"A taste of Europe" has the intention to set up a strategic school partnership of three schools mainly focusing on the subjects science, nutrition and ethics. "Food" is the base for the project - it is an essential part of every country´s culture and identity and can easily be used to build bridges between cultures and also to understand cultural differences. Taking the title literally the ATE project will provide the chance for students from different European countries the chance to be part of international cooperation and interdependet working processes. Accordng to the participating schools´ focus and facilities the schools will rotational take the lead for working processes. The project is based on the idea of interdependet and interdisciplinary work and will include a wide range of subjects, such as science, business studies, nutrition, philosophy and psychology, geography, arts, religious education, IT, etc. "FOOD" is a topic that can be worked on from many different points of view - starting from science (e.g. genetic modified food, food chemistry) via nutrition (e . g. quality of food) via business studies (e.g. new consumer trends) to philosphy (ethical aspects). We plan to work on the topic combining theoretical aspects with practical aspects. We aim to have a closer look to "Europe on a plate" which will have long term impacts on students, teachers and school management of all participating schools. The ATE project is a cooperation of three European schools, alll experienced in international cooperation. Additional to the continuous interdependent work each school has its special focus and abilities that will lead to unique contributions to the project: HLW St. Veit (Austria): a vocational school of tourism and commerce located in the rural south of Austria offers its approximately 500 students a wide range of education and training for future university studies or employment. The two streams are the Three Year Course in Office Management and Tourism and the Five Year Course in Commerce and Tourism. Additional qualifications include several language certificates as well as extracurricular gastronomy courses. In 2014 HLW St. Veit has achieved the official status of a "COOL" School. Austria will contribute its competences and equipment of the fields of open learning methods, gastronomy and sustainability. Regius College Schagen (Netherlands): Higher General Secondary Education and pre-university education, located in the North of the Netherlands it offers approximately 1500 students from age 14 to 19 a wide range of education and training for future college and university studies. The Higher general Secondary Education takes five years to complete whereas pre-university education will take six years. Their curriculum depends on which profile they have chosen. The Netherlands will contribute their special competences about religious and ethical aspects of nutrition an health. Oaks Park High School (UK): located in the North of London Oaks Park High School is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic comprehensive school of 1500 students which caters for students with a very diverse range of backgrounds and abilities from age 11 to 18 at secondary and tertiary level. It offers an academic and vocational curriculum with GCSEs and Level 2 BTEC courses completed at age 16 and A levels and Level 3 BTEC courses completed at age 18. A large proportion of our students have Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds and there are also a very large number of other nationalities represented from Europe, Asia and Africa, including some refugees. UK will contribute its competences and equipment of the fields of sciene and multiculturalism. The project objectives are... To help our students to improve basic and transversal skills. To experience local similarities and differences in eating habits and attitudes towards foodstuffs. To understand and value plurality and individual backgrounds compared to other countries and also within our area. To raise the students' motivation to study science subjects more deeply. To create awareness on the ethical aspects of food and the responsibility of every consumer. To help our students to understand the importance of being part of European culture. To produce outcomes that we will share and publish to disseminate our ideas and products. To help our students to improve their language skills as well as communication skills with peers. To enhance the integrating of new theaching methods and ICT-based teaching. To strengthen the school´s profiles in their area as European schools open to international cooperation. To carry out a series of activities to bring the project to life at our places. Such activities will include the design of a website, comparative studies, workshops, teaching portfolios, questionnaires, art projects and international learning activities. To have a sustainable effect on the skills and attitude of students.
"A Taste of Europe", a strategic partnership of three schools focused on the topic of food from three different points of view: science, nutrition and ethics. Taking the title literally the ATE project provided the chance for students from different European countries to be part of international cooperation and interdependent working processes. According to the participating schools´ focus and facilities the schools rotational took the lead for working processes. The project is based on the idea of open learning and interdisciplinary work. It included a wide range of subjects, such as science, business studies, nutrition, philosophy and psychology, arts, religious education, IT, etc. The ATE project is a cooperation of three European schools with unique contributions to the project: 1) HLW St. Veit (Austria): Vocational school of tourism and commerce located in the rural south of Austria offers its approximately 500 students a wide range of education and training for future university studies or employment. The two streams are the Three Year Course in Office Management and Tourism and the Five Year Course in Commerce and Tourism. Additional qualifications include several certificates as well as extracurricular gastronomy courses. The school therefore acted as a tutor in the field of nutrition, gastronomy and open learning. 2) Regius College Schagen (Netherlands): Higher General Secondary Education and pre-university education. Located in the North of the Netherlands it offers approximately 1500 students from age 14 to 19 a wide range of education and training for future college and university studies. The Higher general Secondary Education takes five years to complete whereas pre-university education takes six years. Their curriculum depends on the profile chosen. The school acted as a tutor in the field of philosophy. 3) Oaks Park High School (UK): Located in the North of London Oaks Park High School is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic comprehensive school of 1500 students which caters for students with a very diverse range of backgrounds and abilities from age 11 to 18 at secondary and tertiary level. It offers an academic and vocational curriculum with GCSEs and Level 2 BTEC courses completed at age 16 and A levels and Level 3 BTEC courses completed at age 18. The school acted as a tutor in the field of science. Project objectives were: • To have a sustainable effect on the basic and transversal skills and attitude of students. • To experience local similarities and differences in eating habits and attitudes. • To understand and value plurality and individual backgrounds compared to other countries. • To raise the students' motivation to study science subjects more deeply. • To create awareness on the ethical aspects of food and the responsibility of every consumer. • To help our students to understand the importance of being part of European culture. • To produce results that we will share and publish to disseminate our ideas and products. • To enhance the integrating of new teaching methods and ICT-based teaching. • To have a long-term impact on teaching methods, school profiles and curriculums. These objectives were achieved by many activities carried out by students and staff: • Logo Competition to create the official ATE logo divided in the local and one international competitions. The logo as created by an Austrian student. • ATE survey: Comparative study of different aspects of food, our student´s knowledge and their interests. The survey influenced the development of the project. • The project matched easily with the curriculum of all schools and was part of lessons in many subjects. All schools shared and published their results collected in three portfolios. • All school invited representatives of local companies and initiatives. We organised lectures, workshops and field trips. • Awareness campaign “DRINKINGwater!”: Methods included workshops, creation of posters and presentations, debates, water analysis, poems and texts, competitions, free water bottles for students and teachers, etc. • Awareness campaign “Stop Food Waste!”: Methods included workshops, checks on school canteens and school kitchens, creation of flyers and poster series, debates, etc. • ATE Recipe Book: The book was created and printed in Austria and shows a collection of recipes from all three countries for the target group of secondary school students. Recipes have all been tested, shared, photographed and published. The book has been handed out to students, parents, teachers, stakeholders, companies and school authorities. • Dissemination activities: Information about the project on websites, school reports, newspaper articles, school events, presentations, posters, flyers, stickers, recipe books, final papers, etc. All results and information about the ATE school partnership are published and accessible for free download on our project website and the Erasmus+ project results website.