How to consume differently Erasmus Project

Project Title

How to consume differently

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions

Project Summary

Never before have we been so concerned about our climate as we are today. This topic has motivated youth around the globe to engage in climate protection strikes, which should put pressure on governments around the world. This time the concerns are real, as every day we can follow the news about catastrophes caused by unpredictable weather due to climate change.
To achieve changes in our attitude towards the environment, schools and education are vital and crucial. We need to change our habits, consume less, recycle, and produce less garbage. We believe that this is possible, but people need to be educated and sometimes we only need to be reminded of the old practices or our cultural heritage. Our project – titled “Consommer mieux – consommer différemment” / “Consume better – consume differently” – includes several different generations of children from pre-school, through elementary, and finally to secondary levels of education in France and Slovenia. This project will include 50 students who will actively participate in the planned activities. This way we believe we can make a difference.
On the first visit to I. gimnazija v Celju (Slovenia), students will learn about recycling clothes that can still be used. An exchange of used clothes among students will be organised. They will collect old, worn-out cotton shirts and jeans and come up with a plan of how to recycle them. In the school lab, students will experiment with natural dyeing processes with dyes from leftover food, such as red onion, red cabbage, and the like. Students will undertake a trip to The Solčava region in the Alps which is known for its particular breed of mountain sheep, called “Jezersko-Solčava” sheep. There they will learn about the production of wool and its usage. They will make simple products out of wool by means of felting, and they will also try out knitting and crocheting.
On the second visit to I. gimnazija v Celju (Slovenia), students will learn about the health effects of herbs that are grown in the high school’s raised herb garden. The students will plant herbs, take care of them, and pick them. Later on, they will dry them and learn how to preserve them. In the classroom, there will be a debate organised with the title “Natural Medicines and Cosmetics in Comparison with Synthetic Ones”. Students will also carry out steam distillation of lavender, sage, and other herbs. This will lead into production of soap, relaxation drops and other objects use in daily hygiene. On this visit, students will get to see one of the oldest apothecaries in Europe (at Olimje), the herb farm Kalan, and the Slovenian Institute of Hop Research and Brewing, which is situated in nearby Žalec.
In both of the visits, the activities will vary from field work, lab work, assessing knowledge before and after the project, learning how to make useful products, seeing where things come from, and learning about cultural heritage.
When Slovenian will come to France, we will exhange our home-made soap and cleaning products recipies, we will use the labs in the middle school and the high school to distil the herbs our Slovenian partners will have bring with them With the help of Biology and Chemistry tracher we will start from scratch and be able to make home-made products. By raising awareness about how to use, reuse, and even make clothes, and by growing one’s own herbs and turning them into products for daily hygiene, among other things, we can make a difference.To pursue this goal, we are striving to include students in activities that are not farfetched but are easily applicable in their daily life. In France we will also organize short school trips to local organizations involved in the improvement of our lives.
Every school who will receive students will pay attention to make them at ease, as the students will aged from 6 to 18 years-old. Some students (from the vocational part of the high school Pierre Méchain) are not used to travelling so the aim of this project will be to open their eyes and their spirits, and to make Europe an accessible place where it is possible to exchange, practice, speak and debate with European classmates.
This project was built over a period of 3 years (October 2017 to today), around a theme of growth and topicality: consuming better, consuming differently. The actions envisaged make it possible to train future responsible environmental citizens.Each action is designed according to the age, knowledge and skills of the students and will be presented with a focus on exchanges between peers. These different activities and actions will focus on the awareness of the need to change lifestyle around “homemade”, reuse, recycling, local consumption and eco-mobility.
We will focus our work on a potential benefit: changing the way of life and the way of consuming in schools and families. This multidisciplinary project requires the mobilization of transversal skills in several areas at both elementary school, college and high school.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 116652 Eur

Project Coordinator

Lycee Pierre Mechain & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Osnovna sola Franceta Preserna
• I. gimnazija v Celju
• ECOLE PRIMAIRE V. SCHOELCHER
• COLLEGE LES FRERES LE NAIN