Our Forests – Our Future Erasmus Project

Project Title

Our Forests – Our Future

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

‘Our forests – our future’ (OFOF) was a project in which six European schools worked together on various topics dealing with forests. The participating schools were from Finland, Spain, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Portugal and Romania. The main objective of this collaboration was to raise awareness and stimulate debate between the countries on how to best deal with the different aspects of forest. Other important goals related to the development of schools. There was a need to strengthen the students’ and teachers’ teamwork skills and to make better use of modern entrepreneurship education methods. We also wanted to open the school to the surrounding community and enhance active local and European citizenship. The third issue was to teach our students tolerance and acceptance towards different kinds of people. The fourth goal was to develop English language and ICT skills.

The partners for the project were chosen based on their common interests in the multiple uses of forests and the testing of new educational methods. Another important criteria was for the schools to be located in different climate conditions in Europe. In Finland the chosen school is located in the boreal coniferous forest vegetation zone, at the westernmost end of the vast taiga forest belt that stretches across Russia and Siberia. In Lithuania the school is in the south west where most of the forest grows in mixed stands and the dominant species are pines and spruces. This climate is a typical European continental influenced climate with warm dry summers and cold winters. In Spain the school is located in the arid and the Mediterranean zones, with a unique biodiversity composed by thousands of species evolved from the mix of biodiversity between Africa and Europe. In the Netherlands the school is located in an average sea climate. The forests there are mainly composed of an equal mixture of deciduous and pine trees, commonly originally planted as a production forest. In Portugal the school is located in the Mediterranean climate zone, with the forest predominantly occupied by intensive eucalyptus production destined for paper pulp. In riparian zones biodiversity is immense with undergrowth, shrubs and trees, as well as birds and small mammals. In Romania the school is located in a temperate climate with Mediterranean and western influences.

In practice, this three-year project was based on concrete tasks which were carried out each year in all the schools by rotating groups of students. All the students of a certain age group participated in the activities which were carefully chosen to suit the national curriculum in each country. The tasks included preparing food from the produce we get from our forests, creating products from domestic wood, building a herbarium, measuring the forests with mathematical tools, having a photo contest, making field trips, visiting lumberyards and factories, and using online research to learn about nature conservation.

In addition to the tasks carried out at the participating schools, we cooperated a lot via the internet. We presented our work to each other and also compared the results we got. In order to learn more from each other, we held several international meetings. Some of the meetings concentrated more on the teaching methods and on distributing and observing new ideas and these were attended by teachers from different schools. During these meetings it was also easier to manage the project on a more general level. Some of the meetings concentrated on specific forest issues and in these events there were students participating, cooperating and learning from each other and about the area they visited.

The impacts of the partnership stretched from students to teachers and the institutions they worked in, as well as the families of the students, local authorities and local communities. The students learned to appreciate the forests, learned about jobs within forestry, improved their key competence skills, learned to take a more active role in their own learning and in their everyday lives in their communities, as well as became more tolerant towards other cultures. The teachers shared ideas, materials and knowledge between colleagues from different countries and thus made progress professionally. The teachers also improved their ICT and language skills as well as their knowledge about Europe in general. On the local level, the impact manifested as a stronger collaboration between schools and local authorities and between schools and enterprises and other organisations within forestry. We promoted the international dissemination of good practice and innovation around the topics covered by the project. The final products we produced included a booklet, a mural and a shared eTwinning website (we will apply for a quality label for our site). The collaboration between Finland, Spain and the Netherlands is set to continue beyond the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 246040 Eur

Project Coordinator

Putaan koulu & Country: FI

Project Partners

• IES Carlos III
• Scoala Gimnaziala Pietroasa
• AGRUPAMENTO DE ESCOLAS DE VILA NOVA DE POIARES
• Kazlu Rudos pagrindine mokykla
• 2College Cobbenhagenlyceum