Water, especially drinking water, is a scarce resource and is used in manifold ways and harmed, changed and lost for different reasons. About 350 students from Finland, France, Croatia and Germany take on chances and issues concerning the various utilizations of water in the different regions of Europe in the project “Water LITE – focussing on leisure, industry, tourism, energy”. A transnational training, teaching and learning activity involving six students per guest school takes place at each of the four participating schools. Both European regions rich and poor in water were chosen for the project. This will raise the awareness of problems which had not been regarded as such before.Each project school takes on a different focal point. France will take on water and leisure, Croatia water and tourism, Finland water and energy and Germany water and industry (structural change).The main product will be a digital water atlas, which will contain the refined results of the transnational training, teaching and learning activities , in particular the results of the various projects concerning the focal points, in addition to the information about the participating schools. Among other aspects, it will include a survey about the use of water developed by the students, which will result in the water footprint. There will also be interviews conducted with tourists. A code of conduct for a more deliberate use of water will be composed. Additionally, a workshop for the future will be held and the water samples will be tested for chemical parameters. The digital water atlas will have its own website, logo and be linked from the websites of the participating schools.There will also be an exhibition of posters containing information about the various regions’ water-related problems and selected results of the transnational training, teaching and learning activities. This exhibition will then become open to the public and be presented in the recreational areas of the schools, town halls, shopping malls and water distribution companies.The main goal of the project is to raise awareness for the various water-related problems in the different European regions. Learners improve their knowledge about the European Union in relation to their tasks and get to know the countries involved in the project. Interacting with the learners from the partner schools, they widen their intercultural competences, which leads to more tolerance and mutual respect. Due to the project language being English, it is necessary for the students to use and improve their English skills. The participating schools open themselves for other European countries, which enriches life at school.
Water, especially drinking water, is a scarce resource and is used in manifold ways and therefore often harmed, changed and lost for different reasons. The project “Water LITE – focussing on leisure, industry, tourism, energy” offered about 350 students from Finland, France, Croatia and Germany the chance to investigate the risks and benefits concerning the various utilizations of water in different regions of Europe. A transnational training, teaching and learning activity involving six to eight students per guest school took place at each of the four participating schools. Each of these schools represented one of the four main aspects concerning the use of water as mentioned in the project’s title. Since many students regard water as being an unlimited resource coming from the water tap, it is the project’s goal to raise awareness for water’s scarcity. Each project school concentrated on a different focal point. France dealt with water and leisure, Croatia water and tourism, Finland water and energy and Germany water and industry (structural change). The main project’s outcome ranged from a digital water atlas to a Facebook page. The atlas includes information about the participating schools and most importantly all results of the transnational training, teaching and learning activities, particularly the results of the various projects concerning the focal points. The water atlas is accessible via the internet and provides further information about the institutions involved. On top of that, the students created a Facebook page which promotes the Water Lite project and draws a lot of attention to it. The students developed a survey about the use of water resulting in the “water footprint”. Moreover, to find out how water is used in (Croatian) touristic areas, the students created a questionnaire for interviewing tourists and finding out about their water consumption. This resulted in a video-based code of conduct that suggests a more sustainable and environmentally friendly use of water. The code of conducts was posted on the above-mentioned Facebook page. Furthermore, a workshop for the future was held and the water samples were tested for chemical parameters. The digital water atlas now has its own website, logo and is linked to the websites of the participating schools. As part of the Europe Day celebrations, the students exhibited posters containing information about the various regions’ water-related problems and selected results of the transnational training, teaching and learning activities. This attracted a wider public attention of the many visitors during these two days. To sum up, the main goal of the project was to raise awareness for the various water-related problems in the different European regions. Learners improved their knowledge about the European Union in relation to their tasks and got to know the countries involved in the project. Interacting with the learners from the partner schools, they widened their intercultural competences, which led to more tolerance and mutual respect. Due to the project language being English, it was necessary for the students to use and improve their English skills. The participating schools opened themselves for other European countries, which enriched life at school and broadened horizons.