Are you Thirsty? Erasmus Project

Project Title

Are you Thirsty?

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; Energy and resources; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

Are you Thirsty?

The chosen theme, water, is at the heart of contemporary issues. It is linked to the awareness of the preservation of ecosystems. It is aimed at present and future generations.
The project finally lasted from September 2018 to February 2021. This unexpected lenght of the project is unfortunately directly linked to a context of global sanitary crisis which interrupted the smooth running of the planned calendar and made it impossible to organise the last two mobilities, in Sicily and Slovenia. Each delegation was preparing for the trip to Sicily when the announcement of a confinement finally cut short the planned travels in March 2020. The courses resumed, at a distance, and it took some time for the partners to adapt to the situation and to find out how to redefine the objectives of the project without travelling but by maintaining the objectives of the partnership. Some students were not able to seize the opportunity they had been given to discover a foreign country. Younger students took over the task of participating in distance learning activities, discovering Sicily and Slovenia. Other students who were still in school and who had already participated in the first phases of the project were happy to meet their classmates behind the screens. Each of the two distance encounters lasted five days.
The diversity of the geographical situations enhanced a very broad vision of the issues linked to water and its use in gastronomy, tourism and, above all, taking into account the ecological dimension of an indispensable resource.
The project began with the mobility in France, in Brittany, with the village of Saint-Pierre de Quiberon as a rallying point. The discovery of oyster culture and oyster tasting was a memorable moment for many participants.
In Germany, the students cycled from the centre of Munster to a European nature reserve. The delegations discovered many species of birds that have found refuge there. In addition, the port of Duisburg and its river tour provided a wealth of information on the links between water and the economy.
The professional skills related to the hotel and tourism industry were practised in each school during the international meetings. The aim was to acquire new skills through the sharing of practices. In Slovakia, a gala reception was held on a boat sailing on Lake Namestovo to an island housing historic buildings, the only remains of a village otherwise sunk under the artificial lake. It was a moment of extraordinary intensity. In France, a culinary workshop with seaweed and herbs from the coast was organised, to the delight of all. In Germany, culinary workshops highlighted local resources. In Italy, the sharing of recipes with sardines emphasised the gastronomic diversity of the area. In Slovenia, the experience of a sea bream recipe in a salt crust broadcast live and at distance was another highlight of the partnership on sharing professional skills.
The project was also intended to highlight the interventions of professionals. In Slovenia, a fish farmer presented his fish farm and a biology specialist introduced the regional aquatic environment near Izola. Students presented the distribution of fresh water in Slovenia. A photo competition highlighting water as an element was organised for all partner countries. A multilingual dictionary was created. A book retracing the stages of the project and its results was disseminated.
The project also aimed to facilitate the mobility of students for internship periods abroad, as each partner school wished to provide the opportunity for international internships for the students by being able to count on the follow-up of colleagues from the partner schools. Due to the health crisis, the partner schools were unable to implement placements.
Teachers and students improved their IT-skills a lot by working online with new tools like Jitsi, Zoom, Canva, Quizziz, Kahoot .. Finally everybody had the chance to practise and improve their English skills.
The network between schools has enabled long-term exchanges of trust and confidence, promoting international openness with a view to improving the professional integration of young people through the acquisition of skills. In this period of pandemic, students from partner schools taking part in training in the hotel and tourism sectors are directly impacted and need to be supported by all educational communities. This project helps them. The first of the potential long-term benefits of such a project is the building of a network of friendship between young Europeans sharing professional and linguistic skills as well as cultural knowledge forging European citizenship.
A new project is validated for the next two years with the same international team that has proven its reliability. The new theme deals with trees in different contexts, its use and preservation.

Project Website

https://padlet.com/LPJG/articles

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 120500,75 Eur

Project Coordinator

LYCEE PROFESSIONNEL JEAN GUEHENNO & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Oswald-von-Nell-Breuning-Berufskolleg
• Srednja sola Izola – Scuola media Isola
• ITET “G. Tomasi di Lampedusa”
• Sukromna Spojena skola EDUCO