Teaching science for sustainability Erasmus Project

Project Title

Teaching science for sustainability

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: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Natural sciences; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Dealing with the great challenges of the 21st century requires far reaching changes in the lifestyle and perceptions of humans to ensure an appropriate quality of life for all, now and in the future. Solution approaches for these challenges have to be negotiated between different interest groups on a regional and on a global level. The ability for collaboration across national and cultural boarders is therefore one of the key competences required for sustainable development. Within the eTwinning project “Collaboration internationale des jeunes au sujet de la qualité de vie“ 120 students from the BRG and BORG Feldkirch in Austria and the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Réunion are working together. Within moderate- constructivist learning settings the students are jointly conducting research on the topics of quality of life and sustainability.
In order to overcome the limitations of a collaboration purely restricted on digital media, a face-to-face collaboration is planned as a further step. This should enable deeper interactions between participants and offer the possibilities to get a broader insight into different socio-cultural strategies in dealing with these challenges. The project is designed to offer a balance of blended and experiential learning whilst deepening critical and creative thinking, building on prior knowledge, creating learner autonomy and cross-curricular expectations.
To implement this project successfully it is also necessary to consider that the participating teachers are also learners in this field. Therefore, the student mobilities between these two schools are flanked by teacher trainings including job shadowing and teaching assignments in order to exchange best practice examples as well as knowledge inputs about sustainability challenges in different natural and socio-cultural environments.
Furthermore, this Erasmus+ project will follow an interdisciplinary approach by combining science and language subjects. We foresee that the project will involve a mobility of 22 students and 11 teachers over a time period of three years. Students going abroad will take part in face-to-face workshops with larger groups of students at the representative hosting school and these workshops will be attended by various teachers out of different subjects. Additionally, several activities (logo and literature competitions, ongoing collaborative learning on different topics connected with sustainability) conducted on eTwinning between the mobilities will involve numerous school classes of both schools.
Therefore, approximately 130 students and 15 teachers will be actively working within this project. Due to the fact that the project will be presented on both schools the experiences will be shared with the whole school communities.
Teaching approaches, methodologies and materials produced as part of the project will be shared with colleagues. This will increase the awareness of the importance of an international / intercultural collaboration and will be an important step to implement them into school curricula. The involvement of regional external associations during this project will also encourage further cooperation between these associations and schools.
Ultimately, this project provides students with the abilities to become sustainable citizens who are capable to deal with the challenges of an increasingly interconnected and globalized society which is confronted with the urgent need of a transformation towards sustainability. This can be seen as a precondition to allow humanity to survive and prosper on our planet.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 98892 Eur

Project Coordinator

BRG und BORG Feldkirch & Country: AT

Project Partners

• LPO Antoine de ST-EXUPERY