Go Green, Europe! Erasmus Project

Project Title

Go Green, Europe!

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: Environment and climate change; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries

Project Summary

Even though the climate crisis was and is an important topic at the moment which a lot of young people display their interest in, the first reaction to our project was very different in the four countries. While students in Spain and Germany seemed very eager to participate right from the beginning, the situation was a bit more complex in Estonia and Sweden. As we wanted to increase awareness for environmental issues, we had expected something like this and were able find enough students willing to participate in the project. However, another obstacle were the very different prevailing conditions; in Germany the students were able to met in an after school club every fortnight. In the other countries the teachers met with their students during the lunchbreak or shortly after school. Nevertheless, all students presented themselves on etwinning before the first mobility and they produced videos about their school and if/how sustainable they already are. We were able to use the Twinspace successfully as during the first mobility to Gelnhausen in September 2019 we had a workshop with Heidi Giese and were able to outline the structure of our Twinspace together. After we had decided together about the content of the Twinspace, it became the Spanish teachers’ responsibility to take care of it. As a first task all four schools had to produce videos presenting their schools, the group members and to what extend the schools are already sustainable. All schools were able to do the preparatory tasks for the mobility to Kalix; water samples were collected, the students reflected on their perception of Sweden and prepared something “traditional” for the welcoming dinner. The German school put together a homepage for the project. In February 2020 we successfully went to Sweden where our students designed in multinational groups possible logos for the project. All participants, including those at home, voted for their favourite which was from then on used. During the stay we examined our water samples, experienced the role water/ice plays in Sweden during winter and how it in general used in the Kalix region (paper production). The Swedish group set up an Instagram account for the project during our mobility to Sweden. Shortly after we came back from Kalix the Corona pandemic led to a lockdown in all four countries. Since March 2020 it had been very difficult to continue with project. On the one hand it quickly became clear that travelling to another country with a group of students or hosting people from different countries would not be possible in the timespan we estimated for the project. Extending the program wasn’t an option either as students in Sweden would graduate in summer 2021 and wouldn’t be able to participate later on. All four countries had different regulations in school and were at different times in a lockdown. E.g. the German group couldn’t meet in person anymore as students from different year groups were part of the project and they weren’t allowed to mix. In September 2020 we collected ideas with our students how we could still continue the project to a certain extend. Among the ideas were organizing a clean-up day in all four schools, preparing a cooking book together with sustainable and environmentally friendly recipes in all four languages and writing a children’s book which addresses the topic we had originally aimed to deal with in the course of the project. However, the current situation made it very difficult to put those ideas into practice. On the one hand regulations prevented the realization of some. On the other hand it was very difficult to get hold of students and their minds seemed to be preoccupied with other things which is only understandable in such a situation. As a consequence the Swedish group had to leave the project in December 2020. The remaining three countries tried to uphold the project. The Estonian group was able to participate in a talk about forests in Estonia. The Spanish group organised some actitivies on the World Sustainability Day for their school. Additionally they made a mural with plastic caps and worked on the children’s book together with the German group. In Germany the students worked on the aforementioned cooking book as well as the children’s book. The latter could be completed and was even illustrated.

Project Website

https://gogreeneurope.home.blog/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 55798 Eur

Project Coordinator

Grimmelshausen Gymnasium & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Otepää Gümnaasium
• IES Valle del Ebro
• Furuhedsskolan