Spa Towns: places of civilization and health Erasmus Project

Project Title

Spa Towns: places of civilization and health

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: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Thermalism has been prevalent in Europe from Roman times to the present day. Thermal towns reached the height of their renown during the 18th and 19th centuries when a wide range of new medical and health treatments were developed, and when travel became much easier with the arrival of the railways. Spas were places where members of all levels of society could mix and exchange ideas and where modern tourism was launched. They gave birth to development of prestigious hotels, a variety of leisure activities, ranging from the first casinos to musical theatres, to covered promenades and landscaped gardens.

Thus, thermal towns have played a leading role fostering peace, co-operation and creativity, protecting the built and natural environment, and promoting sustainable cultural developement – a role that has been present throughout European history and continues to this day.

This theme provides the ideal basis for a sophisticated interdisciplinary approach that allows a variety of work priorities in terms of shared cultural heritage.

Each partner school is located near a thermal spa, which facilitates a visit, fostering authentic local experiences and concrete comparisons between the resorts and the respective spa culture of each country.

Moreover, in addition to the social, historical and cultural significance already outlined above, we also look at the economic and scientific aspects of our European heritage.

Through the composition of the six partners, which consist of high schools as well as vocational schools, we equally pursue the general humanistic education approach, but also set specific occupational related priorities and promote creativity, self-responsible work and the sense of community.

Each school is working on a topic that is largely in line with its subject orientation and that of the project leaders. Among them, we list geography and preservation and design of the natural landscape; the economic importance and commercialization of the health resorts as tourism centers and as a job engine for the region; healthy nutrition, sports and the range of health professions; thermal baths as places of art, culture and traditional customs; spas’ history and their most famous visitors as well as a scientific-technical aspect, which deals with questions of water supply and disposal and with quality standards and their control mechanisms.

Hereby the LTT meetings play an outstanding role. In the run-up to each LTT, all groups prepare their national contribution in English on their chosen sub-topic in a different methodological form, e.g. through billboards, PPP, lectures, role-plays and interviews.
This ensures that the participants already deal in advance with the respective topic and acquire basic knowledge.

The results obtained by each national team are usually presented at the beginning of each LTT meeting, so that all participants get an overview of the different forms and interpretations of this topic in the respective partner countries, providing a platform for further discussions.
In a next step, these basics will be supplemented and deepened by a variety of local activities. They include e.g. plant visits, scavenger hunts and/or guided sightseeing tours (mostly organized by the local students themselves), expert interviews or opinion polls among the passers-by, all carried out in international teams and on the basis of specific work assignments.
Finally, the participants present their results in a multiplicity of methodological ways – either some of the traditional ones mentioned above – or in a more creative way, which we encourage to take by supplementing the thematic work with artistic challenges, such as for example, creating video clips, small plays, collages, photoromaniacs, papier mâché, canvas or mosaic works.

This project will involve round about 120 active participants, primarily involving students aged from 17 to 24 years, some of them having a difficult social and economic background, and their teachers and headmasters being supported by parents as host families, local authorities, spa managers and employees, tourism experts and media representatives.

Participants are exploring the history, culture and society of their partners, comparing them with the narrative of their own country, thereby increasing not only their professional and linguistic knowledge, but also their competence for self-reflection, trains a democratic and respectful debate culture and cooperation in diverse and international teams. They get insight into the health care and business professions, create useful contacts with future interns and employers profiting of the experience gained in their professional and academic career.

The project offers also an insight in innovative approches concerning education, school management, curricula, interdisciplinary cooperation and a wide range of methods which could improve and enrich school live and educational work of the participating partners.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 142248 Eur

Project Coordinator

August-Horch-Schule BBS Andernach & Country: DE

Project Partners

• II Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Marii Sklodowskiej-Curie w Konskich
• LYCEE DES METIERS DU VAL D’AUTHIE
• Pärnu Ühisgümnaasium
• PROFESIONALNA GIMNAZIA PO ELEKTRONIKA “JOHN ATANASOFF”
• Agrupamento de Escolas de Felgueiras