By Nefeli Aggelopoulou & Lydia Milla

As a student in a Greek senior high school, I have spent many years within the Greek educational system, which has allowed me to observe both its strengths and its weaknesses. Education is considered highly important in Greece, especially during high school, as students prepare for university entrance examinations and their future careers.

One of the main advantages of the Greek educational system is its strong academic orientation. Students are taught a wide range of subjects, such as mathematics, physics, literature, history, and ancient Greek, which contribute to the development of critical thinking and a solid theoretical background. Moreover, public education in Greece is free of charge, ensuring equal access to education for all students, regardless of their financial situation. Many teachers are also highly dedicated and supportive, often making great efforts to help students succeed despite limited resources.

However, the system also has significant drawbacks. The most serious problem is the excessive emphasis on examinations, particularly the Panhellenic Exams. These exams place enormous pressure on students and often cause stress and anxiety, as many believe that their entire future depends on a single set of tests. Consequently, learning becomes focused on memorisation rather than true understanding, while creativity and independent thinking are largely neglected.

Another weakness is the lack of modern teaching methods. Lessons are usually teacher-centred, with little interaction or active participation from students. The limited use of technology and outdated school facilities further reduce the quality of education. As a result, many students feel obliged to attend private tutoring, which highlights the inefficiency of the public system and places a financial burden on families.

In conclusion, although the Greek educational system provides strong academic knowledge and equal opportunities, it requires important reforms. Reducing exam pressure and modernising teaching practices would create a more balanced and student-friendly learning environment.

By Nikolas Karpetas & Giannis Andriopoulos

Greece is home to many unique animals, but some are in danger of disappearing forever. First of all, one such animal is the Mediterranean monk seal. These seals live along Greece’s coasts, but their numbers are decreasing because of pollution and getting caught in fishing nets.

Another animal at risk is the Epirus dancing grasshopper. This grasshopper is found only in northwest Greece. Its habitat is shrinking due to building projects and farming, making it hard for the species to survive.

The Karpathos frog is also endangered. Living on the islands of Karpathos and Rhodes, this frog faces threats from water pollution and changes to its environment.

Large animals like the brown bear and the grey wolf are in danger too. As forests are cut down and human settlements expand, these animals lose their homes and food sources.

Birds such as the Dalmatian pelican are struggling as well. Wetlands, where they live and breed, are being drained or polluted, leading to fewer places for them to thrive.

Climate change adds to these problems. For example, butterflies in Greece are finding it harder to find food and suitable habitats as temperatures rise and wildfires become more common.

It’s important for everyone to help protect these animals. By preserving their habitats and reducing pollution, we can ensure that Greece’s wildlife continues to flourish for future generations.

By Ifigenia Karidi, Karatza Sofia, Malatara Reggina, Apostolopoulou Konstantina

Airplanes are used by thousands of travelers on a daily basis in order to satisfy their needs or desires (traveling, business, meeting with family, diseases etc). Of course there is a plethora of plane such as military aircrafts, private jets, airbuses, airships, passenger planes  and amphibious ones.  However most people, despite the fact that they have hopped on an airplane at least once, are unaware of their history.

The history of airplanes began with centuries of human fascination with flight. Early pioneers like Leonardo da Vinci conceptualized flying machines, but it wasn’t until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that serious experiments took place. In 1903, the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, achieved the first successful powered flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with their aircraft, the Wright Flyer. Their achievement built on earlier work by inventors like Otto Lilienthal, who had pioneered controlled gliding, and Samuel Langley, who had attempted powered flight.

Unfortunately in the following years the Wright’s success was used as means of the World War I for the first time in human history and of course they were developed in order to fit to the needs of war .  The interwar years saw further improvements in aerodynamics, engine power, and design, with aircraft like Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis (1927) making historic long-distance flights.  In the following World War major leaps were driven  in aircraft technology, including the introduction of jet engines and long-range bombers.

After the war ended the commercial use blossomed with the introduction of passengers jets such as Boeing 707 in the late 1950s, making air travel accessible to the masses. In the decades since, aviation has continually evolved, with innovations in materials, avionics, and fuel efficiency shaping modern aircraft. Despite numerous tragic air accidents the evolution on the aerodynamics and stability of the airplanes they are render very safe and efficient.

We all have appreciated the versatility of this invention since it has enabled to the mass to discover the world but also facilitates our everyday tasks. Don’t forget that airplanes bring power and safety to a country in case of emergency as well

By Julia Georgiopoulou

Penguins are a groupof aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Except for one species, the Galápagos penguin, who is found north of the Equator. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sea life which they catch with their bills and swallow it whole while swimming. A penguin has a spiny tongue and powerful jaws to grip slippery prey. They spend roughly half of their lives on land and the other half in the sea.

The largest living species is the emperor penguin on average, adults are about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 inches) tall. The smallest penguin species is the little blue penguin (Eudyptula minor), also known as the fairy penguin, which stands around 30–33 cm (12–13 inches). Today, larger penguins generally inhabit colder regions, and smaller penguins inhabit regions with temperate or tropical climates.

• The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is located to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching 100 cm (39 inches) in length and weighing from 22 to 45 kg. Feathers of the head and back are black and sharply definedby the white belly, pale-yellow breast and bright orange ear patches. Like all penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body, and wings stiffened and flattened into flippers for a marine habitat. Its diet consists primarily of fish, but also includes crustaceans, such as krill, and cephalopods, such as squid. While hunting, the species can remain submerged around 20 minutes, diving to a depth of 535 m. It has several adaptations to facilitate this, including an unusually structured haemoglobin, whichallows it to function well at low oxygen levels, solid bones help inreducing barotrauma, and the ability to reduce its metabolism and shut down non-essential organ f unctions. The only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter, emperor penguins travel 50–120 km over the ice to breeding colonies which can contain up to several thousand individuals. The female lays a single egg, which is incubated for just over two months by the male while the female returns to the sea to feed. The lifespan is typically 20 years in the wild, although observations suggest that some individuals may live to 50 years of age.

• The little penguin (Eudyptula minor) is a species of penguin from New Zealand. They are commonly known as littleblue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage. Eudyptula minor breeds along most of the coastline of New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands. They typically grow to between 30 and 33 cm tall and average weigh 1.5 kg. Little penguins feed by hunting small clupeoid fish, cephalopods, and crustaceans, for which they travel and dive quite extensively including to the sea floor. Important little penguin prey items include arrow squid, slender sprat, Graham’s gudgeon, red cod, and ahuru. The average lifetime for the species are 6.5 years, but some studies show that they may live up to 25 years in captivity.

• Behavior
  Penguins most of the time breed in large colonies, except the yellow-eyed and Fiordland species. The colonies may range in size from as few as 100 pairs for gentoo penguins to several thousand in the case of king, macaroni and chinstrap penguins.  Living in colonies results in a high level of social interaction between birds, which has led to a large repertoire of visual as well as vocal displays in all penguin species.  Agonistic displays are those intended to confront or drive off, or alternately appease and avoid conflict with other individuals.

Penguins create monogamous pairs for a breeding season. Most penguins lay two eggs in a clutch, although the two largest species, the emperor and the king penguins, lay only one. With the exception of the emperor penguin, where the male does it all, all penguins share the incubation duties. These incubation shifts can last days and even weeks as one member of the pair is getting fed at sea. Penguins generally only lay one brood, expect for the little penguin, that can raise two or three broods in a season. Penguin eggs are smaller than any other bird species when compared to the weight of the parent birds, which weights at 52 g, the little penguin egg is 4.7% of its mothers” weight, and the 450 g emperor penguin egg is 2.3%. The relatively thick shell forms between 10 and 16% of the weight of a penguin egg, maybe to reduce the effects of dehydration and to decrease the risk of breakage in an adverse nesting environment.  The yolk, too, is large and consists 22–31% of the egg. Some yolk often remains when a chick is born, and is thought to help sustain the chick if the parents are delayed in returning with food.
When emperor penguin mothers lose a chick, they sometimes attempt to «steal» another mother’s chick, usually unsuccessfully as other females in the vicinity assist the defending mother in keeping her baby. In some species, such as emperor and king penguins, the chicks assemble in large groups called crèches.

• Penguins and humans
  Penguins have no special fear of humans and will often approach them. This is probably because penguins have no land predators in Antarctica or the nearby islands. They are preyed upon by other birds like skuas, petrels, sheathbills, and gulls especially in eggs and as fledglings. Dogs preyed upon penguins while they were allowed in Antarctica during the age of early human exploration as sled dogs, but dogs have been banned from A ntarctica a long tune ago.  Instead, adult penguins are at risk at sea from predators such as sharks, orcas, and leopard seals. Typically, penguins do not approach closer than around 9 feet (3 meters), at which point they appear to become nervous..

• Movies, video games, comics etc dedicated to and inspirated by penguins
  Penguins have been the subject of many books and films, such as Happy Feet, Surf’s Up and Penguins of Madagascar, March of the Penguins, a documentary based on the migration process of the emperor penguin and Mr. Popper’s Penguins, the children’s book written by Richard and Florence Atwate and a great movie of success later. Penguins have also appeared in a number of cartoons and television dramas, including Pingu.
  A video game called Pengo was released by Sega in 1982. Set in Antarctica, the player controls a penguin character who must navigate mazes of ice cubes. The player is rewarded with cut-scenes of animated penguins marching, dancing, saluting and playing peekaboo. Moreover, penguins are also sometimes even depicted in music.

In 1941, DC Comics introduced the avian-themed character of the Penguin as a supervillain adversary of the superhero Batman. He became one of the most enduring enemies in Batman’s rogues gallery. In the 60s Batman TV series,played by Burgess Meredith, he was one of the most popular character, and in Tim Burton’s reimagining of the character in the 1992 film Batman Returns, he employed an actual army of penguins.

Source of information: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

BY DOROTHEA PAPADOPOYLOY – VIVI TAXIARCHIOTI

Cats first appeared around in 7.200 BC. Throughout the years their appearance and their characteristics have changed significantly. Although some of their personality traits are still the same.

One of their personality traits that has stayed the same to date is their love for playing and hunting. Domestic cats are predatory species which means they’re need to play with toys it’s constant. They are engaged in play fighting with each other and especially with humans. Most cats prefer spending their playing time with their owners. Domestic cats follow a set sequence of behaviors when hunting pray. They usually capture their prey by stalking it. They make slow movements in order to speed up the closer they get to the prey. They often capture it but not always kill and consume it which can be a cause of frustration.

Overall domestic cats are attention seekers. It is essential that we provide our cats with the entertainment that is needed. If we aren’t careful about this issue the cat’s psychology can be affected negatively.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat

By Alexandra Kossioni and Antigoni Vassilopoulou

It is a fact that all students, during their school years are going to write many standardized tests. Some people believe that taking this kind of exam is a fair measure of student achievement whereas others are of the opinion that there could be better ways of evaluating the students. Thus, the question arises: what are the advantages and the disadvantages of these tests?

To begin with, many believe that standardized tests are fair for everyone. All pupils are being tested under the same circumstances that are not determined by their school. Another positive aspect of standardized tests is that the government and the schools are able to monitor whether the students have made any progress or not and modify the teaching method, so that it can be suitable for them.

On the other hand, there are also many disadvantages that need to be marked. It is a common held belief that due to these exams, students often have to deal with really difficult and overwhelming situations. There are multiple examples that can prove the above statement, nevertheless, in any case, anxiety and stress can easily be caused. As a result, students tend to be less efficient to their studies and to their daily routines in general.

In conclusion, we firmly belief that, although standardized tests are a very stressful experience for all students, it is the only fair way to evaluate the children performance each year.

By Dionisis Chiras

Student life is the most fundamental and happiest period of the human life. Children in this period learn countless new things and information about life and they prepare themselves for the future so as to join society. Every day, they go το school and there they learn first of all, to communicate with other people and secondly, to cooperate with them by doing school projects. All these skills and information that school provides students with will be the key to a bright future to fulfill their dreams and complete their goals that they set every day.

Except for this part of the student’s daily routine, most students do extra-curricular activities. Some of them might be English lessons or private tutoring and sports. Another important thing for students is to take a certificate in the English language. Why do students want to take such a certificate? The answer is simple, because in this day and age English has become a worldwide language and speaking English fluently can help people and especially students in several ways. For instance, many jobs require the applicant to have an English certificate, so if a person has it, s/he can easily take the job. Furthermore, school often organizes school trips and some of them give the chance to students to visit a foreign country. In this case, speaking English can help them communicate with the locals and as a result learn more things about the country’s culture.

As for the sports that children do as an extra-curricular activity, they join different sport teams to do their favorite sport. In this way, they take a break from their exhausting, but also interesting daily routine, to do something they like and simultaneously exercise their bodies and keep fit. Some do individual sports, but others love playing team sports with their friends.

On the other hand, even though student life is so interesting, it is also very tiring due to the busy schedule that students have to follow every day. The long school hours, the homework that they have to do and the daily extra-curricular activities exhaust them and consequently there is lack of spare time for the students to do whatever they like.

To conclude, student life is a unique experience that children will never forget. In this period they learn many new things and do a lot of activities that they will probably never again have the chance to do. So it is important for them to have some free time to do something new every day.