Sustainability in construction: Utilization of waste and non-traditional materials Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sustainability in construction: Utilization of waste and non-traditional materials

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: Research and innovation; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions; Cooperation between educational institutions and business

Project Summary

The project focused on sustainability in construction deals with environmental and climate goals. As there is a finite number of resources on our planet on one hand and growing number of population on another, the sustainability in construction makes sure that the resources are used in effective way.
One of the most important objectives which will be strived for is to raise students´ and public´s awareness of possible changes that would help save resources, and support their green skills. Another goal is to develop students’ competences relating to green skills and sustainability, because these are both present and future-oriented topics focused on people´s and planet´s needs. The students would become real bearers of changes in the field of saving resources, finding new ways of using waste, and spreading their ideas further. The project work will also contribute to their professional skills development, because they will focus on the branch of construction that is spreading very quickly throughout the world. As they are going to cooperate with local companies dealing with waste recycling and producing building materials, they can get acquainted with a real-work environment. This will help develop their work skills and give them a sort of training for their future job.
The students will deal with utilization of waste and non-traditional materials by testing various waste and look for more ideas concerning their utilization in construction. They will proceed to heat testing comparing different materials (recycled and more classical materials) in order to make a performance analysis (comparative tables) of the different possible solutions.
The students learning motivation will be developed by new learning strategies they will be provided, encouraging their problem-solving skills, and offering them with reasonable assignments and effective feedback. It will be a real challenge for the students, because they are going to get involved in authentic work and meaningful activities, as the they become part of the research themselves.
There are four participating schools – Stredni prumyslova skola stavebni a Obchodni academie Kladno (Czech Republic), Stredna priemyselna skola stavebna D.S.Jurkovica Trnava (Slovakia), ISISS ITN-ITG-IPS-ITC Riposto (Italy) and Lycee Polyvalent La Gaross Auch (France). From each school 6 students of construction aged 16 – 18 (considering their skills in the researched field) will be direct participant in the project. They will participate in students virtual and physical meetings, work out the project, and disseminate their knowledge.

Implementation of the project will be carried out in several ways. Within the whole duration of the project students and teachers will make use of the eTwinning platform to share their partial results and achievements, to share information and to communicate. Several virtual exchanges will be realized in both initial and ongoing phases. There will be 4 international meetings – each of them taking place in one of the participating schools. Each school schedules activities in order to exchange their practices. These activities include visiting the schools, participating in several workshops on waste utilization and testing led by their teachers of construction, and last but not least excursions in local businesses focused on waste utilization, construction materials production, sustainability and ecology.

Dissemination activities will be conducted in order to raise awareness in green skills, to share knowledge and research outputs, to influence environmental policy and thinking, engage more target groups and public in this problematic, develop new partnerships, and extend the impact of the project. Project´s dissemination will be enabled by promoting the project on eTwinning, using social media such as Facebook and Instagram, creating project´s websites, participating in international meetings, posting photos and videos in local media. The project will also be disseminated to the several departments and authorities in charge of environment in our regions (department board); the students will take the role of ambassadors in the different schools surrounding theirs – they will run workshops for them; another part of the project is an exhibition which will be accessible for both local schools and public.

On longer term relations between participating schools, relations among local schools in particular regions, and those with local business will be established in order to build on the knowledge and outputs gained from the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 88480 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stredni prumyslova skola stavebni a Obchodni akademie, Kladno, Cyrila Boudy 2954 & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• LYCEE POLYVALENT LA GARROS
• Stredna priemyselna skola stavebna Dusana Samuela Jurkovica, Lomonosovova 7, Trnava
• I.S. ITN-ITG-IPS RIPOSTO