Water is one of the most essential element of any kind of life on earth and in both quality and quantity we are facing a difficult period in the coming decades. Clean water bases are diminishing while the demand for water is increasing which unpleasant fact is recognized even by world leaders. This led to serious and strict commitments at the Paris Climate Change Conference last December. The climate agenda clearly states that climate change threatens to undermine the ability of countries to achieve sustainable development. Similarly, water is a cross-cutting issue that affects all aspects of development, including health, food security, economic development, ecosystem services and biodiversity. The particular focus on water, climate and resilience during the Paris Climate Conference aims to encourage cooperation and initiatives in the area, both between countries and between different civil society actors. The latest objective of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 6 is about "clean, accessible water for all". The teaching and training activities and their outcomes are to set a standard for this very important goal, and we wish to reach the High-Level Panel on Water through the Hungarian President, Mr. János Áder, who is a member of the Panel. We wish to show how educational institutes and the local communities behind them across Europe can promote Goal 6.As teachers we cannot sit back and watch the future of water, we have to be proactive in its preservation for the upcoming generations. The most influential way we can act is to create a meaningful educational program/project that educates students about its strategic role in life. However, the educational methods and approaches should be varied and as modern as possible as we feel the traditional classroom methods may not be sufficient for such a wide topic. Thus we aim to create a multidisciplinary and hands-on approach to teaching that can only be achieved when discovering the various fields of area that our partners can offer based on their special skills/expertise.The basic priority behind the project is to lay the methodological foundation of ‘good practices’ together with the teachers involved in the project.We aim to create a methodological model, which enables us to make an interdisciplinary educational program for the ages of 14-18 at secondary level as this age group will be the main focus range of our project activities. With the help of the program students will understand the importance of water, and how much it intertwines all fields of life. It is also essential for students to comprehend the vulnerability of water bases and the diminishing quantity of resources as well as the need to find ways of sustainable water management. Furthermore, students will also realize how important it is to work in a multinational project, as the very same rivers and water bases are often handled by other countries as well, as they pass through borders. However, water does not recognize borders or political treaties, and by approaching this vital element of life from various perspectives the school subjects covered in this application hopefully become a real, tangible experience which might help with a better understanding of sciences that otherwise may look too abstract for students.The international work is called into life with a clear intention of seeing the participating teachers become better educators, as they share the knowledge from their own expert area with others. The educational areas, subjects that we aim to develop are language skills, language teaching, history, geography, biology, chemistry, economics, environmental studies, water management studies, and maths.
The SzSzC Tokaji Ferenc Secondary school applied for a grant at Tempus Public Foundation in 2016. Our project, which bears the title of ’The Many Faces of Water – a holistic approach to the vital element of life’, was awarded 38485 Euros. The Hungarian coordinator school has had partners from Turkey, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK. Three transnational and three LTTAs were organized during the implementation period. The first staff meeting took place in Tokaj, Hungary where the coordinators discussed the objectives, distributed the tasks and responsibilities, set the dates and goals of each meeting. 55 student-, and 45 teacher mobilities were carried out using the financial grant, but the actual number of participants were much higher as host countries delegated students staff and other stakeholders at the meetings. We also organized water related activities to promote our project. These were usually related to important dates in environmental protection; here mention must be made of the Water Charta that gained the support of 1133 people as of the date of project closure. As a basic means of dissemination of results we created a project website that contains news, information and results of our activities. Besides the printed materials made during the meetings all activities have been documented in pictures in short videos as well. The meetings proved that water plays a highly significant role in our lives. The participants were invited to the presidential palace where we could gain an insight to Hungary’s water policies at the first meeting. We learnt about the connection between viticulture and water at the Research Institute for Viticulture and Oenology in Tokaj, how water is a source of life for vines and how it is a deadly force that leads to soil erosion. Sport and recreational possibilities of water were the focal points of the Polish meeting. The Italian meeting was centered around agriculture, as our partners are in the vicinity of seas, we paid special attention to this fact and also the risks of using high salt content water in plantations. Spain gave the perfect opportunity to include the historical aspect in our project; the conquest of the New World, and the history of sea navigation. Turkey shared good practices of their action program to clean the river banks in Carsamba. Finally, students expressed water through performing arts in London. The meetings were dedicated to learn our partners’ good practices and see and discuss new perspectives in order to apply them in our own school curricula. Students improved their professional and interpersonal skills by working in an international environment. We compiled a 6 language thematic dictionary, published in digital and printed form as well. We also published a workbook; its concise version has been printed whereas its full form is available for the wide public on our website (www.themanyfacesofwater.eu) and the official Erasmus + Project Results platform.