Creating Eco Friendly Citizens Erasmus Project

Project Title

Creating Eco Friendly Citizens

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Environment and climate change; Natural sciences

Project Summary

Climate change and loss of biodiversity is the biggest political topic of our time. It relates to everyone on earth. We have the knowledge and resources to stop and reverse the challenges, but we are doing too little too late. Students all over Europe are protesting to show politicians they want more action. That they do not want to inherit a climate that is warmer and a world with less biodiversity. Thousands of students are striking, each Friday, for there future. This is the background and the context for this project.
Our objective is to create eco-friendly citizens. We are saying citizens because then we are including teachers, families, communities and not only students. We want each school to develop a school garden that will produce some food and increase the number of insects in the outdoor areas of the school. This will be integrated in the curricula for natural science (biology) and home economics. During the LTTA the students will be shown some areas of importance when it comes to biodiversity. Areas we need to value and protect. The activities and the mobilities will focus on different aspects of our life than influence climate, environment and biodiversity. Topics like composting, plastic, reuse clothing, recycling, consumption, advertisement, chemicals, fix instead of buying a new one, globalization, buy locals products, animals and energy will be worked on. The students will make films, presentations, caricatures, rap songs, dances, posters, booklets, eBook, webpage to express their findings and results. This diversity will make it possible for all students to shine during the project. Not all students at the school will focus on all the activities, but at least one group of students from each school will focus on each activity. The final outcome will be a digital curriculum and a webpage. The webpage, facebook page and eTwinning project will be updated throughout the project so everyone can follow us.
We are 6 schools from Norway, Turkey, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Italy. The whole school will be a part of the project and some of the activities also challenge school management and the municipality. Different groups of students will work on different activities. In this way most of the student body will take active part in some parts of the project. 2 teachers and 5 students from each school will participate in the mobilities. In this way a total of 25 different students can participate in the mobilities. We believe the student will feel ownership to the project and that those chosen to participate will feel a responsibility to the project.
Our methodology, learning by doing and by teaching, problem solving, is that the students will learn about a challenge. Let us use plastic as an example: they will first learn about what it is, what we use it for and why it is a problem. Then they will look at their use of plastic products and the schools, too. When the use is identified we will challenge them to find ways to use less plastic and to recycle more of what they must use. The school will be challenged in the same way. Then we will help them to make a change in their daily life and to make the school less dependent on plastic. We will start with a problem, learn about the theory and use the theory to change our behaviour. The teachers have a desire to exchange good practises between the schools. We will also evaluate and develop our plans with perspectives and experiences from different countries. We hope to challenge our teachers to see, listen and learn from each other.
Students and teachers will also learn to cooperate with peers from a different countries, languages, religions and cultures. In a global world it is important to develop understanding and friends in other countries if we are to solve global challenges. We want our students to communicate actively in eTwinning, facebook, through e-mails and on the webpage.
The final outcome will be a digital curriculum developed by the teachers and the webpage that documents the entire project. The digital curriculum will be a collection of our activities. We will write what the objective is, how we planed it and how we implemented it. We will give an objective evaluation on how we succeeded and what we will have done different the next time. The intention of the digital curriculum is to share it with other schools that want to try the same. The webpage will be used during the project, documenting everything. Students, friends, families and others will be able to follow our progress. The content on facebook and eTwinning will be similar to the webpage and the reason the webpage is the final outcome is that everyone can access it.
Our intention is that the ecological footprint to our students, teachers, management and schools have decreased after the project. We also have a vision that it is more acceptable to consume less. That consuming less is not just a result of poverty, but a result of being an eco-friendly citizen.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 12456 Eur

Project Coordinator

Rakkestad ungdomsskole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Escola Básica e Secundária Dr. Ângelo Augusto da Silva
• MARESAL MUSTAFA KEMAL ORTAOKULU
• Abtei-Gymnasium Brauweiler
• Istituto Comprensivo Monte Rosello Basso
• IES ANDREU ALFARO