Calculate your Environmental footprint Erasmus Project

Project Title

Calculate your Environmental footprint

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: Early childhood education and care; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

MOTIVATION
The idea of the project is based on an article I have read called biophilia, inducing the idea that humans are instinctively drawn towards their natural surroundings. This idea is more current nowadays as kids prefer to spend a lot of time indoor in front of a monitor instead of playing outside. According to a survey the ratio between the time of a child spent playing outside and inside in front of a monitor is 4 to 7 minutes to 7 hours.
The project is based generally on two main movements:
1. To get the kids outside in nature.
2. Teaching the kids natural responsibilities towards the environment and nature.
Based on these motivations, we as primary school teachers from all over Europe, are going to develop this study to induce a discipline intended to direct our children meet the nature, make them enthusiastic to the time spent outside. In order to reach this, we will prepare and apply simple and practical entertaining activities inside the school’s systems.
The core idea of the project is based on 50 different outdoor games, both for children and teachers, games that are going to be improved to be practical applied in the education system. We, the primary school teachers, intend to meet 5 times in the next 2 years to apply the results of the development in our schools.
The activities within the project will lead the kids to wish to play outside bringing with this the responsibility for nature and environment. This will develop the sense of nature protection.
OBJECTIVES
O1. To exchange experiences and good practices bound by teaching through outdoor games between primary teachers from Europe
O2. To create and develop appropriate materials which will sustain children’s interaction with nature
O3. To grow students’ awareness about the importance of the environment
O4. To develop student’s abilities for nature’s protections
O5. To form student’s competences of active citizenship
O6. To enrich school curricula and reinforce the implication of the school in local community
O7. To promote active citizenship and social responsibility
PARTICIPANTS
The targeted children for the project are aged 5-12 and are the main beneficiaries of the study in the lessons and outdoor activities developed by the teachers which attended to the JSMs. The next beneficiaries are the teachers, as main characters and instructors in the performance of the activities. Every JSM training comprises of 5 teachers from each school partner. In the program there will be 100 teachers directly involved and 100 teachers as indirect participants. The entire capacity of the project will include 500 teachers with all extensions an 450 students with ages between 5-12 and around 500 parents.
ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY
There are going to be launched 50 different outdoor games in every JSM out of 5, where primary school teachers will join in workshops, developing the games in order to integrate them into the curriculum of their school.
RESULTS AND IMPACT
Every performed game will be uploaded on the platform and after all are completed, they will be downloaded by all partners, who will improve the learning material of each school. This material can be used for developing new courses for students. There will be also 5 digital books which contain 10 outdoor games each and examples of outdoor lessons that have been developed during the JSMs.
Another important part of the project is the development of the human resources, concentrated both on the short and long term. The project intends to develop strong relationships between the participating teachers from Europe and give theme the opportunity to launch new future ideas for projects. All teachers from different educational systems will apply their understanding and the best practices in the implementation of the project.
Where there are several teachers from the same school in the project, these teachers will collaborate in improving the intra-institutional relations, meaning a positive climate for all participants in the education.
The goal is to make the classes more attractive and attract them to with the games to the outdoor activities, and therefore to increase the motivation to learn. Also, within these games the student will develop the sense of initiative which will get them being more involved in their community activities. More awareness campaigns will be organized both by students and their teachers in the future years. Another idea that might arise is the after-school activities for volunteers for getting involved in the active citizenship from within the school.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 141850 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Lon Las & Country: UK

Project Partners

• COLEGIO PUBLICO DE INFANTIL Y PRIMARIA BLAS INFANTE
• Scoala Gimnaziala Tudor PamfileTepu
• KAYISDAGI ARIFPASA ILKOKULU
• PRIMARY SCHOOL KATO TRITOS LESVOS