Water, Agua, Vesi – Environment and sustainability for Schools Erasmus Project

Project Title

Water, Agua, Vesi – Environment and sustainability for Schools

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: Natural sciences; Environment and climate change; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

Our environmental awareness is growing continuously, and the issue of climate change is currently much discussed in the media throughout Europe.
It is not only the ongoing demonstrations of the Swedish student Greta Thunberg, who has just been declared Swedish woman of the year, which make us realise how important the protection of the environment has become for young people. The degree of the young generations´s concern with environmental issues and environmental protection is also evident in the growing number of students participating in the so-called Friday demonstrations, which follow Greta Thunberg´s example all over Europe.
Young people are very much concerned with climate change, global warming and the consequences for their future lives. They need to aquire profound knowledge, share their thoughts and ideas with people their age across borders and cultures and get the opportunity to get into action together so that they can set one more example in climate and environmental politics.
Our project offers students the opportunity to acquire profound knowledge concerning the element water in general, the role of the oceans in climate change, and the current –but also possibly future- use of water across borders and cultures.
In jointly dealing with this complex issue, our students will learn to overcome potential fears, discover new ways of thinking and acting, and will eventually find themselves capable of dealing effectively with this complex subject be it individually or as a group. Next to offering a wide range of relevant aspects for research in an immensly impotant subject, our project thus also offers our students the opportunity for personal growth. In fact, our students´ mental and personal growth are the core of our project.
In jointly aiming at this overarching goal, teachers of different subjects and nationalities will form a multilingual team collaborating closely in integrating the common project into the respective national curriculum for two years, all the while keeping close contact by means of new technologies and generating valuable synergies also in the field of innovative teaching methods.
According to the principles of quality education the teaching staff will impart the topicality of our key subject to the students in a motiviating way, thus allowing the students to participate actively in the project and develop special yet personal interests in the subject matter. In addition, the project will provide the opportunity for the students to experience self-effectiveness and self-initiative while enhancing not only their kognitive skills, but also their social and emotional competence.
Following the principles of project-oriented as well as cross-diciplinary learning, and profitting from real-life encounters whenever possible, the students will investigate in the following subject-related issues:
 the alteration of the chemistry of the seas and oceans effected by climate change,
 the alterations of coastlines due to the sea-level rise,
 the influences of climate change on the marine ecosystems in fresh water, brackish water and salt water,
 the potential value of the resource water and the seas,
 possible measures against the ongoing pollution of water and the seas,
 the current use of water as a route of transportation,
 the consequences of water shortage for agriculture in aride regions,
 the history of the laws and regulations for water usage and possible alternatives for the future
The three schools participating in the Erasmus+-project each offer a unique access to the above-mentioned issues. For example, in Finland students will be able to experience first-hand the stress conditions that ecosystems are exposed to in brackish water habitats. In Germany the consequences of the sea-level rise caused by climate change can be investigated through the example of the tidal waters of the River Elbe. In Spain the students will gain first-hand experience with the issue of water scarcity, which influences flora and fauna, and has led to special cultivation methods in agriculture.
Students participating in the project will have the opportunity to acquire the following interdisciplinary skills and competences:
 They will improve their communicative skills when dealing with subject-related issues together with fellow students of another language
 They will enhance their social and emotional competences when cooperating in international teams
 They will boaden their media competence when employing the new media as means of communication but also to develop and share their results on the platform eTwinning, plus when the students are eventuelly creating the Handbook of Water for Schools by means of virtual technology.
 They will expand their action competence when assuming a more responsible use of water resources and reducing their own freshwater consumption or reducing the pollution of the seas by avoiding waste production.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 92376 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gebrueder-Humboldt-Schule Wedel & Country: DE

Project Partners

• COLEGIO CONCERTADO TORRE SALINAS
• Sotungin lukio ja etälukio