Food for Brain Makes Brains for Food Erasmus Project

Project Title

Food for Brain Makes Brains for Food

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: Environment and climate change; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

Our project comprised the themes healthy diet and lifestyle, sustainability, career education, entrepreneurship and Fairtrade.
Our students are growing up in a fast-moving society in which an unhealthy lifestyle, fast food and wasteful consumerism are prevalent whilst modern media spread the ideal of physical fitness and beauty. Therefore, we wanted to focus our project work on the themes healthy diet & lifestyle, environmental issues, sustainability and Fairtrade. Furthermore, we wanted to compare career education in our partner schools, an important element of school education, so students explored how career education is conducted in the different countries and visited a job fair at one of the partner schools to enquire about possible career options. The project was also designed to encourage entrepreneurship among students by giving them responsibility for a wide range of tasks.
Students learned about the importance of physical exercise and a healthy diet for their personal well-being and academic performance. They compared and evaluated their schools`, and their individual approaches to healthy food and sports. In various workshops, students also studied and experimented with traditional and modern, healthy and sustainable food concepts and collated a range of healthy, and culturally as well as nutritionally diverse recipes.
With regard to sustainability, students examined the consequences of careless consumerism and explored the value of organic, regional and Fairtrade products. They evaluated their schools’ commitment to environmental issues such as waste, recycling and sustainability and also reflected on their own environmental attitudes. They also gained an insight into the zero-waste movement.
The students involved were aged 13-18. Most partner schools have an intake of students with a wide range of abilities. We tried to involve as many students as possible in our project work. Some tasks such as the logo competition, the survey about school food, or the reflection on the students‘ eating habits and environmental attitudes, were organised to encompass the whole school or at least whole year groups. Although the official mobilities are limited to 100 for the whole project group, we are very proud to have taken 129 students to the different partner schools. Adding in the students from our associated Turkish partner school, which participated in all stages of our project, we come to a total of 154 students who had the chance to take part in an STE. Altogether, around 540 students from all partner schools were involved in some part of the project.
Research, practical and creative work involved many different subjects and required a cross-curricular approach. Special emphasis lay on students’ hands-on experience. For each project phase, we a range of preparatory tasks were planned to ensure that the students got the maximum benefit from the activities carried out during the exchange meetings. Those activities included, for example, numerous workshops run by experts from local or regional institutions or by teachers, visits to a job fair, an organic farm, Fairtrade companies, a zero-waste shop, museums, a Roman villa, a research institution, modern food companies and a thermal power station with an innovative algae production line.
Project results achieved include, for example:
• discussion and evaluation of the importance of physical exercise in combination with healthy food for the personal well-being, powers of concentration and academic performance
• comparison of school food at the different partner schools
• international cookery book
• presentation on sustainability
• discussion on the importance of regional and organic food
• evaluation of the partner schools‘ concepts on environmental issues
• presentation on the principles of Fairtrade
• presentation on career education at the different partner schools
• films about the different project themes, phases and meetings
Our students have benefited from this project in various ways. First of all, they have deepened their understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and sustainability. Hosting a partner and/or staying with a host family has also provided a valuable cultural experience. Moreover, working on the project has given students the opportunity to use and improve their foreign language, IT, research and presentation skills.
This project has raised the European profile of our partner schools within their communities and has enriched our schools’ curricula. At some schools, concepts on food, physical exercise, sustainability and/or career education are being reviewed and improved as a consequence of our project findings. In some cases, changes have already been implemented: All schools have taken action to improve their environmental policies. Some partners have also taken steps to provide healthier school food. The PE department at Langerfeld Comprehensive can now use the equipment bought for the bootcamp.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 129085 Eur

Project Coordinator

Städt. Gesamtschule Wuppertal-Langerfeld & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Liceo Statale Gaio Valerio Catullo
• IES SANTA CATALINA DE ALEJANDRIA
• Leibniz Privatschule gGmbH
• COLLEGE JEAN ZAY