Young people and urban citizenship – Students managing photo and video projects on urban chances and challenges Erasmus Project

Project Title

Young people and urban citizenship – Students managing photo and video projects on urban chances and challenges

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: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Rural development and urbanisation

Project Summary

The following secondary schools from five different countries are part of our project partnership: IES Comarcal (Valencia, Spain), Istituto Statale di Instruzione Superiore F. Enriques (Castelfiorentino, Italy), Otto-Hahn Gymnasium Ostfildern (Germany), Ühisgümmnasium Lähte (Lähte, Estonia), Vammalan Lukio (Sastamala, Finland).
In compliance with the UN’s Global Goal “Sustainable cities and communities” the project “Young people and urban citizenship – Students managing photo and video projects on urban chances and challenges” focuses on building young people’s urban citizenship by offering them opportunities to explore various fields of urban chances and challenges.
Participants will carry out projects revolving around cultural, environmental, technological, economic and social aspects of the topic “Urban chances and challenges” as well as aspects of sustainability. The projects will result in photo documentaries and video clips, which will be displayed in virtual and real exhibitions.
The project not only aims to provide knowledge on urban chances and challenges and to develop the participants’ sense of urban citizenship, but by making students manage their projects autonomously we also intend to improve their project management skills and competences. Photo documentaries and video clips respectively a vlog being the final outcomes of our project work, we expect to improve the participants’ digital skills. Online communication and collaboration, e.g. through Twinspace will contribute to achieving this aim. Last, but not least we want to improve the participants’ intercultural competence and language skills by making them carry out the projects in teams composed of all participating nationalities. By boosting all the above-mentioned skills and competences, we hope to enhance the students’ chances of EU-wide employment in the future.
The project particularly targets students of upper grades, aged ~15-18, these students entering the world of work in the near future, and therefore benefiting most from the project activities envisaged in this project.
In the course of the project, students will have the possibility of carrying out various projects in their home schools and during five transnational meetings, one at every school. Each meeting will be attended by a minimum of 6 students and 2 teachers from each country. Before each meeting participants will be required to do research on the set topic of the upcoming transnational meeting. During the meeting, participants will together embark on photo and video projects on a specific aspect of the topic “Urban chances and challenges”. The project work in Germany will mainly be centred on cultural aspects of the topic, in Finland on technological aspects, in Estonia on economic and cultural aspects, in Italy the project work will concentrate on social aspects, more precisely on the question how to deal with mass tourism, and in Spain the project work will revolve around aspects of sustainability e.g. in relation to transport, food and tourism.
Final project work products in form of photo documentaries and a vlog will be made available not only to participating schools and their school communities, but as well to a wider public. All products will be presented in virtual and / or real exhibitions after each transnational project meeting. On top, all project results will be uploaded to Twinspace. We furthermore will document our project activities during our transnational meetings in form of a brochure, which will as well be used as a means of dissemination.
After our transnational meetings, participants will be required to carry out additional projects, integrating the knowledge they have gained during our encounters and applying the project management and digital tools and skills they have acquired. Participants will also be encouraged to communicate and collaborate online with students of our partner schools.
Surveys at the beginning and at the end of our project as well as of each transnational project meeting and personal interviews will help to evaluate whether the project’s objectives are met. If necessary, adjustments will be made.
All participants will enormously benefit from our project. They will enlarge their knowledge of urban chances and challenges and hopefully become more engaged as urban citizens. We expect the project to boost their digital skills and to significantly develop their project management skills and increase their intercultural and linguistic skills. Last, but not least, the project will widen their horizons and they will experience the feeling of being a member of a wider European professional community.
The concept of fostering general and particularly urban citizenship, of boosting project work and of promoting the development of digital skills will give our schools impulses for future developments. Being part of a wider international school community will enrich our schools’ profiles significantly.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 160960 Eur

Project Coordinator

Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium Ostfildern & Country: DE

Project Partners

• IES COMARCAL
• Lähte Ühisgümnaasium
• ISTITUTO STATALE DI ISTRUZIONE SECONDARIA SUPERIORE “FEDERICO ENRIQUES”
• Vammalan lukio