Water Day 2019 & Earth Day 2020 Erasmus Project

Project Title

Water Day 2019 & Earth Day 2020

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The Erasmus+ KA229 project Water Day 2019 and Earth Day 2020 brought together, over 30 months, 6 schools in 5 European countries: France, Spain, Croatia, Romania, Italy.
In the continuity of the “Journées d’Evariste” – thematic days organised since 2016 at the end of the year by the coordinating high school and its sector colleges – the 6 partner schools cooperated around the organisation of the Water Day, during the 1st year of the project, then the Earth Day, during the 2nd year of the project (even if this last Day could not take place because of the sanitary crisis).
5 physical mobilities took place, as well as one virtual mobility. In total, just over 100 students and 50 teachers and staff participated in the physical mobilities; 35 students and 15 teachers in the virtual mobility; about 300 local participants, all mobilities combined. More pupils should have participated in the physical mobilities, as the last two were cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Our project included as many pupils with difficulties or fewer opportunities as possible.
The universal themes selected, Water and Earth, have made it possible to make our pupils aware of the major issues of the 21st century, which are new challenges for education. By becoming aware that water is a precious and endangered resource, our students have begun to become actors in the protection of our Earth, thus inscribing our project in the 17 sustainable development objectives of the United Nations. The environmental and ecological theme was therefore at the heart of our project, however a multidisciplinary approach was proposed, so that the pupils also discovered water and earth as sources of artistic inspiration. In this way, the pupils were able to develop their ecological and civic awareness, but also to increase their general, scientific, literary and artistic culture and to work on their creativity.
The activities planned between mobilities were very varied: publication of newsletters and 4 issues of the project magazine; work on different films (feature films and reports) on ecology, environment, water and earth (screenings, debates, writing articles…). ); production of models; drawing and tree photo competitions; solidarity and planet protection actions, such as sorting and recycling workshops, cleaning of streets, beaches, national parks, cork collection, tree planting activity… At the end of the first year of the project, the Water Day, organised during the same week in each establishment, allowed to highlight all these productions and achievements. On the same principle, Earth Day, finally cancelled, should have brought together all the partners in May 2020.
All these non-mobility activities made it possible to include many pupils, not all of whom had the opportunity to take part in a mobility.
The mobility programmes were particularly rich and varied. Participants discovered the culture, heritage and traditions of the host region or country, as well as the education system. They visited cities, monuments, museums, often in the form of treasure hunts organised by the host institution. They discovered landscapes and explored natural areas. Ecological, scientific or artistic workshops, organised around water or land, were led by students, teachers or external speakers.
The participants developed a number of skills through the Water Day & Earth Day project: cultural, social, linguistic, digital, artistic, communication and teamwork skills. They understood the importance of preserving our planet, especially since the health crisis which has made our project more necessary today than ever. They have met and got to know young people from other European countries, made friends, confronted differences, which has enriched them and made them more open and tolerant. They also learned the value of commitment, a sense of responsibility, and the need to see a project through to completion despite the circumstances and obstacles, because it is with teamwork that we were able to overcome the difficulties to see the project through to completion.
In the longer term, lasting links have been forged between teachers, pupils and schools, consolidating and strengthening the European and international openness of each of the partners.
All our productions, all our results have been shared on a public TwinSpace, on the project’s social networks (Facebook and Instagram), on the sites of the partner schools, as well as on the European platform of Erasmus+ results.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 167485,96 Eur

Project Coordinator

Lycée Evariste Galois & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Liceul de Arta “Gheorghe Tattarescu”
• ISTITUTO TECNICO. “CARLO ALBERTO DALLA CHIESA”
• Pomorska skola
• IESO MATIAS RAMON MARTINEZ
• LYCÉE POLYVALENT GABRIEL TOUCHARD-GEORGE WASHINGTON