The European Environment Agency statistics show that Europe consumes more resources than most other regions in the world. Facing sustainability challenges in consumption and the use of finite resources we decided to implement an international school partnership for raising students’ awareness about sustainable consumption. The project partners are from Poland, Italy, Romania, Estonia and Turkey. Based on a need analysis applied in all the partner schools, “The FuturEU” partnership is a result of a7 months of negotiation on social media. The entire project was developed by the team in term of topic, subtopics, tasks, schedule, activities, target groups, objectives, outputs and events. Our project is student centered with teachers acting as mediators and facilitators.The project has three stages:1. First stage - The threats of unsustainable consumption – duration: 3 months2. The second stage students will be given a scenario – students will be part of international crew of Illuminator, an imaginary spaceship that landed on the habitable planet called FuturEU. They want to start a new civilization era and are expected to deal with the problems/threats of sustainable development – such as Healthy Living / Food / Sports; Economy; Environment / Climate change/ Environmental protection; Innovation. - – duration: 9 months3. The third stage – dissemination of the outcomes – duration: 3 monthsThrough this strategic partnership we intend to:• increase knowledge of 2500 students during 2 years project about sustainable consumption stimulating students’ observation skills, comparison and classification techniques;• encourage creativity skills by actively involve a number of 65 students that will create the project’s book to promote how to be environmentally friendly;• to improve quality of school curricula encouraging a sustainable consumption behavior through educational activities in 5 different European schools;• creation of educational base - lesson plans, posters, book.• enhancing the potential of teachers in increasing language competence and intercultural competence• learning the skills of reading comprehensionThe students involved are aged between 9 – 14 years old, coming from five lower secondary schools. Four of the partners (Romania,Italy,Turkey and Estonia) have no experience in international school project, while one of the partners (Poland) has been involved in two international project.The project’s activity is divided into subtopics as follows:PL- “Unsustainable consumption & Threats “ IT – “FUTUREU & Healthy Living & Food & Sports"RO- "Employment & Economy"EE- “ Environment & Climate change& Environmental protection"TR – “Education & Innovation"The core project’s activities aim to improve students’ key competences (ICT skills, communication skills, team working, inter-cultural dialogue, social acceptance and tolerance) and to widen students’ creativity and innovation spirit.Different methods will be used in order to achieve the aims of the project. The partners will collect data, monitor, do scientific researches, presentations, develop innovative practices, design new educational tools, etc. A direct interaction with European schools and policies will offer the possibility to explore new methods of teaching in line with the European standards.The project’s results (Book, magazines, presentations, questinnonaires, logo, posters, leaflets) will be available on the common website and database. Direct links to the products will be posted on schools’ websites, eTwining page and Facebook group page. Students and teachers will disseminate the project activities at a local, regional, national and international level, encouraging the use of the outcomes that were produced through this project.Our partnership will have a powerful impact on 2000 students and teachers from the partner schools regarding having a sustainable consumption attitude. We strongly believe that bringing together people with different backgrounds will increase the feeling of belonging to a united European community and that the spirit of an international cooperation will be based on motivation, commitment, work and professionalism.
Europe consumes more resources than most other regions in the world. In the face of challenges related to sustainable development in the field of consumption and use of natural resources, we have decided to implement an international school partnership to raise students' awareness. The partners of the project were schools from Poland, Italy, Romania, Estonia and Turkey. The project partners were selected due to the competences and skills that they could contribute to the project. The Polish school is a Complex of Schools, which includes a primary and a junior high school. It is experienced in implementing international projects, so it undertook to coordinate the project. The Italian school was responsible for the topic related to healthy nutrition / lifestyle and sport due to the numerous specialists in this field. The Romanian school educates students aged 14-16, cooperates with numerous organizations, it has experienced pedagogical staff. A school from Estonia is a private institution that offers modern, high-quality primary education. The school's mission is to provide maximum individual and intellectual support to the development of each child and to develop creativity. The Turkish school is experienced in the implementation of sustainable consumption issues and introduces these issues in an innovative way. Based on the needs analysis, a schedule of activities, tasks and topics was prepared. A partner group "The FuturEU" was formed, it included participants from all schools, that is 2,500 students and teachers. Our project was innovative due to the interactive approach to stimulating the imagination and creativity of students, encouraging them to act as visionaries of a new civilization. We used the process of learning through discovery, thanks to which students could consciously plan and organize tasks. Total degradation of the natural environment on Earth, forced an international crew (consisting of pupils from partner schools) to look for a planet that could live in. This planet was The FuturEU. To avoid the fate of the Earth, the crew developed the principles of life on this planet. These principles included issues of sustainable consumption, healthy lifestyle, economics and employment, and innovative teaching. To make the tasks interesting and realistic, a spaceship was built in each school, which stimulated creativity. Four LTTA visits were carried out during the project. Each visit contained a specific topic for discussion. After each project meeting, The FuturEU magazine was published. Numerous material results were prepared: project website, logo and poster of the project, leaflet, guidebooks from partner countries, multimedia presentations, educational database containing 25 lesson plans, 5 posters with life principles on The FuturEU, digital book, project calendar, and initial and final questionnaires. A monograph - "Sustainable Consumption and Production in Social Life" and a DVD presenting the project were developed. We have achieved the following goals: - issues related to sustainable consumption and production were introduced to school curricula - an educational database was created containing lesson plans, posters, a book and travel guides - proper consumption attitudes were promoted through educational activities in partner schools - the potential of teachers has been increased: ICT skills, language and intercultural competences - reading skills, the development of critical thinking, and consequently, proper consumer choices - creativity and observation skills were stimulated The main result of the project activities was to raise students' awareness of sustainable consumption and production in social life, as well as to improve key competences in reading comprehension, use of ICT tools, communication skills, teamwork skills, intercultural dialogue, social acceptance and tolerance. Thanks to the participation in the project, cooperation with educational institutions and local authorities was more effective. In local communities, the interest in implementing Erasmus + projects has increased . Schools have introduced issues of sustainable consumption into school curricula, so the project has a lasting impact on each partner institution.