“The Sunny Side Up” is a project created by five countries from five different climatic areas and geographical positions: Spain, Slovenia, Norway, Latvia and Cyprus; and it is focused on demonstrating the different uses of solar energy and thus creating a more sustainable and eco-friendly environment. The goal is also to compare and contrast the benefits and drawbacks of this kind of energy in each climatic area. With this project we aim to address the underachievement in the basic skills of Maths, Science and literacy, and reach the inclusion of our students with fewer opportunities. We aim to achieve an inclusive school with equal opportunities for all our students and provide them with more effective, innovative teaching methods. To carry out our objectives successfully, Discussion, Steering, Evaluation, and Financial Committees have been created in each school, which will ensure the achievement of the objectives.The project is roughly divided into three phrases. The first two phases will be addressed to the higher grades, which are formed by students aged 11 to 15. The first phase is based on the construction of home-made solar panels by the students themselves. These will be simple and very basic panels, where we will use the heat from the sun to warm the water in the tubes. After the experimental stage, where the students will be testing the efficiency of the solar panels by means of changing different parameters, all the data will be analyzed and cross-referenced in order to come up with the ideal solar panel for our climatic conditions according to the results. Then, the students will start building or just remodeling the selected panels. This phase will be developed along the first year.The second phase of the project will be the construction of a greenhouse, which will be heated by the previously built, tested and selected solar panels. All the partner countries will grow flowers, mint and strawberries in the greenhouse as well as outdoors. The plants will be scientifically observed and measured. The final products will be later compared and analyzed with all the other partner countries. The mint will be finally transformed into essential oils through a distillation process using our school still. We aim to promote entrepreneurial skills in our students so they can develop initiative, perseverance, cooperative work and responsibility while creating and looking after the plants in the greenhouse and using the still. This phase will take place along the second year.Both students from Lower and Higher grades will actively participate during the third phase of the project, based on a research on the history of the solar energy in the ancient civilizations, namely the Greeks, the Vikings, the Romans, the Arabs and the Egyptians. The research is going to be collected in a solar booklet, which will be put together by the students of all 5 participating countries. As a result of this research, the students will take part in a drawing contest influenced by their work on ancient civilizations in order to build and decorate a sundial. Each section of the sundial will portray each of the five countries’ students’ drawings. The students will make the sundial either with a mosaic or painting it on a wall. This will give them the opportunity to express themselves and leave their mark for generations to come. This phase will take place along the two years.The future generations of the students will benefit from the project’s results as they will serve as teaching aids and will thus provide additional motivation and give added value to the teaching process.During the duration of the projects, the students are going to communicate with their peers from the partner countries via the internet conferences. Thus, they will improve their communication skills and promote the project’s results. The study visits for the students are going to be executed in all 5 partner countries, where the students will get the unique opportunity to promote their knowledge about the project as well as be acquainted with the different culture and educational principles. During the study visits, the hosting country will organize a Solar Day where the project’s results will be actively promoted by the students. Furthermore, the students will also be actively involved at certain lessons, mainly at math, science and language lessons.The project will have numerous effects on the institutional level, as the teachers will experience and share examples of good teaching practices and by collaborating with other partner countries they will be improving their communication and organizational skills. The students, especially those with fewer opportunities, will experience and actively participate during all of the project’s activities, including the study visits. Internationally, the project will deepen the relationships with other European countries and contribute to the internationalization of the schools.
“The Sunny Side Up” was a project created by five countries from five different climatic areas and geographical positions: Spain, Slovenia, Norway, Latvia and Cyprus; and it was focused on demonstrating the different uses of solar energy and thus creating a more sustainable and eco-friendly environment. The goal was also to compare and contrast the benefits and drawbacks of this kind of energy in each climatic area. With this project we addressed the underachievement in the basic skills of Maths, Science and literacy, and reached a better inclusion of our students with fewer opportunities. We achieved an inclusive school with equal opportunities for all our students and provided them with more effective, innovative teaching methods. To carry out our objectives successfully, Discussion, Steering, Evaluation, and Financial Committees were created in each school, which ensured the achievement of the objectives.The project was divided into three phrases. The first two phases were addressed to the higher grades, which are formed by students aged 11 to 15. The first phase was based on the construction of home-made solar panels by the students themselves. These were simple and very basic panels, where we used the heat from the sun to warm the water in the tubes. After the experimental stage, where the students tested the efficiency of the solar panels by means of changing different parameters, all the data was analyzed and cross-referenced in order to come up with the ideal solar panel for our climatic conditions according to the results. This phase was developed along the first year. The second phase of the project was the construction of a greenhouse. We grew flowers, mint or strawberries in the greenhouse. The plants were scientifically observed and measured. The mint or any other herbs or flowers were transformed into essential oils through a distillation process using our school still. By implementing these activities, we promoted entrepreneurial skills in our students so they can develop initiative, perseverance, cooperative work and responsibility while creating and looking after the plants in the greenhouse and using the still. This phase took place along the second year. Both students from Lower and/or Higher grades actively participated during the third phase of the project, based on a research on the history of the solar energy in the ancient civilizations, namely the Greeks, the Vikings, the Romans, the Arabs and the Baltic tribes. The results of the research were collected in a solar booklet. The students also took part in a drawing contest in order to build and decorate a sundial. The sundial was made either with a mosaic or painting it on a wall or on the school ground. This gave the students the opportunity to express themselves and leave their mark for generations to come. This phase took place along the two years. The future generations of the students will benefit from the project’s results as they will serve as teaching aids and will thus provide additional motivation and give added value to the teaching process. During the duration of the project, the students communicated with their peers from the partner countries via the internet conferences. Thus, they improved their communication skills and promoted the project’s results. The study visits for the students were executed in all 5 partner countries, where the students got the unique opportunity to promote their knowledge about the project as well as be acquainted with the different culture and educational principles for each country. During the study visits, the hosting country organized a Solar Day where the project’s results were actively promoted by the students. Furthermore, the students were also actively involved at certain lessons, and learned how to build solar toy cars, plastic bottle greenhouses, solar cooks and driers, etc. The project had numerous effects on the institutional level, as the teachers and educational authorities participating at the international meetings experienced and shared examples of good teaching practices and by collaborating with other partner countries they had the opportunity to improve their communication and organizational skills. The students, especially those with fewer opportunities, experienced and actively participated during all of the project’s activities, including the study visits (35% out of the total participants). Internationally, the project deepened the relationships with other European countries and contributed to the internationalization of the schools.