeping them active is crucial. These network meetings are aimed to engage our current network and promote the Hydrogen Academy to anyone who is interested in joining.
After the conclusion of the meeting, we wished some of our colleagues who were returning home early a safe journey and headed back to our accommodation briefly. In the evening, Iris and I met with Tiziana, who had done an incredible job of organising the General Assembly. We discussed how to increase our number of schools in the Network 500+ further because we must have at least 650 schools by the conclusion of the project. After dinner, Tiziana returned back home, whilst Iris and I explored more of Reggio Emilia. We met our colleagues from the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, and reflected on the progress we have made over the whole project so far, before returning to our accommodation with an early morning train beckoning.
Saturday 6th June
On our final day in Reggio Emilia, Iris and I walked from our accommodation to the station in Reggio Emilia for a 7am train to Bologna, after which we took the Marconi Express from Bologna station to the airport. Markus had gifted Iris a DVGW mascot who is named Molly, so we took some photos on the way to the airport to document her travels. At the airport, we discussed the next steps from the meeting and how best to achieve our short-term and long-term aims.
After arriving at London Stansted, Iris and I caught the coach back to Birmingham and parted ways at Birmingham International Station, both of us eager to continue work on the project but also tired after an eventful few days.
The Reggio Emilia Blog
Reggio Emilia was a stunning city and I had an incredible time! The architecture, food and people were amazing, so I would definitely love to return there in the future to see more of the city.
All of the general assemblies that I have attended have reinforced my belief of the importance of this project. With the current impacts of climate change, greater use of hydrogen in the future is crucial to mitigate its effects. To do this, we must help young people understand what hydrogen is and how they could have a career in the field in the future. I look forward to continuing to work on this project and feel incredibly lucky to have such amazing project partners to support the work we do!
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