Of deep holes, hot springs and a blazing sun – Energy matters – it’s everybody’s business Erasmus Project

Project Title

Of deep holes, hot springs and a blazing sun – Energy matters – it’s everybody’s business

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions; Energy and resources

Project Summary

We are living in a time of great upheavals and immense challenges, in which we can generally identify two approaches to solving them: a return to nationalism and going it alone, or the insight to solve global future issues together with partners. We as schools from Germany, Spain and Iceland want to counter the first approach with this project and make it clear to the pupils as an overriding goal that national problems do not stop at national borders, but can only be solved in a European context. Stolberg Comprehensive School has deliberately dedicated itself to the motto “Strong in education, self-responsible in life” and also “Together in diversity”. As a thematic vehicle, we have chosen “Energy and Sustainability” as our current theme. We are convinced that securing the energy supply in the course of energy change and protecting the environment can only be solved in a European network. To get to know the different forms of energy production across Europe, to discover technical innovations and possibilities to take responsibility in terms of sustainability is the challenge the project is facing.
In concrete terms, this means that pupils aged between 12 and 15 from the schools participating in the project have, in addition to theoretical work in working groups, become familiar with the conditions in the individual countries in the first three teaching and training activities. This included experiments in the schools as well as excursions and workshops in the respective partner institutions.
In a second phase, the focus was on climate protection and ways of saving energy in the schools. Which renewable forms of energy could we use as a school? How could we use electricity and heat economically and responsibly? How could we contribute to protecting nature, our living environment and the climate? What could we learn from other countries?
In Iceland we learned about the possibilities and chances of a sustainable and climate-neutral energy supply for a school building and laid the foundations for an energy school programme with our own label. This should enable the pupils to reflect on everyday activities related to energy. They were to identify approaches for climate-friendly behaviour and were able to derive their own behavioural changes from this. Further development in Spain and Germany with the support of the Jülich Research Centre as a cooperation partner of Stolberg Comprehensive School could not be pursued further due to the pandemic.
Nevertheless, this approach is to be incorporated into school programmes as an integral part of the school profile and continued in the long term. It is encouraging that the schools involved in the project want to continue working together and that good contact has been maintained between them.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 98973 Eur

Project Coordinator

Städtische Gesamtschule Stolberg – Auf der Liester & Country: DE

Project Partners

• IES ANDRES VANDELVIRA
• Kopavogsskoli