e-co-foot - Ecological Footprint Training Humanity's consumption of Earth’s natural resources exceeds its biocapacity. This imbalance can be quantified through the world ecological footprint as an extrapolation of all humans’ individual footprints. As many individuals don’t know about their footprints, we want to spread this societally essential knowledge together with practical information. E-co-logical Footprint Training. Smalls steps – big changes. We want to concentrate on young learners between 10 and 18 and provide them with knowledge regarding the ecological footprint, including backgrounds on what is included in such a footprint considering production, use and disposal of goods and services, socio-economic aspects and capabilities to minimize footprints – in order to sustain life on our planet. We aim to develop a high quality blended educational package that addresses the needs at different learning stages, get schools and class teachers in the partner countries interested in using the educational material, involve the whole school community and education system, parents, locals, local representatives from the municipality as well as other local NGOs and in a next step raise interest for participation also in further countries. Austria, Greece, Romania and Hungary – these are the countries the 5 project partners come from. In collaboration: akaryon GmbH, a research based Austrian SME specialized in environmental educational informatics, the Viennese NGO Plattform Footprint (FP), the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Hungary, the Greek Environmental Education Center (KPE) Pertouliou-Trikkeon and the Vasile Lovinescu College (CLV), a Romanian VET high-school providing courses in ecology and environment. To conduct the project, we will apply lean project management and combine it with critical path analysis. Each partner brings in complementary components of knowledge and infrastructure to follow the project plan which includes the development of the educational package and software, test application, evaluation and dissemination. The approach to teaching and learning can be classified as blended or hybrid learning and is learner-centered, based on involvement and collaboration. Akaryon, already experienced with international projects in similar contexts, is responsible for project management and the ICT-approach and will develop the e-learning tool and the footprint survey software included in the educational package. Partner PF has the main responsibility for the development of learning materials, ELTE for the development of the teaching materials, the pedagogic approach. Under the leadership of partner CLV a superordinate guide to certification - reusable also for other curricula - will be developed. KPE will focus on excursion development as a part of the teaching materials. ELTE, CLV and KPE together form our hands-on task force as they will also offer their class and course rooms / learning environments for the first application and evaluation of the educational package with an ideal setting of school kids of different ages. Led by CLV, each partner will contribute to dissemination, which will be a vital part of the project. The intellectual outputs will be: • Off- and online learning material grouped in six units in two versions (suitable for school kids aged about 10–13 and 14–18; the latter also for adults): 1 general introduction, 4 units on footprint key areas food, consumption, mobility, housing, 1 “Mini Hectare Workshop” • Teaching materials on Ecological Footprint (for teachers) • Ecological Footprint Survey Software allowing kids to collect relevant data and calculate their footprints • Guide to Certifications; unbiased from certification institutions (overview of existing environmental education certifications and how to achieve them ) E-co-foot lays the ground for a pan-European solution on how to raise schoolkids’ awareness on sustainability which cannot only be adopted beyond the partner countries but also beyond Europe because of the self-scaling character, its “translatability” and transferability of the e-learning-tool and the survey-software. The cross-border cooperation initiates the transversal take-up of innovative practices in education, the ICT-involving cross-community approach (school children and their environment, no segregation) among other things is a strategy against socio-economic digital divide. Apart from this educational long-term effect, the project also benefits the ecosystem itself. We share – knowledge and responsibility and we care – for us, others and our planet. Together.
e-co-foot - Ecological Footprint Training Humanity's consumption of Earth’s natural resources exceeds its biocapacity. This imbalance can be quantified through the world’s Ecological Footprint as an extrapolation of all humans’ individual footprints. As many individuals don’t know about their Ecological Footprints, we want to spread this societally essential knowledge together with practical information. E-co-logical Footprint Training. Smalls steps – big changes. Providing young learners between 10 and 18 with knowledge regarding the Ecological Footprint, including backgrounds on what is included in such a footprint considering production, use and disposal of goods and services is the fact basis of this training. The call to action is triggering choices for daily habits and activities with a lower Ecological Footprint and empowering the youth to take action collectively– in order to sustain life on our planet. A high quality blended educational package that addresses the needs at different learning stages, get schools and class teachers interested in using the educational material, involving the whole school community and education system, parents, locals, local representatives from the municipality as well as other local NGOs and in a next step raise interest for participation throughout Europe is the project’s aim. The results are: A) Offline teaching and learning material grouped in six units in two versions (suitable for school kids aged about 10–13 and 14–18; the latter also for adults): 1) general introduction 2) Mini Hectare Workshop 3) Nutrition 4) Housing 5) Mobility 6) Consumption B) e-learning course for students on the same subjects C) Ecological Footprint calculator: online tool to log daily activities and calculate students’ Ecological Footprints D) Background materials for teachers comprising of 1) Background info on the Ecological Footprint concept 2) Guide to Excursions and Projects 3) Guide to implementation 4) Calculator Warmup 5) Calculator manual 6) E-learning manual E) multilingual website e-co-foot.eu hosting all these educational resources F) Guide to Certifications; unbiased from certification institutions (overview of existing environmental education certifications and how to achieve them) The project objectives included the compilation of the results mentioned above and the dissemination toward schools and teachers and the school community to use these materials, outlined below. During the project 12 teachers from four countries were trained on the project contents in the TTL activity, our multiplier events atttracted several hundred teachers trainers, staff from school community and education systems, parents, locals, local representatives from the municipality as well as other local NGOs to participate. Several hundred of these stakeholders were reached through the manifold other dissemination activities like articles, social media posts, mailings, book contributions; with their teaching they can bring the project's content into their classes is reaching thousands of pupils and into their schools sharing the knowledge with further teachers. We see the impact of awareness-raising on the effect of sustainable consumption in our alumni’s local and regional study and work environment and an international role model effect as a vital part of the project. E-co-foot lays the ground for a pan-European solution on how to raise schoolkids’ awareness on sustainability which cannot only be adopted beyond the partner countries but also beyond Europe because of the self-scaling character, its “translatability” and transferability of the e-learning-tool and the Ecological Footprint-calculator. The cross-border cooperation initiates the transversal take-up of innovative practices in education, the ICT-involving cross-community approach (school children and their environment, no segregation) among other things is a strategy against socio-economic digital divide. Apart from this educational long-term effect, the project also benefits the ecosystem itself. We share – knowledge and responsibility and we care – for us, others and our planet. Together.