CONETEXThe project “Water in our World” (WOW) is designed to develop new attitude, skills and competences in students through activities and researches connected to water and its essential values. The objectives of the project are strongly connected with the skills needed for the 21st century worker. Not only this project is the programme to learn more about water in our world, but also is the program about doing work in our world. Through project based learning over water issues and practical trainings in the school fields of Science, IT and English students are acquired to gain sustainable skills to deal with various problems and challenges in a real life situation. OBJECTIVES, ACTIVITIES AND RESULTSDuring the project work students will have the chance to create new products, take decisions, express attitudes, prototype and experiments. They are a part of social innovation process. Working with various IT tools and instruments, participating in learning activities, carrying out researches, and producing projects results – water idiom dictionary, maps, travel guides, non-formal lessons, researches, WOW newspaper - students are expected to gain benefits for critical thinking, civil position and personal outlook. The WOW project activities and students’ researches lead to representing cultural water heritage via new technology and evaluating its essential need. The WOW project carries out innovative educational activities outside the traditional classroom which benefit students’ abilities for support entrepreneurship and practical work.PARTICIPANTSThe WOW project establishes partnership among five schools from Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Lithuania and Portugal which have definite common needs, suitable recourses and experienced staff to develop and perform the key project aims and goals. The stable work frame and plan as well as cooperation among partners and persistent communication in preparation of project WOW guarantee the positive outcomes of the partnership. The WOW project sets an exchange of 20 persons /equal number students and teachers/ from each partner country. The partners’ exchange in Turkey does not include students – a decision taken after a discussion among partners over students’ security and measures for safety. Participants in learning activities are supposed to be chosen under clear criteria according their work during project stages and activities, language achievements and evaluation of products. Three transnational project meetings for planning, coordinating and evaluating are expected to be organized including teachers from the project teams that contribute and sustain the activities. The school community in each partner represents the indirect participants in project WOW. The number of these indirect participants is much higher due to the fact that a lot of students, teachers and parents are involved in the indirect impact of the project. METHODOLOGYWOW project is a well-structured plan that identifies the partner needs of its implementation and benefits for direct and indirect participants. A consistent methodology of the planned activities, results and outcomes is designed and indicators for assessing and monitoring developments are established through cooperation among partners. WOW project plan includes five student exchange meeting where students will work on learning activities set in the activity schedule. Three transnational project meetings are planned - at the beginning, middle and end of the period - where teachers discuss changes, assess performance, identify risks, discuss challenges, share experiences and coordinate activities among partners. A school team is pointed out of each partner country that is responsible for the coordinating, monitoring and evaluating the project stages. IMPACT AND BENEFITSAll activities planned in the WOW project and their outcomes are beneficial for students, teachers, parents and stakeholders /especially organizations in the water field/ as well as other colleagues and schools which can use and integrate them in their work. The detailed dissemination plan guarantees a lot larger impact over local community and regional educational institutions. WOW project outcomes prove sustainability in aspects of post project usage of the WOW website with the resources, implementation of the curricula connected results in other schools, organizing Water Day event in post period of the project. Sharing the project results in eTwinning and European Share Treasure portals can gain international impact of the WOW project.
•Context/background of the project; The WOW project established a partnership among six schools from Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Lithuania and Portugal which had definite common needs and experienced staff. These positive preconditions were an effective base for developing and performing the key project aims and goals. The stable work frame and plan as well as cooperation among partners and persistent communication during the project WOW led to positive outputs of the partnership all of them closely connected to water-related issues. •Objectives; During the project work, students had the chance to create new products and take decisions. They were a part of a social innovation process. Working with various IT tools and instruments, participating in learning activities, carrying out researches, and producing projects results – water idiom dictionary, maps, travel guides, non-formal lessons, researches, WOW newspaper - students gained benefits for critical thinking, civil position preserving nature. The WOW project activities and students’ researches led to representing cultural water heritage via new technology and evaluating its essential need. The WOW project carried out innovative educational activities outside the traditional classroom which benefited students’ abilities to support entrepreneurship and practical work. Due to the teachers and students’ performance within the project stages the aims were reached and the participants gained benefits whilst exploring water issues. •Number and profile of participating organisations The WOW project set an exchange of 123 persons in Learning Teaching and Training Activities which were held in five of the six partners countries. The partners’ exchange in Turkey did not include students – a decision taken after a discussion among partners over students’ security and measures for safety. Participants in learning activities were chosen under clear criteria. Three transnational project meetings for planning, coordinating and evaluating were organized including teachers from the project teams that contribute and sustain the activities. The school community in each partner represents the indirect participants in project WOW. The number of these indirect participants was much higher due to the fact that a lot of students, teachers, and parents were involved in the indirect impact of the project. •Description of undertaken main activities Through effective work, students and teachers from each partner school managed to fulfill all main activities – to promote WOW project outputs at local, regional and European level; to produce WOW project advertising materials; to organize exhibitions Water in Art in each school partner; to produce a Multilingual Water Idioms dictionary; to prepare and publish a Travel Guide of Spa Resorts; to create an Interactive Map with significant water pools; to promote refugee topics; to enhance entrepreneurial and critical thinking skills; to share European values; to create cultural water heritage; to develop opportunities for careers; to create conditions for communication in English and teamwork; to promote friendly water environment attitude; to establish partnerships with outside organizations. •Results and impact attained WOW project was a well-structured plan that identified the partner needs of its implementation and benefits for direct and indirect participants. A consistent methodology of the planned activities, results and outputs were held and indicators for assessing and monitoring developments were established through cooperation among partners. WOW project plan included five student exchange meetings. Three transnational project meetings were held - at the beginning, middle and end of the period- where teachers discussed changes, assessed performance, identified risks, discussed challenges, shared experiences and coordinated activities among partners. All activities planned in the WOW project and their outputs were beneficial for students, teachers, parents and stakeholders /especially organizations in the water field/ as well as other colleagues and schools which had the opportunity to integrate and use them in their work. The dissemination of the project results and activities had a lot larger impact over the local community and regional educational institutions. WOW project outputs proved sustainability in aspects of post-project usage of the WOW website with the resources, implementation of the curricula connected results in other schools, organizing Water Day event in post period of the project. Sharing the project results in Erasmus+ Beneficiary's Dashboard portal gained international impact of the WOW project. In long-term aspect, WOW project is beneficial with its project website where all outputs are visible and easy to be found and its four joint outputs - the Multilingual Water Idioms dictionary, the Interactive Map, the Travel Guide of Spa Resorts and the Good Practices Booklet