By Julie, Zoé, Lilly, Emma, from the BFI 1eres group
From the 6th to the 11th of October 2024, we _the BFI students_ went to Tampere, Finland. We had exchange students that came in our school last year in October. This project was organized by our teachers Mr bonnet, Mrs Frances, Mrs Palmier and the Finnish teacher Mr Lommi.
During this trip, we did many activities!
On Monday, we visited the school and met some other exchange students who came from Italy
On Tuesday, we visited Tampere and had two lessons : one on melting ice formation and the other was about Finnish soundscapes.
On Wednesday, it was cold and rainy all day but despite the really bad weather, we still had a super day! We went walking in the forest, and had a barbecue in a little shelter. This was really good because we warmed up near the fire and shared a good moment all together with the Italians and the Finnish.
On Thursday morning, we visited the Vapriikki museum. It was great too, because this museum had plenty of different rooms on different topics so everyone could find something they liked. There was a room on video-games, on natural history of Tampere, a Finnish hockey hall of fame and many others. In the afternoon, we all went to an amusement park, which was amazing! We did many attractions and for Halloween there were actors dressed up like monster and zombies who tried to scare us. We also did individual activities with our hosts: hockey games, sauna, horse riding, fishing, bouldering…
The aim of the trip was to understand how melting ice from the Ice Age shaped the landscapes of our planet, using the exemples of our two countries, France (the Pyrennees are a montainous place) and Finland (eskers were formed on flat floors). That’s what Mr Lommi explained to us, exploring eskers and understanding their formation. It is during walks in the eskers with Dr. Carruthers-Jones that we linked this project to the Doctor’s. Besides, he’s searching for a way to add more information to actual maps, adding sounds to them, to find a way to create healthy environments for both humans and animals, making sure natural environments are preserved, while using biophony (animal’s sounds), geophony (environnement’s sounds) and antropohony (human activities’ sounds).
During the trip we noticed that the school in Finland was very different, and we got to experience everything. Classes last 75 minutes and students have a 15 min break between every class. Since it’s an art school, most classes have specific materials like cameras, wood work, or painting holders.
The students choose their own classes and create their own timetable, and it changes every three months. They still have specific classes to attend too, but it’s less strict than in France. Most school days last from 9am to 3pm! Every French student was impressed and glad to finish this early!
One other thing that was impressive for us, as French students, was how flexible the teachers were. In fact, the students could arrive late or leave the classroom without asking, be on their phone, without the teacher saying anything!