Sustainable Vitruvian Man – Uomo Vitruviano Sostenibile Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sustainable Vitruvian Man – Uomo Vitruviano Sostenibile

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: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Health and wellbeing; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

The year 2019 marks the 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci died, one of the great creative minds of the Italian Renaissance, hugely influential and very talented. His drawing “the Vitruvian Man” symbolizes the balance we should have in our lives and how we should regard nature and it’s resources. UVS is a bilateral project that has chosen the Vitruvian Man, a graphic synthesis of harmony between man and the universe, as a background to work on sustainability on different levels: an individual one pursuing healthy life styles and a wider one that concerns making sustainable choices where the fundamental source water is regarded.
The horizontal priority addressed is supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences that involves communicative skills, critical thinking, forward-looking skills in fields strategic for smart economic and social development and open education and innovative practices in a digital era. The use of innovative and participatory approaches for addressing students is of importance as well as the use of ICT-based methodologies. The other additional priorities are environment and climate change, health and well-being, quality Improvement of Institutions and/or methods.

It is vital to show how science and technology can help adopting correct lifestyles and how the frontiers of robotics and medicine could make our lives easier. As sustainability means long term planning, this implies life-long-learning and open minds towards technology changes, allowing a connection to the Active Aging Project (which follows the objectives of the WHO), adopted by Le Filandiere school and the University of Udine. Students will also explore the importance of water in our two societies and countries, both sweet water and seawater; as resources for hydro-electrical production, basis of food production, clean water as domestic resource of health and well being – and sea water as base for natural sustainable harvest of fish-stocks and sea animals, and finally as a fundamental necessity for fish farming. Also the important role water plays in delivering premises for the tourism sector will be addressed.

On a pedagogical level this means experimenting with a variety of teaching methods. Different activities are planned: class exchanges, teachers job shadowing, a teacher-learning project and an online conference at the end of the experience.The idea of including Job shadowing and teacher exchanges is to benefit from the ideas of each others’ teaching and to gain profits from different approaches to themes and ideas. Choosing Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man as a project symbol enables us to work on a multidisciplinary level and allows more flexible learning. In this way it will be possible to focus on the second field-specific priority .

Around 120 Norwegian and Italian students and teachers are involved In this project. Fagerlia videregående skole is a public upper secondary school in Ålesund (pop. 50 000) on the West Coast of Norway. The school has 135 teachers and appr. 875 pupils; departments: General studies, Music-Dance- Theater, Sports, Art-Design-Architecture; vocational studies: Health and Social Studies. The school has been involved in exchange programs for more than 20 years, both with Nordic and other European countries. The cooperation with Le Filandiere dates back to 1994. This joint project, Sustainable Vitruvian Man, is wanted by both principals and the wish to share good practices and learn from each others ideas and systems is eminent in both staffs.

Licei ‘Le Filandiere’ is a secondary school located in S.Vito al Tagliamento a town of 15 000 inhabitants in the NE of Italy. About 800 students belonging to different social, cultural backgrounds attend it. There are 85 staff members, most of the teachers have a permanent job position. There are three types of courses: a science based one, Liceo Scientifico, a science and computer based: Liceo Scientifico Opzione Scienze Applicate and a language based course: Liceo Linguistico. Since 1994 there have been student-exchanges with European and extra-European countries.

The expected results will be both tangible, i.e. production of learning materials, and intangible, i.e. increased knowledge and experience gained, increased awareness on matters related to sustainability, foreign language skills and improved ICT-skills. The degree of change this project will bring about will be evident mostly in the long-term: i. e increased awareness of the importance of making sustainable choices, improvement of school climate, development of interdisciplinary approaches, development of openness and cooperation with schools from other countries – thus highlighting the European dimension of school-teaching, stronger relationships between pupils and teachers, better teamwork, experience of different teaching methods, supplement knowledge of other educational systems, improvement of communicative skills in foreign languages.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 16532,4 Eur

Project Coordinator

Fagerlia videregående skole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• I.S.I.S. LE FILANDIERE