“Mens sana in corpore sano”. Food, nutrition, eating habits, health and disease at European schools as an (inter)cultural mirror. Erasmus Project

Project Title

“Mens sana in corpore sano”. Food, nutrition, eating habits, health and disease at European schools as an (inter)cultural mirror.

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

Context/background of project
The life of today’s youth, which is often marked by excess, oriented towards a material life and filled with ill-considered dietary habits, leads increasingly towards a passive attitude and mostly towards serious and long term health detriment.
Therefore, the goal of this project was to analyse and develop, on a European level and from an intercultural perspective, using an interdisciplinary approach youth-relevant questions and approaches to problems related to the topics of diet, nutrition, eating habits and related eating disorders, sports/exercise and health.
Young people were made aware of and motivated to plan healthy and active dietary habits and a healthy and active lifestyle; this way they recognized that these have an immediate influence on the how they shape their own future.

Objectives
-Improvement of pupils’ basic and transversal skills
-Reduction of the rate of school drop-outs resulting from diet-related behavioral problems
-Promotion of internationalization and improvement in the quality of teaching staff and their abilities and competences as well as development of synergies between various partners on a European level
-Increasing the attractiveness and visibility of each respective school

Number and profile of participants
The partnership was made up of six different educational institutions from Austria, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK.
The target participants were upper secondary school pupils in the ages 14–18. Working groups of approx. 16 pupils were formed in each respective school. Every 8th (alternating) pupil took part in transnational learning activities and acted as disseminators for their working group and school community.

Description of activities/ Methodology used
The following activities have been implemented for the 2015-2017 school years addressing the aforementioned topics:

Content/regional/intercultural preparations
-Video statements: the pupils introduced their school and their city
-Preparation of teaching materials, designed in a way that partner schools can integrate them in their own lesson plans without any problems
-Teaching of lessons
-Regional and intercultural preparation of the student exchange and creation of a portfolio
-In-school and external dissemination events

Transnational learning, teaching and education activities
-Presentation of the tests implemented and their results
-Exchange of and testing of lessons in mixed working groups
-Video filming and editing
-Awards for best creative student products
-In-school and external dissemination events
-Exchange with non-participating institutions via Blended Mobility Activities

Results
The following results were obtained for each respective project topic: lesson plans, Power-Point presentations, portfolios, questionnaires, brochures, information and prevention videos, etc.
All results were distrinuited open Access, so that these can be used in other schools and countries (homepage, eTwinning, further education servers); the lesson plans developed during the project can also be adopted in bilingual lessons of various school subjects or in a series of lessons (CLIL).

Impact
-Improvement of pupils’ basic and transversal skills
-Reduction of school drop-out rates
-Strengthening of teaching staff‘s didactic skills
-Improved internationalization
-Sensitizing and making society aware of the European dimension of education and of its priorities
-Improvement of attractiveness and visibility of the school’s location

Potential longer term benefits
After completion of the project, material as well as immaterial results will continue to be available and can be used by further stakeholders. In addition, appropriate tools were implemented, which constitute a substantial and economic resource for ensuring sustainability. As a result of the activities realized and the obtained results, the following additional long-term benefits result from the project:
-Impulses for further development
-Inspiration for third parties and transfer of project results to new areas
-Promotion of the European added valued resulting from Erasmus+ and motivation to participate in the program

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 144865 Eur

Project Coordinator

Öffentliches Stiftsgymnasium der Benediktiner zu St. Paul & Country: AT

Project Partners

• East Barnet School
• Prywatne Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Marii Sklodowskiej-Curie
• Lycée Jean de la Fontaine
• IES Joaquin Turina
• Ist. di Istruz. Secondaria Superiore Bazoli