Green Schools in Boxes Erasmus Project

Project Title

Green Schools in Boxes

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Context/Background

Not only the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 has witnessed troubling developments, threatening our shared cultural heritage of nature. This heritage could not be left to ignorance, deterioration or destruction, so our project searched for ways to celebrate and preserve it.

Objectives

Our students were to think analytically by using SWOT analysis and to gain the skills to complete these three steps: learn to gather, analyse and interpret data, facts and opinions; learn to present these to make coherent arguments; learn to disseminate them in presentations and discussions (Topics) and to implement, finish and evaluate small projects (Boxes) to achieve sustainable change. Students should work independently, using English as lingua franca in mixed project teams, and understand that people have to work together to solve global problems but that small changes also have an impact. Intercultural learning should help them understand their own culture and life better by reflecting and comparing and adjust if necessary. They should become independent, open-minded, critical thinkers, thereby enabling personal development and participation in civic and social life

Participants

The students (ages 13-17) came from secondary schools in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. All of them had English at school but not all were university-bound or had been on a school exchange. All students had dealt with the topic of sustainability before, albeit with differing skills regarding relevant tasks, and wanted to improve something in this area.

Activities and methodology

There were three phases. Phase 1 with C1 was about getting to know each other, the theme and adjusting our work plan to enable independent work between the mobilities. Phase 2, the main work phase, ended with C4 and was characterised by working on the Boxes and Topics. A Box features student-designed layouts, contains a practical guide to solving an environmental issue and thereby creating sustainability in a small area (e.g. insect hotel, upcycled phone holder, solar cell) and includes everything from a description of its necessity to a step-by-step instruction and practical, tested examples. Our three Topics were broken and narrowed down to ‘Sustainable Food’, ‘Endangered Fauna’ and ‘Climate Change: Renewable Energy and Plastic’, because the original ones were too large in scope, our inexperience was more challenging than expected and we had much larger groups to take care of. The work organization at each school varied, depending on many factors. The final and most important Phase 3 with C5 would have seen students bring their final results together, finish up their presentations, use their knowledge and skills in creative tasks and evaluate and present their work and results in a final exhibition and on our Twinspace, but Covid19 stopped all that. We had planned to not only hand over the Boxes and put up the presentations but to have workshops, activities, performances, etc. to not only show but demonstrate, compare and evaluate the results.
The students worked quite autarkic on the Boxes and Topics at each school but due to Covid19 and organisational challenges there was not as much exchange with the other schools as planned (e.g. on challenges, design, technical details, information). The themes and solutions, however, should always be a surprise for the mobilities, so there was joint work and implementation then.
At the mobilities results (Boxes and Topics) were presented, connections between our theoretical and practical knowledge drawn and activities (e.g. trips to recycling and water treatment plants, a zoo, a zero-immission urban quarter, the Danish parliament, an ecological farm and an eco-friendly hotel) used to expand our presentations (e.g. traveling exhibition). All activities were based on threats, possibilities, strengths and weaknesses (SWOT) in different countries and what we could learn from each other. There were also cultural, social and sporting events during the mobilities.

Results and impact

• growing numbers of students, teachers, parents and other people expanded their knowledge on sustainability, learnt to cherish nature, observe transitions, prevent risks and understand the importance of their actions and were ‘nudged’ to act
• students acquired large skill sets to improve their personal development and participation in civic and social life
• Boxes and Topics created to serve as beacons and help and included in some curricula
• Boxes made schools and communities greener

Long-term benefits

• other people or schools built our Boxes at their homes or buildings
• students have become multipliers for sustainability and their skill sets
• bond between four schools strengthened
• project results led to changes in decision makers’ thinking in communities
• results trickled down into curriculum and schools
• future sustainability projects will definitely resonate more in schools and communities

Project Website

https://twinspace.etwinning.net/54866/pages/page/441414

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 110229 Eur

Project Coordinator

Sibylla-Merian-Gymnasium & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Carmelcollege Emmen
• Läredaskolan
• Tårnborg Skole