Waste Wise – Water Wise Erasmus Project

Project Title

Waste Wise – Water Wise

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: Natural sciences; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Újpesti Könyves Kálmán Gimnázium in Budapest, Hungary and Gymnasio Polemiou in Paphos, Cyprus will participate in the project. Újpesti Könyves Kálmán Gimnázium is a general secondary school in Hungary with 650 students and 54 teachers. It is planning to become an Eco School and has already submitted a Erasmus+ teacher mobility application entitled “Könyves, Get Greener!” 20 students joining this project come from a science class in which students take part in a special science programme in the school’s Öveges laboratory. They will be in years 11-12 during the partnership. They are interested in science and concerned about the environment. GYMNASIO POLEMIOU is a secondary school located in Polemi village of Paphos, Cyprus, providing both lower and upper secondary education to the students of a big rural region of the district of Paphos. 170 students from 14 different communities of the area attend the school in which 44 teachers/educators work. 20 students aged 15-16 will take part in the project from two classes volunteering for similar reasons as the Hungarian partners. A group of teachers will coordinate the project which will be supervised by the school principals. The participants all speak English.
The project coordinators met at an eTwinning seminar for STEM teachers in France and agreed to build a strategic partnership between the two schools in which students could make friends with students from a European country to speak and write in English and practise cooperation through planning and undertaking teamwork. During the exchanges students can improve their social skills and learn about each other’s cultures. In both countries lack of opportunities to travel is the main hindrance to language learning. This will be a partnership of two schools with very different backgrounds. The Hungarian school is in Budapest, the capital city, while the Cypriot students live in a rural area. Protection of the environment is a key issue in both schools, so the project is built around water and waste management two subjects of special interest for the two countries.
The main objective is content and language integrated learning. Students will be taught tolerance, mutual acceptance and will develop critical thinking. We hope to increase their interest in science by dealing with environmental questions and responsibility in science lessons. They will think about possible solutions, relate to the topics through creating different texts and hopefully, become more conscious consumers. The project will be disseminated widely to promote a greener local environmental policy so that more waste is recycled, more carefully dangerous waste is handled and water is managed and used more wisely. The project will promote international partnership in the participating institutions by setting an example of good cooperation.
The timetable includes a series of activities connected to the topic of water and waste management and carried out separately and in cooperation. Students will deal with fake news, collect information on the history of water dams in Paphos Cyprus and waste management in a recycling plant in Budapest, carry out laboratory tests and analyse the results and give artistic feedback. There will be two student mobilities when they work on the project together. The students will compare how water is used, how waste is managed. Visits to water and waste management sites, science lessons and laboratory work are included in the timetable. It will be done and documented as an eTwinning project. Participants will keep contact via the Internet. A preparatory meeting is planned for teachers and a final meeting when they can assess the project, write the final report and agree on further cooperation. Students will open their own portfolios to collect documents of personal progress.
The two-year project work will help the involved schools become more environmentally conscious. The participating teachers from Cyprus are mainly concerned about waste management. They look forward to hearing about good practice in Hungary. In the Hungarian school this project is part of the efforts made to receive the official label of an Eco School.
Students will create products that can help raise awareness to water and waste management. The best ideas will be shared with the school management and the local authorities so that they can use them in their public environmental protection. The materials collected during project work will be available for teachers of both schools so they can use them in class work. The results of the laboratory tests will also be shared between the laboratories so that they can benefit from the project. By disseminating the results participants hope to achieve that the local authorities make changes in their policies of water and waste management and selective waste collection will be widespread in both schools and facilities will be provided for students to drink tap water without using plastic bottles or cups.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 54570 Eur

Project Coordinator

Újpesti Könyves Kálmán Gimnázium & Country: HU

Project Partners

• GYMNASIO POLEMIOU