European sustainable life – house and garden Erasmus Project

Project Title

European sustainable life – house and garden

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; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

The main objectives of the project are:
– To exchange good practices of innovative methods among the schools.
Both Gent and Ostrava schools provide technical education focused on architecture, but each of them concentrates on slightly different fields. The Ostrava school is more focused on theory – technical drawing and CAD technologies. The Gent school combines theoretical work with practical building. The Italian partner school will involve both its study strands in the project: Bioecological building and Eco-sustainability, Organic and biodynamic agriculture. By working together, the schools will have the possibility to try out each other’s learning methods and put the new ones into their educational plans.
– To support the quality of the technical subjects (corresponds with EU aims) at the level of theoretical knowledge and skills, and practical competences in the areas of study and training involved in the project: digital skills for architectural planning, landscaping, bioecological building materials, eco-sustainable sources of energy, construction techniques. Each of the participants will have the possibility to deeply connect him-/herself with the project in a way suited to him/her, to use, show, document and assess his/her competences and consequently be more interested and involved in different activities of the project. To achieve this, the participating students will take up their own part in the process – from the planning through to the evaluation. The project therefore supports active development of various abilities and competencies and their evaluation, so the participants can recognise and record their potential and be better prepared for their entry into the world of work.
– To encourage active citizenship and a heightened awareness of the environment in participants through the practical work.
The final aim of the project is to plan and build a sustainable tiny house set in a small, resourceful garden. Small houses emphasize design over size, utilizing dual purpose features and multifunctional furniture. It is a very useful learning experience for the pupils to cleverly design such a house. They have to think it through thoroughly. It will give the participants the possibility to produce something real to actively support ecologically sound and sustainable life in their country. There is also a social benefit. Smaller homes are less expensive than larger ones in terms of taxes and building, heating, maintenance, and repair costs. The lower cost of living may be advantageous to those 55 and older with little savings. It is also very useful for young people who start their adult life and need affordable housing which does not demand huge loans burdening their lives for decades.
The project in detail:
1. The participants will work generally in joint groups from the schools, where each group will have a specific task. The joint working group will build a sustainable house together in 3 steps – make plans of the house and garden in Czech Republic, create a garden, learn eco-biological building in Italy, and build the house in Belgium.
2. The groups will first prepare: study the traditions of housing and farming in each country, learn about sustainable building and gardening. Then they will make plans of the house and garden in different ways by modelling, drawing, preparing documentation using CAD systems in Czech Republic, create a garden and learn eco-biological building in Italy. Construct the sustainable house and garden, document the process and present the results in Belgium.
3. As a main innovation the project expects that the schools
a) will gather learning and teaching experiences from each other and apply it in their own educational practice.
b) will learn how to use new evaluation tools – Europass and the European Portfolio Certificate (http://www.epc-group.org/index_cz.html) which allow participants to show the results of their formal, non-formal and informal learning and development of their soft and hard competences in a holistic way through recorded self-reflection combined with expert assessment and describe them in a manner comprehensible to the world of work.
4. For the participating students, the project aims to:
– make young people aware of the values of life and of the environment in which they live, through the shared experiences, and give them the possibility to really practically contribute to positive changes towards a circular economy and sustainable living;
– develop a conscious approach to the possibilities of improvement of the life space through the active involvement of youngsters;
– improve language, scientific and social competencies.
Expected minimum of the outcomes:
– 1 set of plans for house and garden (consisting of at least 3 drawings)
– 1 model of the small house and surrounding garden
– 1 small house + garden
– 1 joined bulletin in English
– 1 video document
– Europass and a European Portfolio Certificate folder for each participant.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 92116 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stredni odborna skola waldorfska, Ostrava, prispevkova organizace & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Middelbare Steinerschool Vlaanderen vzw
• LA CRUNA ASSOCIAZIONE PER LA PEDAGOGIA STEINER WALDORF