El que lee mucho y viaja mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho (Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra) – The One Who Reads A Lot and Travels A Lot, Sees A Lot and Knows A Lot Erasmus Project

Project Title

El que lee mucho y viaja mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho (Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra) – The One Who Reads A Lot and Travels A Lot, Sees A Lot and Knows A Lot

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The project partners met in 2011 in Valencia at a networking workshop organised by Comenius. Since then, they have worked together. Their cooperation culminated in successful project application in 2016 with the Czech partner as the main coordinator and guaranteeing subject. The main topic of the project underwent slight changes, but finally it settled on environmental problems of different European regions.
There are 4 partner institutions. All of them are secondary schools educating students of 14-18 years of age. Each partner institutions selected a relevant theme and designed a mobility around this theme. The Czech partner (Slezské gymnázium, Opava) has a long-term experience in conducting an activity based on monitoring emissions produced by households and educating the public in the area of correct heating and burning different types of fuels. That is why they selected the air contamination and introduced some ways of fighting it. Spanish partner (IES Campanar, Valencia) dealt with noise contamination and impact of noise on human health. Their mobility took advantage of Valencian festival las fallas as well as partnership with the town hall and its laboratory for monitoring noise levels in the city. Norwegian partner (Polarsirkelen videregående skole, Mo i Rana) took advantage of its location in the fjord coast and near the Polar Circle glaciers; thus they choose the problem of water pollution accompanied with the glacier expedition organised by local students as a part of their curriculum. Swedish partner (Gymnasium Västerhöjd, Skövde) facused on plant and animal protection as their town is situated on the border of a nature reserve and also because of the long-lasting tradition of rights of public access to natural heritage typical of this country.
The basic rationale of the project was to develop environmental consciousness in the students of all partner schools and in communities. Thus, objectives of the project were varied and multiple. Firstly, the project educated a range of participants in a number of scientific issues ranging from chemistry and biology to history and languages. Secondly, there were some practical skills to acquire, such as survival techniques connected with glacier tracking skills, orienteering, plant identification, tree pruning and planting, conducting lab experiments, etc.Thirdly there was a cross-cultural objective based on sharing a multinational experience during group work and host family scheme at mobilities. Further, some of the objectives touched emotional scope and led students to produce creative and artistic output. The linguistic impact is not to be forgotten-students were encouraged to work in both project languages (English and Spanish) in equal measure.
Besides mobilities summarised above, there were almost forty additional activities carried out over the two years of the project. These activities were often bound to mobilities and their topics, but some of them broadened the scope of the project. All of them contributed to the copletion of the project objectives. There were project days on sorting out waste, reusing materials, promotion of clean transport, spreading the knowledge of eco-labels and signs, warning about palm oil dangers, etc. There were international language competitions in translation and creative writing. Additionally, there were events interconnecting students of different age groups, producing useful output such as desktop photos etc.
The results are considered satisfactory and complement the objectives stated above. The language results are visible mainly in the self-confidence that the students display after the completion of the project, they are now able to participate in multinational groups and produce high-quality written materials. The intellectual results are based on new sets of knowledge and skills that all participants gained especially during mobilities. Community and cultural results were reached, because students experienced different living standards and background, became more tolerant and less passive in terms of their individual efforts to change things. There are undisputed personal development results as all participants had to act as responsible adults in order to win a place at mobilities and participate fully in activities. Teachers developed professionally and got a lot of inspiration from foreign colleagues. The status of Spanish as a foreign language was strengthened, participating schools got noticed in their regions and became more attrative for prospective students because of the project. generally, greater European consciousness was forged in all participants, as they learnt that European countries face similar problems regardless of their location or historical links. In the long run, they view themselves as European citizens and recognise the importance of learning foreign languages as well as being open to national differences. In June 2018 the project was awarded European Language Award Label 2018.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 113345 Eur

Project Coordinator

Slezske gymnazium, Opava, prispevkova organizace & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Gymnasium Skövde Västerhöjd
• IES Campanar
• Polarsirkelen videregående skole