A- Background and objectives:- Specific objective of European citizenship and awareness : to make the pupils aware that global warming is a major concern for Europe and the planet as a whole, and to create a cohesion among the students, a spirit of solidarity and a sense of belonging. This topical issue is at the center of European concerns. - Specific cultural objective : the topic "sustainable cities" will cover many areas of the students' syllabus, including subjects like Geography and Science.- Specific ICT objective : to help the students strengthen their ICT skills. Students often lack the necessary abilities to use these devices in a safe and discriminatory way. At the end of the project, the students will be able to effectively use the ICT tools necessary to produce their final works. - Specific linguistic and communicative objective : to improve the students' oral skills in accordance with the general aims of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages which puts the emphasis on oral skills. B- ParticipantsNumber and profile of participants: 5 European schools from France, Germany, Italy, Finland and England - 20 Year-11 students per school per year - 2 teachers per schoolC- Description of activities:Year 1: 2016-2017STEP 1: Transnational teachers' meetingSTEP 2:Cross-disciplinary work on cities and sustainability involving a first group of 20 students in each partner school and the use of interactive applications.Topics which will be tackled: transportation, housing, workplaces, infrastructure , waste, commerce, culture, energy-saving houses, renewable energies, waste, traffic....STEP 3:Students start researching possible solutions and sustainable alternatives in urban environments in their own country to prepare the visit of partners in their country. STEP 4: Email correspondence with the host country so that the students get to know each other before the mobility via the eTwinning platform and a Twinspace.Visits to the partners’ countries – 7 days (including travel) according to the following schedule : In December / January: Italy to Germany In February / March: Finland to UK – France to Italy In April / May: Germany to Finland - UK to FranceSTEP 5:After each trip, each country will have to make an oral account of their visit, in the form of short films or reports in English and French, on a collaborative platform to be shared with the other partners who won’t visit the country in person. Year 2: 2017-2018STEP 6:Cross-disciplinary work on cities and sustainability involving a second group of 20 students in each partner school and which will make use of the reports realized by the previous groups.Pupils will be encouraged to work on their oral skills for the final presentation and group work.Surveys and discussions on interactive platforms will be organized to encourage interaction between the students and form the mixed European teams for the final output.STEP 7:Final visit in France with all the partners in March / April 2017 - 7 days long (including travel):Students will work in mixed groups of 10 on their presentation of the future sustainable European city to create an ICT production as a visual of their project, for example a Prezi interactive resource.At the end of the stay, each group will present its final work orally to the whole group in English to explain and justify their choices. All the students will get to vote for the best projects which should be made public.D- Results and impact:The students: - the students will be motivated / have the desire to ask for mobility in higher education.- they will acquire new skills useful for their studies in higher education - they will upgrade their ICT skills- the students involved in the project will be given a YouthpassThe teachers involved in the project: - they will be motivated to start a new project Erasmus +- they will be able to use new ICT tools with all their pupils- they will keep sharing their teaching competences with the partnersThe teaching staff: - a desire to put into practice new pedagogical tools- a desire to share their skills - be motivated to ask for mobilityThe management team and the school in general:It will contribute to make the school more attractive for new students and their parents.E- Potential benefits:- a rise in the number of new students in the school- a rise in the number of students asking for mobility- a rise in the number of staff willing to ask for mobility or to go on an exchange- a change in the teachers’ pedagogical approach
Following the COP 21 in Paris and the release of the French documentary “Demain”, we wanted to offer students the opportunity to work on environmental issues and sustainability and thanks to our long-term partnership with the Enrico Tosi high school in Italy, we were acquainted with the other schools involved in the project: Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School in England, Sotungin Lukio in Finland, Kopernikus-Gymnasium in Germany. At the end of our two-year collaborative project, the students presented their ecological and sustainable European city of the future. The collaborative aspect of the work took different forms: virtual exchanges, publications on the shared blog, and travels to the other partner countries. Our project relied on four main objectives: arousing European citizenship, making students aware of environmental issues, improving their foreign language (English, or French for the British students), using ICT tools. The first year was mainly devoted to the research work either on the Internet or in the field: each country was responsible for collecting information on one aspect of sustainability (transports, energy, waste disposal, urban agriculture, architecture and city planning) and sharing its expert knowledge on the topic. Then, each country visited one of the partners and hosted a different one. After the mobilities were completed, all the collected information was published on the blog in the form of articles or videos. Backed by these inputs and reports made available on the blog, the students involved during the second year could exchange with their European team and made the best choices for their European city of the future. When all partners eventually met in France, each team worked together to produce a final oral presentation illustrated with a prezi and a drawing or model. Discussions were carried in English throughout the project and during the final meeting in France the British students had the opportunity to practice their French in their host families. The good-quality productions included many elements the students had discovered either during the research stage or the visits. While working in European teams, all students, with no exception, showed great implication, interest in the theme and work and much autonomy and a cooperative spirit worthy of real Europeans of the future. The partnership between the schools was so enriching that a new Erasmus + application involving the same partners has been sent and accepted. This project has given us an opportunity to initiate a new collaboration with the town hall and local associations working on European issues, links which will be strengthened with the forthcoming project.