Sustainable Me – my power as a consumer Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sustainable Me – my power as a consumer

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: Environment and climate change; Energy and resources; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions

Project Summary

The project „Ich und meine Nachhaltigkeit – Entscheidungsmöglichkeiten des Verbrauchers“ („Sustainable Me – my power as a consumer“) is in some ways a response to people‘s growing awareness for climate change, its causes and its consequences. We included the pronoun “ich/me” in the title because we have chosen a hands-on approach in order to make clear to our students that they actually can make a difference.
Our main aim is to make people think and change their minds and attitudes. Guided by the motto „reduce and innovate“, the pupils are to realise the necessity of limiting one’s consumption and to make suggestions for possible changes they could operate themselves. These ideas are then to be presented to the school community where they will hopefully be implemented in the long run.
To this purpose, partner schools from Italy, Spain, Finland, Belgium and Germany will cooperate in the project. There will be around 25 to 30 pupils aged 14 to 19 in each school who participate in the activities. These activities will take place both at the occasion of the learning activities on site, but also in-between the meetings when the pupils meet online and work in national and transnational teams to prepare the next or follow up the last meeting. We plan to extensively use eTwinning to share reports from the learning activities, upload results and make arrangements for further work.
Apart from content-based factual input, we also intend to promote key skills which are considered crucial when growing up and becoming a responsible and self-determined citizen in a digitalized and globalized world. Such skills include for example ICT skills for the gathering and assessment of information, flexibility, team skills, intercultural understanding, communication and language skills and presentation skills.
Each of the five learning activities is devoted to a topic relevant to the respective region, e.g. “avoiding packaging waste” in Italy, “from fossil to renewable energy” in Germany or “buy regional” in Belgium. The topics will be prepared and followed up in-between the meetings by means of various online activities. Finding out about one’s own ecological footprint before the first meeting will help to get aware about the current state-of-affairs and to decide on the points we should focus on throughout the project. A number of products will we created on the basis of increased learning and finding out about the subject matter. This knowledge will be acquired by means of internet research tasks, creating and doing webquests, exchange with experts and excursions to sites such as an incinerator, a wind power station, an open pit mine or an ecologic farm. The products to be created range from organising information campaigns and panel discussion in school to the creation of memes and a project logo or upcycling projects such as making collages from waste or upcycling clothes. At all stages, the pupils will be asked to reflect upon the topic with respect to their own handling of resources.
The results of our work will already be communicated in the schools during the project and will hopefully start some changes such as reducing waste, offering sensible choices in the cafeteria or using increasingly alternative energy.
By implementing measures in all partner schools, we make sure that the results will outlast the project and maybe be carried even further. Specific activities on the topic “Sustainable me”, e.g. in project weeks or school festivities will contribute to the lasting effects of the project. The material compiled throughout the project (e.g. CLIL-material, webquests, memes) will be made available to the colleagues for use in their classes or projects. Moreover, the project homepage, which is going to keep the participants and others informed throughout the project, will be online after the project, too. We also intend to include the local public (interviews, information campaigns) and thereby hope to appeal to all people, old and young alike, to take over responsibility for preserving the environment. With press articles in the local press and specific activities such as campaigns on how to reduce waste, presentation of project results or collecting waste (public spring city clean up), the participants will raise awareness for the potential each and every citizen has to make a difference.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 148560 Eur

Project Coordinator

Goethe-Gymnasium Stolberg & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Institut Saint-Joseph
• IES Jándula
• Forssan yhteislyseo
• Liceo Scientifico Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori