Kids against plastic pollution Erasmus Project

Project Title

Kids against plastic pollution

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: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Research and innovation

Project Summary

Society is constantly changing and the competencies required are also changing (21st century skills). We are in the midst of a digital revolution, making the world smaller and the need for international cooperation essential. The participants of this project feel that schools must partake in this change. The purpose of the project was to develop a school that is relevant to the lives of the pupils and that creates an inner motivation for learning. Key terms have been communication across borders, development of 21st Century skills, learning, dialogue, pupil participation, critical thinking, innovation and creativity. Learning activities which are connected to real challenges faced by scientists, experts and other cooperative partners outside the school have been central. This is because the pupils should experience that their knowledge and contributions are meaningful to the cooperating partners and to society in general.

During the implementation of this project, the participating students and schools collaborated with several outside partners locally, in order to be able to fulfil the goals of the project. Examples of these are “Bergen Harbour”, “Store Blå”, “Odda Plastic” and “Norce Research”. This led to the students becoming more aware of the larger issues related to plastic pollution and getting to be part of the solution.

At the centre of this project, we find sustainable development and global citizenship through combatting plastic pollution, one of our time period’s biggest challenges. The pupils have identified local challenges, compared these with other pupil’s findings and found common challenges. Based on these they made proposals for strategies and solutions.

The paragraph above exemplifies how we have approached the entire project, with for example clean-up days locally in each country and comparing the results for each country. This has led us to be able to see what the main challenges are in each country and what our commonalities are.

Participating in this project were five different schools from four different countries. Pupils participating were aged from 11-18, and 24 pupils, accompanied by two teachers from each school, travelled to each LTT. Also participating in the project were teachers, experts in different fields related to sustainable development, parents and local organizations.

Through cooperation with other pupils and partners with varying knowledge and experience, the pupils learned to take on different perspectives and further develop their communication skills. Democratic abilities were also developed through this. An expanded understanding and in-depth learning were also gained. The key term here is inner motivation for learning. This will ideally hinder pupils from leaving school early.

One example from Rothaugen is that, through our work at Bergen Habour, we got students who were struggling at school to feel a sense of responsibility. This has been accomplished through these students being responsible for the registration and clean-up once a week, giving them a clear role and feeling of accomplishment.

As society changes, knowledge is constantly being renewed and the flow of information is enormous. Different facts are presented, putting a large pressure and responsibility on the recipients. It is therefore essential that pupils learn to manoeuvre the digital world and ask critical questions. We have, through this project, aimed to promote pupils’ 21st century skills through digital competence and critical thinking skills through experience with different digital platforms, including social media.

On the other hand, the digitalisation of the world opens up an array of possibilities. Cooperation through digital tools has been central to the project, as this has given a unique opportunity to pull the world into the classroom, as well as give the pupils a voice in the world. The pupils have, through the use of digital tools and international cooperation created bonds to other parts of the world and gained an understanding of their challenges. Learning and developing democratic competencies is essential for pupils today in order to be able to function as global citizens in their adult lives.

The final year of our project was plagued by Covid-19. Through this challenge, our focus on digital tools and competencies became more essential intended and some students got to be part of live streams, google meets and other digital platforms. Through the challenges we faced, we found new solutions and rose to the challenge through our common collaboration.

Through conducting pre- and post-tests, we have found an increased awareness in our students. Whether this is an effect of society’s increased focus or our own is difficult to ascertain, but the results of our survey has nonetheless been positive.

In summary, we have, over the last few years, gained a deeper understanding of both plastic pollution and our cultures, and will continue our work in the future.

Project Website

https://sites.google.com/view/kidsagainstplasticpollution/?fbclid=IwAR0w79RNzKRWCXvUSv4vkAUiqJrreCgMv8eZ4slowZw69rI8etLjIiDv-1w

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 131616,52 Eur

Project Coordinator

Bergen kommune, Rothaugen skole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Osnovna skola Popovac
• Skolen ved Bülowsvej
• MANAVGAT ANADOLU IMAM HATIP LISESI
• Odda ungdomsskole
• LICEUL TEORETIC “GRIGORE MOISIL”