Art with trash Erasmus Project

Project Title

Art with trash

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

Project Summary

The motivation of this project was the continuing debate on waste management in our countries and the alarming data about waste management that the EU officially published.

From the total amount of waste in the EU, only a limited share was recycled, and the rest was landfilled or burned, of which some 600 million tons could be recycled or reused. In addition, we noticed that despite the continuous discussion about recycling or waste reduction, most of our students struggle to adapt sustainable habits in everyday life. In today’s society, environmental issues are becoming increasingly important. Moreover, technology has changed the lives of our children in ways that promote the overconsumption that increase the generated waste with materials that usually are harmful to the environment and rarely are recycled.

The aim of the project is to focus on ways to make our students adopt a more sustainable life, learn how to reduce their waste within the school, their home, the local community and in general in their everyday life. The goal is to sensitize young people to maintain the environment and become aware of the problem of waste management. As a result of these, we would promote active citizenship. The partnership will be built based on the EU’s “waste hierarchy” and all the activities will focus on that hierarchy and the “R” rule. We will use art as a common factor in our activities to approach the subject to our students. Finally, the project will foster the development of social and intercultural competencies of our students.

We will support new approaches to reduce disparities in access to digital technologies in formal and non-formal education. Throughout the project, participants will use ICT as a working tool. By using and sharing new technologies we will have the opportunity to reduce disparities in access to digital technologies.

There are five schools in the partnership. Some of the partner schools have worked together on previous projects (Greek, Lithuanian and Polish) and others met during different Erasmus+ KA1 courses (Greek, Portuguese and Spanish). The project is addressed to secondary school students, aged 13-17.

Our methodology is based on sharing our good practices with each other in an international environment. Teachers and students from each partner school will present a problem, a weakness in a transnational training event and the host school will demonstrate how they are approaching that problem. After each transnational event, the host schools will receive feedback on their good practice and use this information to complete a useful guideline for other schools that face a similar problem. The project will provide good practices to sustain quality education at the participating schools. We will organize various activities for students to carry out together with the students from other countries both at their own schools and at the training events of the partner schools. During these activities, the participants’ ICT, social and communication skills will be improved.

In the course of the five transnational training events, students will experience different aspects of our project. Each transnational training event will focus on one “R” of the “waste hierarchy”, starting from the “Reduce” at the first event, following by the order that is placed in the hierarchy. It is important that we will keep the order of the subjects (“Rs”) as it is introduced in the latest EU initiative. Our students will work methodically on the project following the problem of waste management in a logical order. All of our students will do their research between the meetings regarding each meeting’s main topic.

All the activities will focus on students using art as an expression of what they learned. In Greece, participants will make a photo exhibition and create a visual museum, in Lithuania will make a fashion show by their production of used refurbished clothes, in Portugal will make art from ocean trash and create a sculpture, in Poland will make a film for recycling (writing a screenplay, acting, recording) and in Span will express themselves via music and writing songs.

We will have a website which will be available in the future so it can be used by the partners later on. At the end of the project, we will collect all the good practices used in the partnership in a guide which will be available online.

The project is meant to have a lasting impact on each of the schools, through the actions of the different environmental groups created and through the awareness campaigns created after each event. Besides we will create some dedicated days when campaigns/actions will be held after the project is finished.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 155490 Eur

Project Coordinator

2nd Gymnasium of Messini & Country: EL

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas da Ericeira
• COLEGIO AMOR DE DIOS MADRIDEJOS RELIG
• Zespol Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im Boleslawa Chrobrego
• Joniskio “Ausros” gimnazija