From the paper Contact, we present a Solis-article .
Contact
Ziemelvalstu Gimnazija
Levanger videregående skole

This is the first edition of our paper or newsletter. So far we have called it Contact, and of course this title describe the intention with this paper, to keep a close contact between our two schools. The paper will be used for information, new co-operation ideas, student works, projects and other things which can be of interest for the other school. We hope that the administration and teachers as well as students can contribute to this paper. The responsibility for the paper will alternate between the schools. It means that we at Levanger videregående skole will edit the paper every second month. We start now in October. For November we "pass the ball" over to Riga and it will be our turn again in December.

A short introduction to SOLIS:

The main goals of the project when it was started in Norway was:

• To measure temperature and sun radiation to use the results for planning new power-plants in Norway - based on new tecnology using the energy from sun, wind etc.

• To let the students do some practical work - not just do the teoretical work - to get intersted in alternative energy.

The project now includes about 50 schools in Norway, some Finish schools and those in Latvia.

Once a month the results of the measurements are sent to a central registration in Norway, and I have registered that Ziemelvalstu gimnasium now is at the list.

In Norway some professores really have used the results in their work - and told in the newspapers that the measurements are of great importence to their work.

Until now the students too have been facinated of practising the projekt - and have made much nice equipment that use energy from the sun. Last summer my physics-students partisipated in a sunenergy-competition in Oslo - and came back to Levanger with trofees and new inspiration. The local newspaper also had an interview with the students - pictures in the newspaper etc.

The norwegian competition got a price for the best competition in Europe for this SUNDAY 97-competition.

Until now the project has been going quite well in Norway. But I think the the biggest interest for this project is over. We still do the measurements, but that is all. So, I think the SOLIS -project is just a door-opener for contact between norwegian and latvian schools. I really think it is other projects in physics that could be of more interest to have contact on for the future than the SOLIS-project.

Eimund Aamot

Teacher of Physics