Discovering the cultural and natural heritage through our 5 senses Erasmus Project

Project Title

Discovering the cultural and natural heritage through our 5 senses

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Creativity and culture; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

“Discovering the cultural and natural heritage through the 5 senses” is a project developed by 5 European schools during the period 2018-2021 with the support
of the European Commission, thanks to the Erasmus + program, action key 2.
It was designed in 2018 to make young people aware about the European Year of Cultural Heritage and encourage them to discover the cultural richness of the European Union in which all countries share common values: respect for human rights (dignity, freedom and equality) and democracy.
The project is based firstly on the need to find a different and more practical approach to the cultural and natural heritage in order to promote it and secondly on the development of student’s different abilities and skills encouraging diversified forms of communication that allow the stimulation of senses and perceptions.
Senses and perceptions indeed provide important information on all that surrounds us and influences our behaviour.
Through “sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing” we experience a different way to discover and appreciate the cultural heritage of Europe and strengthen the feeling of belonging to a common European space.
Its main objectives were:
– make students aware of other cultures through activities that solicit their creativity
-raise awareness of cultural heritage of European countries
-encourage young people to use online resources and networks to develop their citizenship skills and become active citizens, open to other cultures
-promote the collaborative approach to encourage communication and promote integration
-promote the learning of foreign languages, in particular French, an important language within the EU.
-improve the linguistic, methodological, technical, IT and interpersonal skills of students and teachers.
The partnership involves 5 schools and students aged 15 to 18. All the schools involved in the project, even if they are in a disadvantaged social background, they are rich in history and traditions. They have worked together to find ways to improve and reduce the identity crisis of young people shown in their behaviour and schooling problems and to promote their access to culture.
Animated by the common European culture and a very strong linguistic and cultural openness, they compared about the integration problem of groups of students coming from socially and economically disadvantaged contests, fighting against the risk of dropping out of school.
Each partner worked crosswise on their cultural and natural heritage, with specific courses aimed at stimulating creativity and “cultural awareness” in students. The organization of activities around the 5 senses (visual, olfactory, tactile, gustative, auditory workshops) allowed to affirm the importance of the role of cultural heritage in a country identity, to observe the similarities and differences between countries and their histories.
The activities implemented were:
– heritage discovery activities through multimedia presentations and site visits
-practical realization activities: workshops around the 5 senses with creative works
-writing activities: writing articles, booklets, notebooks, brochures
– psychosocial activities: working in teams and keeping in touch by exchanging messages through the various social networking portals.
The results achieved are as follows:
-various productions published on the website, the Facebook page and the eTwinning platform
-a positive attitude towards national and European values
-a better ability to cooperate and have good interpersonal relationships
-development of individual skills and better self-confidence
-an improvement in linguistic and technological skills.
The relapse of this project is linked to:
-modification of the didactic approach among the schools involved: all the activities done have become an excellent laboratory to reflect on the relationship between reality, culture and communication and could become a good practice for all interdisciplinary activities
-dissemination of results to a wide audience through the eTwinning platform, the Facebook page and the project website
-the transferability of results by setting up innovative systems in partner establishments
-the best visibility at local, regional, national and international level (media, press, radio, open days, Erasmus Days)
-the lastingly of the project by maintaining the Facebook page and the project website
-the reuse of knowledge and know-how acquired to support other projects.

Project Website

http://linaleocata.wixsite.com/website

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 121396,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

I.S.I.S. Sandro Pertini & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Liceul “Voltaire”
• OGEC DEPOORTER
• SU “Dimcho Debelyanov”
• Agrupamento de Escolas D. Sancho I