Drops of Awareness Erasmus Project

Project Title

Drops of Awareness

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 2019

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

Water matters! During the summer of 2018 people around the world finally understood that the climate change has become a fact of our daily lives. Droughts, heat waves, fires, floodings and shortage of drinking water are now problems that we face all over Europe, not just in the very south. And the young generation stands up to fight for a fundamental change in politics to prevent further global warming. With their participation in “Fridays for Future“ demonstrations our students show their willingness to bring about change and shape their future.

The project “Drops of Awareness“ takes up this initiative and enables our students to deal with the topic “water“ from different perspectives (the “beauty of water“ versus “problems related to water“). The main objectives are to make students aware of the global crisis and possible solutions to it. Furthermore, the project allows them to become active by changing their own water consumption, improving their water footprint and by running activities to raise environmental awareness in their communities.

The project also aims at improving the students’ language skills, ICT and Science skills in key areas that are important for their future careers: the participants are going to learn how to use an online platform for cooperation (eTwinning), use scientific methods of water analysis and calculation of water consumption, present their results, make a film, write an eBook, develop an awareness raising activity and run it successfully. In order to enable the students to improve their language abilities, the teachers are going to cooperate in preparing CLIL language sheets and activities which will be used throughout the project.

As the climate change affects all regions of the world, the partner schools are a perfect match which represent a great diversity of regions, oceans, ecosystems and their problems. The 6 schools from Estonia, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany and France (Martinique) also vary in age and language abilities: Three schools involve younger students aged 12-14 and the other three schools have older students aged 15-16. However, we regard this as a challenge which we have already overcome in the current project: The key to success is a variety in methods according to the abilities and interests of the students.

Altogether there will about be 300 students and 30 teachers directly involved in mobilities (thanks to the host family scheme there are always the students who travel and the hosts involved in the activities) and 1200 students involved in project activities at all schools. The project is planned for three years, because it offers 12 students the opportunity to participate in long-term mobilities. Since these activities need a longer preparation and follow-up in order to be successful, the project plan has been created for 36 months. The students who participate in the long-term activities will prepare a project about a very important topic related to water in their host country and organize a field trip for their fellow students.

The project is organized in 6 semesters, each focusing on one topic: (1) “The Beauty of Water“ will be the introduction to the project dealing with positive associations of water with all senses and arts. The 2nd to 5th semester deal with different types of water. In the first part of the semester the students from different countries carry out an investigation about the ecosystems and the problems in their country and present them on the twinspace. After that they start to develop solutions, exchange their ideas and organize activities to raise awareness or propose solutions. During every LTTA they will record a part of their film, which is the final product: (2) “Shades of Blue“ – Oceans, (3) “Flowing Waters and Lakes“, (4) “Priceless (?) Treasure of Mankind“ – Drinking Water, (5) “Invisible Water Wastage“ – Virtual Water. In the last semester (6) “Our Vision of Water“ the students think about creative and innovative solutions to water problems.

There are several outcomes which can be measured: The results and products will be presented on the twinspace and in the eBook. The film will include all the varieties of “water” the students are going to deal with. The schools involved want to apply for the European Eco School certificate, so the initiative from the project will be integrated in the schools’ profiles and curricula. Furthermore, new CLIL ideas will have an impact on language teaching at the partner schools.

The outcomes which cannot be measured will for sure have the greater impact on our students’ lives: The intercultural experience will broaden their horizons, the application of new skills improve their competencies, the awareness of the beauty of water and the problems related to the usage of water will inspire many of them to reconsider their consumption habits and change them. The feeling of being able to get active will empower them as political thinkers and citizens of a future Europe.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 259007 Eur

Project Coordinator

Schillerschule Hannover & Country: DE

Project Partners

• istituto comprensivo 9
• Mendelcollege
• COLEGIO INTERNACIONAL EUROVILLAS,S.L
• Collège Trianon
• Pärnu Kuninga Tänava Põhikool