Polluting less, eating better : utopia or necessity ? Erasmus Project

Project Title

Polluting less, eating better : utopia or necessity ?

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: Health and wellbeing; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

Confronted with various farming or food scandals disclosed by the press for the last few years and after observing our students’behaviours in terms of public health and environmental preservation, our schools – which belong to the Don Bosco International Network and have been arranging school exchanges for over thirty years – have decided to cooperate on a project entitled POLLUTING LESS, EATING BETTER : UTOPIA OR NECESSITY ?
This project primarily aims at practising the foreign languages taught in the partner schools, namely French, English, German and Spanish. It is secondly designed for making the 12 to 20-year olds aware of their consumer habits. It boils down to sensitizing them to the impact of their choices so as to lead to a greater sense of responsibility. To reach this purpose, each school will resort to the following method. First and foremost, the students will undertake observation activities on the ground about their own home lives, supplemented by visits to supermarkets, organic retail shops, farms etc while, at the same time, collecting information online or by meeting experts so as to make comparisons and statistics. Besides, the results and analyses stemming from these learning activities – which are part of each country’s educational curriculum – will be shared, posted and commented upon on eTwinning. Creative activities such as logo and poster contests, slam or song writing as well as festive events , such as “Let’s stop overspending at Christmas”, and end-of-project party, an awareness campaign in the city centre will add up to internal actions in order to target the whole school community, whether it be pupils, staff, families, the local population or outside partners like the Town Council and local firms.
In addition to virtual mobilities through the Twinspace involving around fifty pupils and ten teachers, three physical mobilities will concern 20 students as well as two teachers per trip. Moreover, a communication plan has been designed to broadly communicate on the project on a local but also regional, national and European level.
The expected results can clearly be quantified. In the first place, the carbon footprint is to be calculated per participant at the beginning and end of the project. The quantity of waste and the use of plastic will be verified so as to see to what extent they have been reduced. In the second place, partners will examine if short distribution networks are favoured at the end of the project. As regards quality, the impact of each activity on the particpants will be regularly assessed, with a particular focus on language learning and eco-citizenship.
To conclude, once the project is closed, the three involved schools hope their students will take up the challenges facing the western world, by feeding themselves in a healthy way for their own benefit but also the benefit of the planet. Hopefully our youth will turn to a fairer economy, respectful of people and their environment.

Project Website

https://sites.google.com/salesianosaviles.es/polluermoinsmangersain/erasmus

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 24000 Eur

Project Coordinator

ASSOCIATION IMMACULEE CONCEPTION & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Don Bosco Gymnasium Unterwaltersdorf
• Colegio Santo Ángel de la Guarda