Tiny Steps For Great Changes Erasmus Project

Project Title

Tiny Steps For Great Changes

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: Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions; Environment and climate change; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

“Tiny Steps For Great Changes” aims at making participants from Italy, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Spain aware of the importance of becoming more sustainable and of the fact that it is in our hands to help fight against climate change through small actions at school and at home. We shall learn that preserving our planet is part of our own identity and a valuable gift for future generations. Besides, acknowledging the impact that leading a more sustainable lifestyle has on our environment might inspire teenagers to build not only their personal but also professional future upon. They will become the promoters of those small changes at their school, at their homes and their neighbourhood but they will also lead their mates through the quest of international cooperation. After all, this project is also intended to give students who are hundreds of kilometers apart the chance to get closer, exchange their traditions and points of view, share and appreciate their culture while fostering a sense of belonging to a common space. This cooperation among the countries involved is expected to grow strong bonds among them, thus raising the feeling of a stronger Europe as well as participants’ intercultural awareness, tolerance and open-mindedness. The improvement of students’ ICT skills and their communicative competence in English is a further goal. Besides, they will also develop key competences for lifelong learning since all tasks planned will favour cooperation, research, autonomy, curiosity and creativity. Being the inclusion of pupils with social and educational difficulties a major priority, this project will also contribute to develop students’ self-confidence for they will have to face new situations which will make them conscious of their potential. This is expected to contribute to the prevention of early school leaving.

The project includes three different types of tasks: 1)Tasks to be carried out before the exchanges as a warming-up before those in the mobilities. (e.g. ”Container Campaign”, “Logo Contest”, “Photographic Report on Biodiversity”, visits and talks, Infographic: “Actions for energy efficiency”, “Cooking Workshop”, “Poster of an Item”, “ Second-hand swapping app). 2) Tasks to be done during the exchanges. The cooperation among schools will result into tangible materials such as the advertising video, roller-ups, leaflets on energy efficiency tips, international cooking workshop, calendar. 3) Tasks developed throughout the whole project (long-term tasks) such as “The Anthem to Sustainability”, the questionnaire “How Green We Are” to analyse meaningful aspects at the beginning of each one of the five content blocks the project deals with (Waste Management, Biodiversity, Energies, Food and Health and Consumption), the “Upcycling Workshops” to learn how to transform waste materials into new objects of higher environmental value and the celebration of five “ World/International day of … “ to raise awareness of those issues directly connected to the project which students hardly know and surely they are not planning to celebrate. Moreover, the completion of all these tasks will lead to the “Great Fair of Sustainability” where all products will be exhibited and shared with the whole school community and beyond to show that it is through small changes that we can make a difference. To monitor the proper implementation of every single stage of the project regular assessment will be carried out by means of online questionnaires, charts, personal interviews, performance observation, students’ productions, final outcomes.

Participant students aged between 13-15 will represent the working teams from each partner school during short-term exchanges. These will favour international learning experiences and help develop intercultural awareness. Students and teachers who are not directly involved in the project will also benefit from the the experiences gained and the materials produced, which will be available online and at the schools to be used. Being a partnership made up of an Elementary school, a Comprehensive School, two general Secondary schools and a vocational school pupils, teachers and schools will surely exchange a variety of good practices, which they might integrate into their teaching contexts. Furthermore, teachers will widen their professional network, which will facilitate future cooperation within Europe as well as the internationalization of the schools.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 165082 Eur

Project Coordinator

Instituto de Educación Secundaria Torreforta & Country: ES

Project Partners

• AGRUPAMENTO DE ESCOLAS DE BARCELOS
• Istituto Comprensivo di La Morra
• Scoala Gimnaziala “Spiru Haret”
• Ekonomska skola “9.maj”