Smart schools in smart cities: Teaching of ecological economics in Bodø and Kiel. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Smart schools in smart cities: Teaching of ecological economics in Bodø and Kiel.

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Natural sciences

Project Summary

The #GreenSmartCity project deals with urban development in Kiel and Bodø with a special focus on sustainability. The combined vocational and study preparing schools Bodø vgs (BVGS) and the RBZ Wirtschaft Kiel are participating in this project. Both schools focus on education for sustainable development. Both schools have been looking for a partner for an international project that depicts the tension between economy and ecology and represents an expansion of the respective school profile in this area.

The goals of the project are that our students learn to work scientifically, acquire intercultural competence and deal intensively and reflectively with how they want to help shape their future and preserve their surroundings.

Each participating learning group consists of around 25 high school students and focuses on business, biology and the environment. All of them are coached by three teachers from Bodø and from Kiel respectively.

Since the project also serves to set up the school partnership, the colleagues involved in the first activity in April 2021 will meet in Kiel in order to familiarize themselves with the scientific methods supported by the expertise of the Schleswig-Holstein Nature Conservation Foundation and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel. Preliminary talks with the Kiel city administration and the University of Kiel on future strategies for urban development also take place.

In September 2021, the students from Bodø are visiting Kiel, and in cross-cultural groups they are carrying out an inventory of the city of Kiel on its way to the “GreenSmartCity”. They are instructed to collect scientific data. The groups work according to the division of labour and ultimately present the knowledge gained to a public audience. The return visit to Bodø in April 2022 is analogous.
Then, back in their hometowns, the students start to compare their findings about both cities. This should serve to work out common traits, to contrast different development strategies and to learn from each other. In September and October 2022, student delegates sent from both schools will visit the other city for a few days and prepare and conduct a public presentation in the city council – in cooperation with the group of students on site.

From the beginning, both participating learning groups use digital media for networking purposes, among these the eTwinning-platform is an important tool to exchange material and ideas. A jointly- created website is linked to eTwinning.

This project can create a good basis for a lasting school partnership between the two schools. Future joint projects can follow up on the findings of the #GreenSmartCity project and develop them further. A concrete possible example: An environmental monitoring of air purity in both cities could be prolonged (bioindication with lichens).

We as teachers involved would be very happy if the project triggered our students to actively participate in urban development in Bodø, Kiel or anywhere else in the world to answer the big questions of our time.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 65484 Eur

Project Coordinator

Bodo videregaende skole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Regionales Berufsbildungszentrum Wirtschaft der Landeshauptstadt Kiel