The project "To The Woods!" takes place against the background of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. "Education for Sustainable Development" means: Any changes in the world have to take in a way place, that people everywhere can live a good life today and in the future. By "Education for Sustainable Development" people learn which consequences their behaviour have on the environment, their own life and the life of others. In this case the "forest education" will be of particular significance in our project. In urban life, there are children and adolescents who have never been in the woods. We use the excellent facilities of this field, in order to bring young people again closer to the nature. The aim is to create a high level of appreciation for the forest. It will help to ensure, that young people take more responsibility for the natural resources. The way to achieve this objective is based on the principles of "Study - Experience - Learn". "We fully understand only what we ourselves have made." Giambattista Vico (1668 - 1744) These are activities such as guided forest tours, habitat explorations, forest adventure days, forest youth commitments etc. Various aspects and perspectives in the context of forest and nature are to be taught. The students should be encouraged to think long-term and holistically and also to act in the future in these ways. The "forest education" gives the children, adolescents and adults the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the complex concept of sustainability and to create a understanding of nature. The forest is an ecological, economic, social and cultural reflection of our society. In our project, these aspects will be equally elaborated and communicated. At the same time the global importance of forests can be made transparent in an outstanding manner, because the impact of modern life based on ecology, economy and social issues knows no borders! Concrete forest topics will be: "forest & animals ", "forest & plants", "forest & people ", "forest & wood ", "forest & water ", "forest & climate", "forest & literature“, "forest & art“, "forest & language/foreign language“, "forest & economics“. These topics are interdisciplinary and also have to be taught in school life interdisciplinary. Due to the different school structures in European countries, the students participating in this project are coming from the elementary school up to the secondary educational level. Therefore the themes and activities are age-appropriate selected, planned, prepared and carried out. In the schools, the "forum forest" will be set up with a photo documentation, lectures, presentations, experimentation and microscope stations, wooden library etc. The early foreign language learning, and working with media (internet, eTwinning) can also be integrated. On a website all activities and materials are made available to the public . The target audiences of the project are the students of the schools involved in the project from Finland, Spain, Lithuania, Italy and Germany . The teachers deal with the characteristics of "Education for Sustainable Development" and familiarise themselves in the area of "forest education". A cooperation with forest education centres (pedagogically trained foresters amongst others work in them) and with other non-school facilities for environmental education will take place, in which they can act as advisors and also offer and implement supplementary didactic activities - particularly in the outdoor area. The parents are also involved in the project activities of their children. They are supposed to actively participate in the educational work for a lasting effect. All persons involved in school life, according to their competencies, will participate in the project work. In an expanded range also the regional environment. Only then a community spirit can be created with the assumption of responsibility for forest-related environmental education, which has an effect on the global sustainable environmental design, so that "bridges to the future" can be built. In essential areas the objectives of "Education for Sustainable Development" are congruent with those of " Erasmus +". Both have lifelong learning in the spotlight promote the cooperation on an European and international level.
The project "To The Woods!" took place against the background of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. "Education for Sustainable Development" means: Any changes in the world have to take in a way place, that people everywhere can live a good life today and in the future. By "Education for Sustainable Development" people learn which consequences their behaviour have on the environment, their own life and the life of others. In this case the "forest education" was of particular significance in our project. In urban life, there are children and adolescents who were never in the woods. We used the excellent facilities of this field, in order to bring young people again closer to the nature. The aim was to create a high level of appreciation for the forest. It helped to ensure, that young people took more responsibility for the natural resources. The way to achieve this objective was based on the principles of "Study - Experience - Learn". "We fully understand only what we ourselves have made." Giambattista Vico (1668 - 1744) These were activities such as guided forest tours, habitat explorations, forest adventure days, forest youth commitments etc. Various aspects and perspectives in the context of forest and nature were taught. The students were encouraged to think long-term and holistically and also to act in the future in these ways. The "forest education" gave the children, adolescents and adults the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the complex concept of sustainability and to create a understanding of nature. The forest was an ecological, economic, social and cultural reflection of our society. In our project, these aspects were equally elaborated and communicated. At the same time the global importance of forests can be made transparent in an outstanding manner, because the impact of modern life based on ecology, economy and social issues knows no borders! Concrete forest topics will be: "forest & biodiversity (especially trees)", "forest & plants", "forest & people ", "forest & wood ", "forest & water ", "forest & climate", "forest & literature (Poems, stories, fairytales)“, "forest & art (art, music, theater)“, "forest & language/foreign language“, "forest & economics“. These topics were interdisciplinary and also taught in school life interdisciplinary. Due to the different school structures in European countries, the students participating in this project were coming from the elementary school up to the secondary educational level. Therefore the themes and activities were age-appropriate selected, planned, prepared and carried out. In the schools, the "forum forest" was established with a photo documentation, lectures, presentations, experimentation and microscope stations, wooden library etc. The early foreign language learning, and working with media (internet, eTwinning) was also integrated. On a website all activities and materials were made available to the public . The target audiences of the project were the students of the schools involved in the project from Finland, Spain, Lithuania, Italy and Germany . The teachers dealt with the characteristics of "Education for Sustainable Development" and familiarised themselves in the area of "forest education". A cooperation with forest education centres (pedagogically trained foresters amongst others work in them) and with other non-school facilities for environmental education took place, in which they could act as advisors and also offer and implement supplementary didactic activities - particularly in the outdoor area. The parents were also involved in the project activities of their children. They were supposed to actively participate in the educational work for a lasting effect. All persons involved in school life, according to their competencies, participated in the project work. In an expanded range also the regional environment. A community spirit was created with the assumption of responsibility for forest-related environmental education, which had an effect on the global sustainable environmental design, so that "bridges to the future" were built. In essential areas the objectives of "Education for Sustainable Development" were congruent with those of " Erasmus +". Both have lifelong learning in the Spotlight.