Our Planet Our Future – Cultivating environmental awareness for the next generations Erasmus Project

Project Title

Our Planet Our Future – Cultivating environmental awareness for the next generations

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Nowadays more than ever it has become critical to start finding solutions to environmental problems. It is therefore imperative that children start to engage with their surroundings, learn to have sustainable consumer habits, to recycle and upcycle their waste instead of just throwing things away. Children all over the world are marching for the environment and ultimately their futures. As European citizens, we here at NMS In der Krim want to motivate the next generation to be conscientious and critical about the decisions they make every day and the direct consequences these have on the environment. Through international cooperation with our Spanish partners IES Torre del Rey, we want children to understand the global nature of the problems posed by pollution and waste and work together to find comprehensive and alternative solutions to the challenges being faced. Working with the school in Spain, we could demonstrate how this is a problem shared by all children of the world, which can only be resolved sustainably via unity and collaboration. We would like the children to see that even the smallest steps can have a great, positive impact overall. A project such as this would allow the children to tap into their creativity and develop intercultural and cooperative skills across borders.

We would like to encourage the children to show initiative, independence as well as creativity with their ideas. We hope to achieve this by having the children create and film their own web-blogs and tutorials on, for example, upcycling methods and waste management. They will therefore be learning to engage more with ICT and will exchange their web-blogs with those made by the children in Spain. Additionally, we would like to stimulate entrepreneurship at school by having the children organise a fleamarket to exchange their upcycled products. Generally we will also arrange a school-wide campaign on waste management and reduction and pioneer this in other schools in the area. In our own school here in Austria, we will also be reorganising our waste management, introduce stricter recycling schemes and instill in the children a more mindful approach to consumption and waste.

Through excursions, such as a visit to the local sustainable waste incinerator, we hope to teach and inform children about alternative forms of energy. We plan to hold workshops with experts from the environment sector in order to generate greater awareness of environmental problems and solutions. The cultural exchange with children from Spain through regular cyber communication as well as the planned one week exchange in each others countries, will further cement international collaboration and encourage the children to see themselves as European citizens with a need to be part of a global solution.

Our longer-term goals include continuing the use of a new and improved sustainable waste management system as well as a school garden where vegetables and flowers are grown using recycled containers in Vienna and an orchard in Spain. Together with our partner school, we will create a common logo for the environment and sustainability, which will become a symbol for eco-friendliness in both schools. We will maintain an “Erasmus corner” at school, to inform both children, parents and visitors about our project on the environment, which we will constantly update. In the course of our project NMS In der Krim will create a new extra-curricular weekly lesson at school called the “Umwelt Club” (environment club), which will be continued after the project’s end. Umwelt Club will teach children about sustainability and environmental-friendliness via projects and fun activities.

This project will complement our ongoing eTwining project, which is called “Our Planet Our Future – inspiring children to care for the environment”. The eTwinning platform will be used to work with the school in Spain to exchange ideas and carry out joint events for recycling, upcycling and to attain the above-mentioned aims together.

The participating organisations are:

NMS In der Krim (Vienna, Austria); Applicant organisation; Secondary school.
IES Torre del Rey (Pilas, Spain); Partner organisation; Secondary school.

Project Website

https://ourplanetourfuture2019.blogspot.com

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 17084 Eur

Project Coordinator

NMS/VBS In der Krim & Country: AT

Project Partners

• IES TORRE DEL REY