Education for Sustainable Consumption: a global challenge Erasmus Project

Project Title

Education for Sustainable Consumption: a global challenge

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Economic and financial affairs (incl. funding issues); Energy and resources; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

The biggest aim of the project “Education for Sustainable Consumption: a global challenge” was to prepare the younger generations for a better life and learn how to manage the resources as well as to leave a legacy to the future generations. In order to achieve these goals the schools of 7 countries – Portugal, Italy, Spain, Hungary, France (Reunion Island), Turkey and Romania worked very closely with each other including students from regular and professional courses. Besides students we also involved the students’ parents. Thus we created a triangle consisting of students, parents, and teachers. To be successful we needed a strong base, which we got from external (community) partners. With this partnership we wanted to achieve the 21st century skills and the goals of the European strategy until 2020.

The three main goals of this project were:
1. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: the aim was to give a livable earth to the next generations. In this “point” we worked on the following objectives:
– Learning about environmental issues.
– Organizing campaigns to make the population more sensitive about the importance of protecting “Sustainable lifestyles”.
– Facilitating student involvement and learning decision-making regarding the use of energy sources and responsibility in the classroom, at home and in the community.
– Understanding the importance of developing “sustainable lifestyles” adopting patterns of consumption and production that safeguard human rights and community well-being, as well as the regenerative capacities of the earth and ensuring that economic activities at all levels promote human development in an equal and sustainable manner.
– Constructing and testing learning scenarios about sustainable consumption to facilitate students learning together.

2. BUDGET MANAGEMENT: the aim was to manage the local and national budget. In this point we worked on the following objectives:
– Comparing the prices of different brands and products.
– Promoting a participatory budget in the schools.
– Creating innovative enterprises.

3. EUROPEAN / WORLD CITIZENSHIP: we worked on the following objectives:
– Creating a culture of “care and community” where students learn to support each other and take responsibility for the well-being of others and the whole community.
– Motivating teachers and students to increase the number of foreign languages they speak and improve their foreign language skills.
– Developing an active and conscious European citizenship to respect differences and value each other’s cultures.
– Developing ICT skills.

We organized seven “Learning/teaching /training activities” with mobilities: 1 in the first school year, 3 in the second school year and 3 in the last school year. We involved students and teachers accompanied the pupils. Each partner hosted a meeting during which they organized and coordinated the activities and visits. Each LTT had a subject to achieve the main goals. On the LTTs in Spain, Hungary, Reunion Island and Italy we worked mainly on the first goal and on the LTTs in Romania, Portugal and Hungary we worked on the second goal and on Learning Scenarios. We worked on the third goal during each LTT because achieving an European citizenship was an overall goal, and it was present everywhere.

We developed a lot of durable products. We have uploaded all the products of the project on TwinSpace (https://twinspace.etwinning.net/1699/) in order to disseminate the results more easily. We have also created a youtube channel – https://goo.gl/CuQR6S – and a facebook group open to all the world (https://www.facebook.com/groups/escglobalchallenge/). The materials produced have a creative commons license.

The project has had an impact on different levels:
SCHOOL – during LTTs the schools and a lot of families were involved in the activities; old students taught younger students; durable products stayed in schools, for example, the idea of the participatory budget.
LOCAL / REGIONAL – we involved the town council/local government, the newspaper and the local TV.
NATIONAL – so far 4 countries have been awarded with the National Quality eTwinning Label; Papers and Posters in National conferences.
INTERNATIONAL – A poster in an International Conference and on TwinSpace, and we also disseminate our project on Facebook and on the Internet.

To finish the project, but to continue… We created “10 Golden rules to make ESC project sustainable” – https://twinspace.etwinning.net/1699/pages/page/255865 – to do during next school years.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 252810 Eur

Project Coordinator

Agrupamento de Escolas Póvoa de Lanhoso & Country: PT

Project Partners

• IES DE LLERENA
• SEHIT OMER HALISDEMIR ANADOLU LISESI
• I.I.S.S. “PANETTI-PITAGORA”
• lycée boisjoly potier
• LICEUL TEHNOLOGIC “SFANTUL PANTELIMON”
• Tamasi Altalanos Iskola, Gimnazium, Alapfoku Müveszeti Iskola es Kollegium