ITALY AND FRANCE: TOGETHER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT Erasmus Project

Project Title

ITALY AND FRANCE: TOGETHER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

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: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Environment and climate change; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The project involves 2 schools from 2 different countries, one is Italian, the IC from Garlasco which is the leading organisation, the other one is French, the Collège de Barr, a secondary school of first degree.
Both schools share a strong interest in environmental issues and in the past they implemented several projects aimed at adopting behaviors respectful of nature and the beings that live in it. The two partners started with a careful analysis of the current situation and realized how necessary it is to make choices different from the ones of the past.
In presence of a global environmental crisis, a profound change of mentality is needed, one that involves institutions, businesses and individuals. This awareness must start from schools and students, of all ages, especially from the youngest who could be called “environmental natives”: a generation that in their everyday behavior, as a natural perspective, already shows respect for the environment in which they live.
Starting from this analysis and from the tree of problems, the 2 schools have identified the need to acquire a greater active citizenship, that is to educate citizens capable of influencing political choices and promoting behavior inspired by the principles of a sustainable society.
By this project, the 2 schools intend to activate paths towards biodiversity awareness, education, ecological, social and economic sustainability, in an interdisciplinary perspective. To do this we intend to increase the already existing collaboration between school and local authorities and activate a significant cooperation also from a European perspective.
The specific objectives of the project are:
OB.1: stimulate an active ecological citizenship in pupils and promote an environmentally friendly behavior
OB.2: improve key skills in pupils through a transversal teaching based on STEM and methodological approaches that stimulate curiosity and critical thinking
OB.3: increase the foreign language skills of pupils and teachers.
Participants in the activities will be:
* TEACHERS
– Directly involved in the project and in physical mobility: 8 in total, 4 per school (3 + 1 teacher in charge of inclusion).
– Teachers of the 2 project teams and those of the target classes for all virtual activities and mobility.
* STUDENTS
– Directly involved in the project and in physical mobility: 40 in total between 11 and 13 years old, distributed as follows:
Italy: 20 pupils selected in three future second classes plus a future first class (they study French as a second language)
France: 20 pupils selected in a single future second class (they study Italian as a second language)
4 pupils with fewer opportunities will be involved in each school.
The activities to be implemented are:
-a training course in Italy for 12 teachers (6 Italian + 6 French) on CLIL methodology and biodiversity
– two mobilities, exchanges between students, one in Italy, the other one in France with a visit to the Council of Europe. In both mobilities, naturalistic field trips will be arranged in areas of importance for their wealth of animal and plant species.
The methodologies used will be mixed: short lectures, videoconferences, group work, research, analysis, comparison activities.
The prevailing methodology that characterizes the entire project is, however, that of field didactics based on Kurt Lewin’s Research-Action method and laboratory activities.
Specific topics: lichens and butterflies as indicators of the good or bad health of the environment.
The expected tangible results are:
Uda on biodiversity, padlet, ebook on autochthonous ecosystems, multilingual dictionary on the lexicon of biodiversity, CLIL Uda, STEM Uda, mapping of didactic cross-curricular paths with analysis and resolution of reality tasks, interviews, videos, creation of Erasmus corners, photographic exhibition.
The intangible results, on the other hand, are:
increase in skills of active citizenship and awareness of the importance of the environment and European policies, consolidation of transversal skills, greater involvement of pupils in both education and social issues, increase of skills in L2.
Cross-cutting results:
proposals for ecological citizenship projects to local and European authorities, Biodiversity Day (to be organised on May 22, International Day of Biological Diversity) in collaboration with local authorities. The project will give visibility to the 2 schools and implement their internationalization process.
The 2 partners prepared the monitoring, evaluation and dissemination plans for each phase of the project: at the beginning, half way and at the end.
We will guarantee the sustainability of the project by including the results in the curriculum of the schools; we will also activate new projects on other environmental issues on eTwinning. We also intend to continue the collaboration with the French school with the new program by presenting a broader partnership project involving other and new foreign schools.

Project Website

https://www.istitutocomprensivogarlasco.edu.it/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 53376 Eur

Project Coordinator

ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO DI GARLASCO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Collège de Barr