Is geography destiny? Erasmus Project

Project Title

Is geography destiny?

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Our project “Is geography destiny?” during which at about 110 students between 14 and 18 years old from 6 partners will directly join activities and get a chance to develop their global competences consists of 5 mobilities and local activities that will take place through 24 months. And also, the first mobility will be devoted to discussing the details of
According to the questionnaire we had at the beginning of the project, our students have some information about climate change, geographical conditions around them but they need to be guided. Besides, even though they have had some practice with technological tools such as 3D printer and Web 2.0 tools, they need more opportunities to develop their skills. Therefore we have decided to organize activities that will create opportunities to enrich their skills.
We have separated the topics of our mobilities and local activities into two parts. During the activities planned for the first year, students will have local activities to find out how geography affects our lifestyle and they will join international mobilities to discuss geography’s global effect. In one mobility we will learn about people who reached their goals despite the adversity and proved that geography is not destiny. This mobility will also be the place where we will discuss disasters such as floods and earthquakes caused by nature and how we can live with them.
Our local activities and mobilities have been devoted to understanding how humans have destroyed the harmony between themselves and nature.
During these local and international activities, our students will have challenges during which they will have to search, learn, compare and create as a team in local and international activities. This will allow them to prepare for the real business world that seeks people who have enough tolerance and respect to work with other people from different cultural and historical backgrounds.
Also, we trust they will have positive developments in the skills of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication through activities based on geography as the common tool among partners. We chose geography as it is a global topic that affects all human activities, enables students to understand global issues and learn other countries and their cultures.
At the end of our project, we want to have students who have
– a more developed feeling of respect towards people with different cultural and historical backgrounds,
– learned geography and its effect on their culture and lifestyles
– been aware of the importance of the term sustainability
– had more accurate information about the causes and effects of climate change
– developed their ICT and foreign language skills
– learned how to prepare more academic and detailed reports.
Our students’ progress in these areas will be followed by various exams, questionnaires, checklists, surveys, and interviews.
For our teachers, we want to create challenges and opportunities to develop their professional competencies, update their methods by learning new education systems, meeting and sharing ideas with teachers from different cultures and workshops on 21st-century teaching skills, Web 2.0 tools, Google apps, distance learning tools, and CLIL.
The most important product of our project will be UTOPIA CITIES which will be designed according to the experiences and knowledge our students acquire in each mobility and local activity. Our students will be asked to rethink our habits of agriculture, trade, and transport and their effects on nature and then design these cities as the places where people can have that are more eco-friendly and sustainable. Apart from that, the geographical conditions of these cities will be designed by our students so they will be symbols of our efforts to create awareness about sustainability and the importance of geography for our lifestyles.
With our project, our partner schools will get the opportunity to make
– their geography lessons more popular
– their students use digital tools more efficiently
– their students apply their theoretical knowledge in real life
– their schools create a more suitable learning environment
– their teachers learn new methods and refresh their motivation
– their schools develop local and international collaborations.
As project partners who mostly have previous collaborations through Erasmus and other projects, we have planned different activities such as project day, debates, poster day, excursions, seminars, project corners, and bookmarks for significant days to reach students and teachers both at our schools and other local schools, as well as parents and the local community. Finally, the project website, Twinspace, calendar and mascot will also be tools to make our project known in local and international platforms.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 187431 Eur

Project Coordinator

Jensen Gymnasium Göteborg & Country: SE

Project Partners

• Gimnazija Metkovic
• Zespol Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych nr 12
• IES Martín Rivero
• Gimnazija Vukovar
• Tarsus Borsa Istanbul Sehit Umut Sami Sensoy Anadolu Lisesi