EcoMentality Erasmus Project

Project Title

EcoMentality

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: Energy and resources; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

“EcoMentality” is the name of a strategic school partnership between Belgium, Portugal and Hungary. As the name already indicates, the main aim of this project is to create a change of mind set with our pupils and teachers towards a strong EcoMentality. Nowadays young people all over Europe march in the streets to protest against the current lack of adequate climate measures, thus demanding a better climate policy.
As our young people are the consumers and decision makers of tomorrow, we think it is of major importance that this climate and sustainability awareness together with a strong sense of European solidarity grows amongst our youth. Inspired by the three fundamental ethics of Permaculture (Earth care, People care and Fair share) this project is designed to help the participants grow towards a strong sustainable and responsible European citizenship.
As the schools in this partnership are situated in South, central and Eastern Europe, this will offer possibilities to compare and analyse the different attitudes and implementations in regard to environmental measures.
Ecological sustainability will be the general theme which will be divided in three subtopics: energy, waste management and nature.
The main objective of this project is to stimulate a mentality change with the pupils and their community towards a beter use of energy, their own consumption behaviour and respect for and knowledge of the surrounding nature.
In order to achieve this objective, the goals of this project are the following:
*to teach the participants the philosophy of Permaculture
*to raise the awareness for environmental issues
*to foster teenage activism
*to teach the pupils modern skills like ICT, teamwork, research, critical thinking, communication, peer teaching …
*to integrate sustainability into the education of all pupils
*to create awareness and engage the local communities
Each school will form a project team which consists of several teachers from different subjects and 20 pupils (aged 15-18) who will be directly involved in the project activities. However through peer teaching and eco activities school wide we will include a much larger number of pupils in each school. All directly involved pupils will be chosen through interviews and motivational letters and priority will be given to those pupils with fewer opportunities.
The project will start by raising the awareness of the participants and by teaching them to look at sustainability through Permaculture glasses. With this philosophy in mind the pupils will be asked to investigate the current sustainability-status of each school. Together with the teachers they will develop an improvement plan to transform their school to a sound ecological, social and economic environment.
Both during and in between the mobilities there will be theoretical lessons and practical workshops organised in the schools, in the local communities and on other educational locations. They will be given by experienced teachers and local experts.
Learning by doing will be predominant. Hands-on workshops will be given for and also by the pupils. Next to changing the mind set and habits of the participants the project aims to foster communication skills, language skills, presentation skills, ICT skills and other important attitudes like teamwork and critical thinking.
The actual ‘tangible’ results we aim to produce are the following:
* more green areas on the school grounds (Belgium)
* a vertical garden with recuperation of rainwater (Portugal)
* encourage the gouvernment to invest in more energy efficient and sustainable school buildings (Portugal)
* introducing waste separation in the classrooms (Hungary)
* a Facebook and Instagram page were all the creativity of the students will be shared with the public
* a project logo, flag and poster
* an eTwinning project
* Implementation of ‘Green Week’, ‘Veggie-day’ … into the schools’ calendar
* a structured course that can easily be integrated into different subjects (biology, civic education, religion …)
* different creative products that will be made by the students (films, photographs, practical objects from recycled material)
There will we three mobilities, one in each country. The pupils will be accomodated by host families in order to get to know the culture and habits.
In between the mobilities the pupils will interact with their peers in the partnerschools be using eTwinning.
EcoMentality will teach our pupils valuable lessons to make them aware of the ecological and economic challenges the world faces. But it will also give them the necessary insights and skills in how they can help to realise the change that is needed by their own choices in their daily lifes and by initiating and participating in local projects.
Sustainability is an important and even vital topic for the future of us all. Take care of the earth, take care of the people and share fair should become the general mind set of all people!

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 91373 Eur

Project Coordinator

Sint-Lambertus 4 & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas de Santa Maria da Feira
• Ujpesti Karolyi Istvan Altalanos Iskola és Gimnazium