My sustainable way of life Erasmus Project

Project Title

My sustainable way of life

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Energy and resources; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Because climate change is changing our environment, the sustainable way of life is an important goal. Responding to climate change needs much more deeper approach than we have had at our schools so far. We have to teach the importance of the changes and the solutions in many different areas of the life. Climate change is also a problem that concerns the whole world and it must also be solved together with different nations. As a school of basic education we have to give to our students basic skills and key competence to build a sustainable future and participate and involve them to the decision making of the society. We need to give students competence to solve problems in multicultural working groups, the idea of solving problems, which considers of Europe, together and the experience that even one person can have influence. This will help our future citizens to solve global problems as climate change. Internationalization, strengthening European identity and the experience of using languages in real life is very important, too. Youth are activating against climate change all over Europe and demanding decision makers to act before it is too late. With this project “My sustainable way of life” we promote connecting young people and empower them to act against the climate change. We want to give to young Europeans several ways to minimize climate change and ways to act in a democratic way.

In the first learning, teaching and training activity week the teachers of the participating schools will gather together to exchange and develop good practices for our biennal project. The teachers will get to know conflict management in international projects and several tools to develop basic skills of the students.

Next the students will concentrate on the questions of climate change and on the different effects in different parts of Europe. Drama will be used as a learning tool. The climate change is a threat for the amount of snow in the north, becaude lack of snow will seriously harm animals and plants survival during the winter. In the first topic students will do snow research in Finland and they will report the results to the national database Talviseuranta. The database will be used in scientific reserarch later.

In the next section we will study questions of energy and transportation as a part of climate change and a part of sustainable way of life. Students deepen their knowledge about energy questions in each country, the similarities and differences and the possibilities of green energy. Students will learn about carbon footprint and study different ways to travel in Europe. Students will also organize a campaign for better traffic solutions in Spain.

Next we will discuss about circulatory life and what kind of possibilities there are for it in each country. The ethical and egologial questions of consuming, especially clothes will be taken a closer look and students will made a counter advertisement against mass consuming. The needs and desires will be discussed and different sides of redusing, reusing and recycling will be talked and emphasized. Students will organize a fashion show in Germany by using the second hand clothes they have chosen.

Finally we will take a closer look for the food production and food consuming. The objective of this activity is to point out the meaning of sustainably produced food. Students will make a short video of their local food of their own country. The cultural heritage of food will be shown too. Students will learn about how food production affects climate change and how citizens can eat sustainably. They will make a poster about different things concerning food waste, why local food is a better choice and how food consumption affects to carbon footprint. As another final work students will cook a sustainable dish for a competition called “Masterchef: the most sustainable dish”. The prepared food will be eaten at school in a big event, a multicultural celebration between participating EU-countries.

As a result of our project we will expect our students to make better, sustainable choices in their lives and also demand decision makers to take into account the climate change. Our students will practice and develop their skills to influence and to participate to the decision making of their society. This will promote engaging, connecting and empowering of the students. The project will support the internationalization of the students and also their families as they act as a host family. The effects will be monitored during the project several times with qualitative and quantitave methods. The long term effects of our project will be seen in the development of the skills of our students who participated in the project, but we will also wait for larger effects to the whole school communities: we hope that each school community will be aware of the climate change and learn new practices to encourage students to participate acting against climate change.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 116229 Eur

Project Coordinator

Jokirannan koulu, Ylivieska & Country: FI

Project Partners

• Ernst-Ludwig-Schule
• Instituto de Educación Secundaria de Candás
• 1st Gymnasium Amarousiou