CliMates – together for the better Erasmus Project

Project Title

CliMates – together for the better

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 : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Environment and climate change; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Global change in climate and biodiversity – which effects does it have and how can it be countered?
As this change affects different regions in different ways, this project involved schools that are located in climatically and geographically diverse regions: Tenerife and Martinique, geographically belonging to Africa and America, with a plentitude of endemic species, a rural town in Southern Germany, a big city (Budapest) and, far north, a town by the Baltic Sea in Estonia. By assessing the status quo of the geological and biological situations in these regions, we found out how climate change affects different parts of Europe (and the world) and how each individual can act responsibly and sustainably in order to curb the change or its effects.

An important part of the project was the construction of a motivating app (“CliMApp”). This is a GPS based, interactive scavenger hunt (a kind of geocaching combined with a multiple choice quiz) and relates knowledge about environmental issues to the students‘ local environment and everyday lives. A first basic version of the app was constructed in two international workshops during the first year of the project and afterwards students and teachers kept improving it until it worked without any problems at every school. At the same time, at each school students and teachers identified points of interest (POIs) in their local surroundings which can be related to the topics of climate change, sustainability and/or biodiversity and integrated them into a route which can be traversed with the help of the app. At each POI, the display of your mobile gives you some information and you are asked a multiple-choice question.
All schools were visited by their international partners. During these visits, the “CliMApp” routes were traversed by the international groups and various activities related to the topic were carried out, among them at least one in which the students gave an active, “hands-on” contribution to sustainable development. At the end of the last meeting (in Germany) the project was presented to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The long-lasting effects of the project are ensured through the implementation of a transnational interdisciplinary spiral curriculum. This includes the traversing of the “CliMApp” route, which can also be used by other schools, as well as a lasting cooperation between the project partners: In form 7 (or 8) students from students from four of the partner schools get to know each other by exchanging information in their English lessons. Two years later (year 9 or 10), students have learned a lot about climate change, sustainability and biodiversity. Each November, they exchange views and information on these topics with students from the partner schools. This includes watching videos about environmental issues in each partner country that were created during the project, asking questions to the partner school students and answering the others’ questions in one-minute-videos. Furthermore, at each school 2 – 5 students per year are appointed “climate ambassadors”. These teach younger students an “energy puzzlehunt” established in all schools and help to initiate and foster activities that enhance sustainable behaviour in the school society.

We have managed to reach our aims of raising environmental awareness, increasing the attractiveness of science subjects, improving foreign language abilities and skills and of promoting intercultural competence, European integration, transfer of best practice, cooperation between teachers and media competence in the ICT sector. Furthermore, in the course of the project the German and the Estonian partner schools started a process that finally resulted in getting eco-certificates. In the Martinican partner school, which had never taken part in an international project before, the project motivated teachers to start five more Erasmus+ projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 159390 Eur

Project Coordinator

Benedikt Maria Werkmeister Gymnasium & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Pärnu Kuninga Tänava Põhikool
• Budapest XIII. Kerületi Ady Endre Gimnázium
• Collège Edouard GLISSANT
• IES San Juan de la Rambla