GREEN ECONOMY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. A replicable laboratory to educate young people and reduce early school leaving. Erasmus Project

Project Title

GREEN ECONOMY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. A replicable laboratory to educate young people and reduce early school leaving.

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 : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Environment and climate change; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

“GREEN ECONOMY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. A replicable laboratory to educate young people and reduce early school leaving.” “GRECO”, the short name given to it, is a KA2 Erasmus+ project, which lasted three years gathering primary, secondary and vocational schools from Estonia, Lithuania, Turkey and Italy coordinated by Italian school. It provided specific targets for each year.
All planned activities were carried out with enthusiasm and without any critical issues. The spirit of collaboration between the partners was immediate. The common working language was English for all the participants.
The working groups were composed from students aged from 15 to 18 years old. In each country about 20 students were involved in the project guided by teachers of Biology, Art, IT, English, Business studies also supported by no-teaching staff.
In the first half of January 2015, the Italian School hosted the first transnational project meeting, attended by a delegation of teachers from Estonia, Lithuania and Turkey. We reviewed and planned all the activities to be developed over the three years with the commitment that all the planned activities remained unchanged from the ones indicated in the agreed application before the Greek school was no longer involved.
As regards the project timetable, we all agreed to plan the short-term exchanges of pupils together with the transnational project meetings.
Each school worked to achieve the goals of the project: educating young generations to protect environment and to reduce early school leaving.
In the first year we completed the activities connected to the main monuments in each town, food and typical dishes in the different regions focusing on the differences depending on agriculture and climate. Moreover, we completed activities related to Fauna and Flora in each region aimed at encouraging students to know, respect and love their land and preserve it from pollution.
The Italian students built a website (O1) http://www.greco.itcgenco.gov.it/ where all the final products, photos, videos, reports and impressions were published. The Turkish partner prepared the technical manual (O2) and the Estonian partner prepared the didactical manual (O3) as planned in the project.
In the second year we carried out activities connected to the different ways of producing green energy in each country and how it was used and what it was used for. Moreover pupils focused their attention on recycling. Experts were involved in the project to illustrate how different ways of producing energy work, their cost, and how the different engines work. As agreed, each country studied different ways of producing green economy and arranged to carry out activities as follows: Estonian geothermal energy, Lithuanian hydropower, Turkish wind power and Italian solar power.
As regards recycling, the topic was intended to educate students on the importance of recycling and on different ways of recycling. Students collected information surfing the net and studied the importance to reuse and recover waste. All the partners agreed on shooting a video about how to reuse things.
In the third year pupils worked on how to set up a green business using local resources. They wrote a business plan and manufactured articles that were sold in a shopping centre during the last meeting in Estonia.
The Lithuanian school collected all the materials in a DVD as a documentary of how the project phases have been developed.
Due to the political situation in Turkey, we arranged to skip meetings in that country so we had to plan meetings only in three countries.
In each meeting, teachers and students planned activities or presented the results of their research. Students were asked to write a report about the experience: visits, excursions, workshops, experience as host or guest, feelings. They reported about the experience to school community during a students’ meeting. Finally, they filled in an evaluation questionnaire.
In each country, we organized meetings, study visits, workshops, visits to enterprise, farms and industries.
The results of the project are in many documents, videos, posters, PowerPoint presentations, video conferences, written reports of transnational teachers meeting in order to improve the ongoing on the project. Key results for teachers and schools prove new methods aimed at organising and leading student learning events in mobilities and planning collaborative activities online on various subjects taught in school.
This project had a significant impact on more than 300 students and 60 teachers. As a proof of their European citizenship and digital competences, these students mention their participation when applying for a first job or for universities after graduation from secondary or vocational school. Teachers gained motivation to improve their English language skill in order to have opportunities to take part into new international projects in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 113670 Eur

Project Coordinator

ITC “F. M. Genco” & Country: IT

Project Partners

• 3 GENIKO LYKEIO NEAS FILADELFEIAS “MILTOS KOUNTOURAS”
• Kauno Palemono vidurine mokykla
• Altinsehir Anadolu Lisesi
• Rõuge Põhikool