Students aged between 12 and 16 in six secondary schools (France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey) will carry out a project turned towards the future of Europe and entitled F.A.C.E. (Future, Ambitions and Challenges for Europe). We have identified various challenges that our students, as European citizens, will have to face for a better future, and which cover issues relevant to all European countries, and more specifically to the areas where we live. - The environment: the need to sensitize people about the necessity to resort to environmental-friendly energies, housing and vehicles and promote sustainable development; - Economy: the need to foster employment, especially that of young people, by local companies; the need to promote partnerships between schools and the professional world; the need to help SMEs selling local products develop on a local and European scale; - Health: the need to sensitize children from an early age about the necessity to adopt a healthy lifestyle including a healthy diet and the practice of sport; - Culture and identity: the need to promote intercultural knowledge by emphasizing specificities and similarities in the partners’ cultures, and thus foster a common European identity (our common FACE) based on common sets of values so as to overcome prejudice and guarantee a peaceful future. The actions carried out throughout the project will enable pupils to develop core competences (ICT, foreign languages, maths, science, writing), as well as personal skills essential for lifelong learning and for their insertion into the professional world: entrepreneurship, initiative, teamwork, autonomy, creativity, problem-solving, etc… A project website will first be created to present our work and all the productions made by students throughout the project. The environmental and technological part of the project will lead pupils to carry out research about local environmental issues and work with environmental associations for the creation of posters for a European exhibition called "Let's face it!". The knowledge they will get regarding ecological energies and materials will enable them to propose their own innovations through the creation of models of environmental-friendly houses and of a European ecological house model which will be presented on an international environmental fair at the end of the year. To deal with the economic issue, the students will set up real partnerships with local companies, carry out marketing actions for the promotion of their products and create a European multilingual marketing brochure. The local companies we will work with and their products will be presented on a specifically-created "Made Here" website. A real students' company will also be set up in some schools for the sale of local products and an international economic fair will take place at the end of the year for a larger impact of our marketing actions. At the same time, students will extend their partnership with companies selling healthy food products by leading sensitization actions in primary schools about the necessity to adopt a healthy lifestyle including a healthy diet and the practice of sport. These actions will include the presentation of an App specifically created to help with the health and sport issue. Finally, pupils' creativity will reach its full expression with the creation of a common art book entitled "FACE" for which pupils will gather artworks of different types representing their own identity and culture (texts, poems, paintings, photos, etc...) as well as make their own artworks meant to epitomize their common European identity. A CD including local songs from each country and a European song entitled "Our Faces"created by students, as well as a European play entitled "FACE" written and performed by students will also constitute the outcomes of this part of the project on European identity. An end-of-year European performance will enable them to present these creations to a large audience. We thus expect this project to bring beginnings of solutions to the issues we all face as European citizens. The impact of our project should be significant on students themselves, as they will develop their own competences and open up to Europe, but also on teachers through the exchange of skills and practices. An enduring spirit of initiative and willingness to pursue international cooperation will constitute sustainable benefits in each school. We expect a long-term impact on the local community as a whole (municipalities, entrepreneur and environmental associations, companies, other schools) as local stakeholders who will help with the project should get concrete benefits from our work and will be able to keep and re-use our productions for future actions. To finish, our experience will be shared with the lifelong learning community on a national and European scale to make our productions available to the public and inspire other European projects.
Students aged between 12 and 16 from six schools situated in France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Turkey, have carried out a three-year project turned towards the future of Europe and entitled F.A.C.E. (Future, Ambitions and Challenges for Europe). We have identified various challenges that our students, as European citizens, must face for a better future and which cover issues relevant to each partner country, and more specifically to the areas where our schools are located. We have divided these challenges into three topics, one studied each year, with an end-of-year European multiplier event aiming at presenting the productions made to the public, local authorities and media, and thus at increasing the impact of the project. Year 1 : Environmental and technological challenges Objective: raise awareness of environmental issues and the need to use renewable energies as well as ecological materials in the building of houses. Students have carried out research on environmental issues specific to their areas in order to create posters and sensitize people over these issues. The knowledge acquired, the visits and encounters made with companies / organisations involved in the protection of the environment have enabled students to come up with their own innovations in the building of ecological house models, which in turn have led to the making of a common model gathering the best concepts. The posters and European model were presented at the end of the year on the occasion of a European Environmental Exhibition and Conference in Norway, open to the public. Year 2 : Economic and Health Challenges Objectives : - Economy : reinforce partnerships between schools and companies with a view to promoting youth employment by local companies and the opening-up of SMEs to European trade. - Health : sensitize students from an early age over the necessity to adopt a healthy lifestyle based on a healthy diet and the practice of sport. Students have met entrepreneurs and visited local companies working in the main sector of activity of their area so as to gather the necessary information for the creation of a European multilingual marketing brochure entitled "Made Here". A "Made Here" website presenting local companies and promoting their products and know-how was also created. On the health topic, videos and apps aiming at sensitizing people over the necessity to adopt a healthy lifestyle were created. All theses productions were presented at the end of the year on the occasion of a European Economic and Health Fair in France, open to the public. Year 3 : Cultural and Identity Challenges Objectives : promote our European identity based on common values while emphasizing local specificities as well as similarities between our cultures, with a view to fighting prejudice and ensuring a serene future for European relations. The work of students involved different artistic aspects, all enabling a reflection on local / European identity and on FACE : - creation of a digital art book on local art and creation by students of their own "real" art book - writing of a European song on the topic of European identity - creation of a European play (writing, staging, performance) The play was performed before an audience at the end of the year on the occasion of a European Performance in Sweden, with presentation of the art book and of the FACE song. The project has enabled to reach our objectives in relation to the development of students' core competences (foreign languages, ICT, science, writing skills) and skills essential for lifelong learning and the insertion into the professional world: entrepreneurship, initiative, teamwork, autonomy, creativity, problem-solving, etc. The impact of the project has been significant on different levels/scales, especially as regards : - students : development of competences, opening-up to Europe and awareness of the issues studied - teachers : skill enhancement through the pooling of competences and practices - schools : development of teamwork, opening-up to international cooperation and reinforcement of partnerships with the local socio-economic world - local community : the awareness actions (especially towards other schools) and events organised in relation to the project, and especially the European events organised in rural areas, have had a significant impact on local life. - national / European scale : the sharing of our experience through our project website, Facebook page, E+PRP platform has already benefited and will benefit other organisations willing to launch into this kind of project.