Let’s grow Europe! Erasmus Project

Project Title

Let’s grow Europe!

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: Natural sciences; Environment and climate change; Research and innovation

Project Summary

What do tomato, lettuce and sunflower have in common? Do our students actually still know how useful and ornamental plants grow? And how they can be bred? And can we perhaps use this topic to make a contribution to sustainability that everyone can afford?
In today’s everyday school life one can see time and again how well pupils master their digital world. Unfortunately, everyday life often become less important. In our project, we would like to sensitize students to this important topic and draw a bridge between nature and digital technology.
Our project “Let’s grow Europe” combines project-based work with many subjects (natural sciences, English, home economics, ethics, handicrafts) and involves different class levels. The focus of our project is divided into three phases:
1. recycling of vegetables (keyword: re-growing), construction of plant boxes (keyword: upcycling)
In small international groups, practical experiments on re-growing are conducted and documented. This results in regrow instructions in English language with care instructions and “first-aid measures”. All regrow instructions are summarized and printed in a booklet. In addition, plant boxes, if possible made of upcycling material, are built in this first project phase.
2. seed extraction from useful plants
The student groups continue their research work and extract seeds from crops such as tomatoes and pumpkins. Seed cards (greeting cards with embedded seeds) and little seed bags with sowing instructions in English (care instructions and “first-aid measures”) are results of the second project phase.
3. seed extraction from ornamental plants
In the third phase of the project, the student groups continue their research work and extract seeds from ornamental plants, e.g. marigold and sunflowers. Seed cards and seed bombs with information tags in English are the results.
“Let’s grow Europe” will last two years and will be carried out with 36 students and 6 teachers from Augsburg, Wageningen and Gödöllö. The pupils are between the 7th and 9th grade (13-15 years), i.e. at an age when environmental issues and sustainability are increasingly an issue (e.g. Fridays-for-Future).
We pursue the following goals with our project: Through the international cooperation of the students from Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary we want to give the young people a platform through which they have the opportunity to look beyond their own school horizon and have a positive influence on a European companionship. The project-related work enables the pupils to have a look at project work in other countries. Pupils of different grades who are only secondarily involved in the project (e.g. national project week) should be motivated and benefit from the experiences of the participants (e.g. school gardens). The project gives pupils the opportunity to participate according to their preferred interests (natural sciences, horticulture, environmental protection, climate protection, sustainability, recycling/upcycling). Another central goal is to improve foreign language skills. We have agreed on English as the project language. English is not the native language for any of the participants and therefore our goal is a clear improvement of language skills in the areas of conversation, writing and presentation.
The desired results will be achieved through group work, independent student work under the guidance of experts, practical experimental learning, knowledge transfer at extracurricular learning locations as well as the preparation and follow-up of multimedia presentations. Through the numerous presentations and continuous cooperation with the partner schools, foreign language skills are improved and intensified.
We will ensure that all project results are available on the e-twinning platform. Information on our products (re-growing instructions, seed bags, seed cards, seed bombs) as well as a summary of individual project results will also be published on the school websites. The project material will be processed and will continue to be used in the schools. The school gardens, which have been created or improved, are a secondary product of our project and can be used sustainably.
Our project deals with the issues of environmental protection and sustainability in general up to the concrete needs of our schools (school gardens) and wants to encourage pupils through qualified learning to raise their awareness on the topic and help them to become environmentally aware and responsible European citizens.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 92352 Eur

Project Coordinator

Montessori-Schule Augsburg & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Gödöllöi Török Ignác Gimnázium
• Stichting voor Openbaar Voortgezet Onderwijs van Wageningen en Omstreken