HQ8a – Mean High Water at the School of the Future

Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gymnasium with Jana Engel and Franziska Pierwoss

© Jana Engel

As a result of global warming, the water-rich region of Berlin-Brandenburg is also threatened by flooding, a falling water table and water scarcity. Based on the resource of water and the experience of the 2017 flood in Friedrichshagen, the students of class 8a at Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gymnasium, together with the artists Jana Engel and Franziska Pierwoss, develop tangible measures for sustainable water management at their school and test ecological educational approaches (e.g., green classroom). Their ideas are integrated into the planning process for the redesign of the schoolyard and the school’s learning and teaching programs. Using various scenarios, including global water scarcity and flood events, they examine the actual causes and consequences of climate change. In the process, they examine their own water footprint, interview people affected by flooding and experts from the neighboring IGB (Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries) and get in touch with local government officials.