Engaging students through a green 3D textbook Erasmus Project

Project Title

Engaging students through a green 3D textbook

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: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture; Natural sciences

Project Summary

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND
The project “Engaging students through a green 3D textbook” aims at increasing our students’ motivation for learning and promoting International attractiveness of education, by integrating this project in our school curricula through the construction of a vertical garden in our school grounds. Through this project, we seek to target a wide academic spectrum of students in order to help them achieve better learning outcomes. There is a growing concern among teachers and school administrators with the increasing number of students who are lagging behind because of their disaffection, lack of ambitions and low self-esteem regardless of their learning abilities, social origin or economic status, in contrast with a small number of motivated and academically engaged students, which results in a complex classroom coexistence. In order to help bridge this gap between the students’ profiles and fight off this antiacademic culture, a more collaborative and holistic project such as this project is required. Our project theme first came into being as a result of the focus on school environment, both the school building and its grounds, as a key contribution to curriculum teaching and learning. The role of school environment in the teaching and learning process has gained momentum over the past few years. By building a vertical garden and integrating it in the school curricula, we seek to embrace and develop the concept of the school as a teaching-learning tool, aka a 3-D textbook, and make the learning process more appealing.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES
Our project provides an ideal setting to develop and promote the acquisition of basic skills and transversal competences such as creativity and innovation, teamwork within each school and on an international level, environmental and scientific literacy, ICT, oral and written communication skills and multiculturalism. By developing such skills and competences we seek our students’ higher motivation for learning and consequently the improvement of their learning outcomes. Last, we aim at promoting the European and international dimension of education.

METHODOLOGY AND ACTIVITIES
This Project will be integrated in the school curricula so that all students, not only the participating students in TTALAs (Transnational Teaching and Learning Activities), can benefit from the implementation of the project. The project activities will be distributed into different stages: Research stage, Building/Elaboration Stage, Commitment stage and Assessment/Sustainability stage, during which students will work out different aspects of the vertical green structures and their impact. This way they will learn and expand their knowledge on concepts such as thermal insulation, energy efficiency, water use and gardening among others. A specific meteorological and environmental parameter has already been distributed to each partner. The choice of each parameter has been made consistent with the distinct environmental and meteorological characteristics of each country. Each partner country will elaborate hands-on and engaging tasks, workshops and visits related to the respective specific parameter, to be carried out during each respective TTALA following a peer learning and teaching approach.

NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS
This project brings together four European countries: Finland, Italy, Poland and Spain, being the main project coordinator. The Italian and the Polish school have had previous experience in Comenius projects but little or none in Erasmus+ School Partnerships. Whereas Finland has a great experience in both KA1 and KA2 Erasmus+ Projects and Spain has carried out both Comenius and Erasmus+ Projects (KA2). Our project will involve directly 240 students to carry out the project tasks and will include 124 students’ and teachers’ mobilities. The choice of partners stems from the fact that our school premises are an under-used and under-regarded asset because they were built at a time when the design of the school was not so well-thought out as nowadays. We believe that the school environment is crucial to the learning process. Our schools pose an ideal opportuniy for our students to have an active role in the enhancement of the schools by building a vertical garden.

RESULTS AND IMPACT
This project will enable the creation of a vertical garden and its implementation in our school life and curricula beyond the duration of the project, which will allow future generations of students to benefit from such vertical gardens.
During the project, a project website, a Twinspace, Instagram and a youtubechannel as well as the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform will be established and used for documentation and dissemination of the project results. These platforms will be still available after the completion of the project for the partners and other national and international schools seeking inspiration for future projects or educational experiences.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 130704 Eur

Project Coordinator

SI LA MIQUELA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Veikkolan koulu
• Szkola Podstawowa im. Tadeusza Kosciuszki w Raclawicach
• Istituto Comprensivo Pescara 10