Sustainability is about social as well as environmental change. It includes some of the greatest challenges of the present age, such as demographic change and ecosystem change, including the phenomenon of climate change. All of these challenges have wide implications for society: in particular, future generations need to increase their awareness levels on such phenomena, such to contribute to the dissemination of more sustainable practices. To make this happen, educators in schools need to update their knowledge on sustainability and include in their teaching more interdisciplinarity, language skills, digital tools such to make knowledge more attractive. Within this context, the new EU strategy (Europe 2020) aims to intervene in the areas of climate change and sustainability, as well as in the education and social emargination. The objectives of the STAR (Sustainability: Towards the Appreciation of Resources) project are to reduce school drop-outs, differentiate the teaching content and methodology as well as increase the european dimension at school. These more general objectives will be translated in objectives specifically tailored to the project content. First, knowledge on and tools to manage sustainability will be acquired; second, CLIL (CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING) methodology will be disseminated and CLIL didactic material on sustainability will be produced; finally, local case studies on sustainability, which will be compared internationally, will be studied. To implement project activities, six schools gathered under a strategic partnership; the coordination of activities is undertaken by the italian school Euclide (Bari, Italy), other partner schools are from France (Lycée Professionnel Claude Nicolas Ledoux), England (Uxbridge College), Turkey (Isov Teknik ve Endüstri Meslek Lisesi), Romania (Liceul Teoretic "Vasile Alecsandri" Iasi) and Czech Republic (Gymnazium, SOS, SOU a VOS, Horice). Project activities will be carried out over a time span of three years: during the first year, students and teachers will work on the context of sustainability (definition, main areas of sustainability, constrained resources such as water, energy and food); in the second year, students and teachers will focus on the management of sustainability (innovation, risk management) a well as on the new competencies and skills needed for management; in the third year each partner school will select a local case study to work on, using the knowledge and tools acquired previously. Work will be carried out using CLIL methodology and digital tools for communication among project partners and with target groups such as students, families, public authorities and private companies, other school staff, etc. Expected tangible project results are a glossary of terms on sustainability and an ebook on CLIL material on sustainability. Expected non tangible results are an increase in students’ motivation, in language and digital competences. Potential longer term benefits are linked with the use of CLIL methodology and CLIL material in the classroom, use of digital tools for didactics as well as the fostering of collegiality and interdisciplinarity among teachers.
Sustainability is about social as well as environmental change. It includes some of the greatest challenges of the present age, such as demographic change and ecosystem change, including the phenomenon of climate change. All of these challenges have wide implications for society: in particular, future generations need to increase their awareness levels on such phenomena, such to contribute to the dissemination of more sustainable practices. To make this happen, educators in schools need to update their knowledge on sustainability and include in their teaching more interdisciplinarity, language skills, digital tools such to make knowledge more attractive. The objectives of the ERASMUS+ STAR (Sustainability: Towards the Appreciation of Resources) project were to reduce school drop-outs, differentiate the teaching content and methodology as well as increase the European dimension in the partner schools. These more general objectives were translated in objectives specifically tailored to the project content. Firstly, knowledge on and tools to manage sustainability have been acquired. Secondly, CLIL methodology was disseminated between partners. Finally, local case studies on sustainability were studied and compared internationally. Five schools gathered under the strategic partnership and implemented the project activities. The coordinator was I.I.S.S. Euclide (Italy) and the partner schools were: L.P. C.N. Ledoux (France), Zincirlikuyu Isov Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi (Turkey), (Liceul Teoretic Vasile Alecsandri Iasi (Romania) and Gymnazium, SOS, SOU a VOS (Czech Republic). The project activities were carried out by three high schools in Italy, France, Turkey, which are characterized by the technical and professional address in the field of construction and two of Romania and the Czech Republic with humanistic address. Project activities were carried out over a time span of three years: during the first year, students and teacher worked on the context of sustainability (concept, main areas of sustainability, constrained resources such as water, energy and food); in the second year, students and teachers focused on the management of sustainability (innovation, risk management) and on the new competences and skills needed for management, such as hard and soft skills. In the third year, all partner school selected some local case studies and worked on them using the knowledge and tools acquired previously. Each year's activities were divided into 2 modules, therefore there were 6 modules altogether. The tangible results were: - 10 mobilities (6 teaching-learning activities and 4 transnational meetings); - 442 number of people attending the mobilities (242 students and 200 teachers); - a glossary of terms on sustainability, produced autonomously from each partner school; - the realization of two limestone tuff boulders arches of real dimensions; - 5 posters advertising the project; - roll-ups advertising the project for each partner; - brochures promoting and outlining the results for each partner; - leaflets promoting sustainable practices; - newsletters disseminating the results of the project activities; - articles in local media and school magazines (“Galleria” school magazine -“Vasile Alecsandri” high school; “Les Pavillons infos - “C.N. Ledoux” high school; La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno - local media - Bari) - press releases before or after mobilities; - 30 presentations using digital tools, representing the final products of all partners’ activities after each module (5 final product x 6 modules); - a calendar; - a website (www.erasmusplusstar.ro); - an eTwinning page (https://twinspace.etwinning.net/5796) - dissemination on school websites (www.lvais.ro, www.lp-ledoux.fr,www.iiseuclide.eu/erasmus-2/); - a guide to sustainable practices - a book and a CD on sustainability for didactic use. Non tangible results were an increase in students’ motivation to learn, in their language and digital competences, in their intercultural awareness. We remark that some students of the Italian and the French schools had the intention to change their school, because they were not very satisfied with the kind of school and their classmates, but the participation to the project has motivated them to remain in the same school and to finish in the same school their studies. Impacts on families were: discovery of cultural traditions not known before. Longer term benefits are linked with the use of new technologies and the material produced for the project in the classroom, use of digital tools for didactics as well as the fostering of collegiality and interdisciplinarity among teachers. Many students have learned the methodology of scientific study that will enable them to concretize their university studies. The most important benefit of both students and teachers is to get used to the concept of Europe and to the ability to work and live with people of various social conditions and religious beliefs.