Adapt Your Future Erasmus Project

Project Title

Adapt Your Future

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Research and innovation

Project Summary

After the UN climate conferences of Kyoto 1997 and Paris 2015 people have become more aware of climate change and the dangers arising from it. Relatively new in this respect is the Tipping Point Theory. When temperatures rise to a certain threshold level, climate change will continue automatically and negative effects will reinforce one another. Although we aim at a carbon neutral world in 2050, since the Paris Agreements of 2015 global emission of greenhouse gasses has only increased!

We now realize climate change is a fact and we have to anticipate with measures that can reduce the effects or even resolve them. Climate adaptation involves all policies aimed at coping with a changing climate. If we do not act, the social and economic costs might very well be several times higher than the investments we need for climate adaptation. The project team has been constructed carefully in order to enable participants to learn different aspects of this multifaced problem. The European climate adaption platform Climate-ADAPT, a cooperation between the European Commission and the European Environment Agency, lists three main topics of climate adaptation: drought, heat waves and flooding. These problems correspond to three of our partner cities who are situated in regions which are particularly vulnerable to these problems (Venice: flooding; Zaragoza: drought; Lyon: heat waves). In the Netherlands a combination of all three problems occurs. In the Dutch conference we will start with the introduction of the background of climate change, before focusing on the adaptation to extreme rainfall. In this project students will learn how to adapt their environments and thus become active European citizens who can make their private and political choices in a well-thought-out manner. It is their future, but we must supply them with the proper knowledge and tools so they can make the right decisions.

The first objective of our project is to increase students’ awareness of climate adaptation, zooming in from European to national, regional and finally local scale. By learning from good practices regarding adaptation strategies in partner schools’ regions, students will become acquainted with different points of view and learn from eachothers’ experiences on adaptation. Building on this knowledge, students are on a path to become well-informed, active and involved citizens, which is the second goal of our project, and is related to the priority of civic engagement and participation. We want our students to be able to make choices based on facts, to express themselves, and to form a counterweight against gut-feelings and populism. Thirdly, our project involves the support of teacher competence development, linked to the strengthening of the profiles of the teaching professions. Teachers will work on a cross-curricular basis. Our fourth objective is to increase the digital competences of students and teachers as part of their 21st century skills. Students will obtain a certificate for acquired skills and competencies, which for example can be used in admittance to university. Furthermore, subject specific software is introduced to students as well as teachers, such as GIS (Geographical Information System). The final goal of our project is cultural enrichment via international exchange. Students will work in international subgroups and as such they will also experience cultural differences, as well as explore common values.

For our project students aged 15-18 years are selected per country and we will take 6-8 students to each conference. They will be accompanied by two teachers. The students will stay in host families and parents will also participate in cultural and social events. In all four cities cooperation is sought with local governmental bodies, academic experts and other expert organizations, such as the KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute). In the four international conferences students will learn the ins and outs of the topic of climate adaptation from experts and field trips, after which they are required to process all relevant information in such a way that they can transfer this knowledge to the rest of the school and the rest of their social environments. The students are the key to dissemination of the project’s results. The project intends to lead to several channels or mechanisms through which the students are able to spread their experiences, such as a website, a weblog, a film and lessons for undergraduate students. We want the students to actively change their environments for a longer period. With this in mind, all schools are to compose and inplement adaptation plans, for which permanent school climate councils are installed. Teachers will also increase their competences, improve their curricula and will work with new digital solutions. The time has come to take the major challenge of climate adaptation seriously. We sincerely hope that our project will contribute to that worldwide goal!

Project Website

http://adaptyourfuture.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 117762 Eur

Project Coordinator

Kennemer College & Country: NL

Project Partners

• LICEO GINNASIO STATALE CON SEZIONE SCIENTIFICA XXV APRILE
• LYCEE GENERAL ET TECHNOLOGIQUE PLAINE DE L AIN
• INSTITUTO DE EDUCACION SECUNDARIA LA AZUCARERA