The Sea Connection – trade, environment, migration and social challenges as links between four European coastal cities Erasmus Project

Project Title

The Sea Connection – trade, environment, migration and social challenges as links between four European coastal cities

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

Harbors have always been doorways to the world. They have shaped and modeled the character and main features of the cities they belong to. Their economy, environment and culture have been strongly influenced by their existence. In a time when nations are building up walls to defend their borders, waterfront cities will always be open and exposed to migrations, environmental threats, and movement of goods. We wanted to raise awareness among our students on the marine environmental issues and their interdependence, as well as the movement of people and goods inherent in the life of a harbor.
Our project “The Sea Connection – trade, environment, migration and social challenges as links between four European coastal cities” was carried out by four schools: Gymnasium Altona (Hamburg, Germany), IIS Benedetti Tommaseo (Venice, Italy) , Liceo Palcam SLU (Barcelona, Spain) and Tyska Skolan (Stockholm, Sweden). It aimed to raise our students’ and the whole communities’ awareness on the current and future challenges waterfront cities have to face. The students of our schools will be the next generation of citizens who should be prepared to take responsibility to tackle these challenges.
The participants of the project were teachers of various subjects (Languages, ICT, Biology, Chemistry, History, Art, Geography, Social Sciences), some of them experienced in interdisciplinary teaching; students aged 10 to 17 at each of the schools and external stakeholders like NGOs, port authorities, museums and universities. The students were taking part in different stages of the project and collaborating in a wide variety of activities that led to the accomplishment of a series of objectives. Within that age group, 144 students aged 14 to 17 from Hamburg, Venice, Barcelona and Stockholm participated in the 3 international short-term exchanges that took place in Venice, Barcelona and Stockholm. The planned mobility in Hamburg was cancelled due to Covid-19.
Through the planning, preparation and creation of short-films, art and learning materials in the form of presentations and an e-book, our students learned about the past, present and future of our harbors and our cities. Especially during the mobilities they discovered the connections between our cities and their relationship within the European Union frame that enabled them to trace our similarities as members of the EU and develop a self-perception as members of it.
In addition, they were doing research about the consequences and the benefits of having fully operational harbors in our cities. The students focused on the environmental issues produced by them, how pollution together with transport affects the fauna and flora. Moreover, they did research on migratory and invasive species, gentrification, the history of trade, tourism – with special focus on the impact of cruise ships – and migration and their different forms and situations in each of our cities, following a flipped classroom approach. All the activities of this project were aimed at teenagers. Our main concern was to allow them to be the center of the learning process. They were the ones doing the necessary research, taking care of the development of the activities and of the creation of all the products in the project. The teachers’ function in the process was mainly advisory; accompanying the process at school or during excursions, establishing contact with external players, supplying the students with technical equipment where needed and monitoring the creation of the short films. We wanted to foster their research and cooperative skills, and the perfect tool for that was a combination of PBL methodology and cooperative work. The learners had to come up with answers and solutions to a variety of problems they had to face in the creation process. They had to learn how to work within international groups, discuss, negotiate and cooperate in order to come up with a final product that gave answers to or opened new perspectives on the problems or issues that worked as a starting point of each thematic focus of the project. This fused methodology of Problem Based Learning and Cooperative work was combined with an active use of new technologies that enabled the students to succeed in the whole process of research, planning and creation of the final products.
We believe that these learning processes have led our students towards a better understanding of the reality of their cities in terms of environmental, migratory and trade issues among the four European countries and beyond their borders. The international activities and to a great extent the collaboration with external players seem to have been beneficial to favour the development of a sense of responsible European citizenship in our students and to foster their civic engagement with respect to environmental and migrant’s issues.The teachers and schools also benefit from trying out new educational approaches and interdisciplinary teaching.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 95183,42 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Altona & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Liceo Palcam SLU
• Istituto Istruzione Superiore Benedetti Tommaseo
• Tyska skolföreningen