The topic ecological sustainability with the focus on “recourse saving behavior” is the basis of the strategic cooperation in the Erasmus+ Program with the schools from the partner countries Latvia and Hungary and the coordinating school in Germany. It needs to be dealt with sustainable consumption, waste prevention, waste separation and further processing of residues. Sustainability as the principle of action of resource conservation means to live in such a way that good living conditions are created for present and future generations. In a globalized and technically advanced world, almost all humans depend on raw materials, but those raw materials might disappear in the next years. Young people in Europe are growing up in a world dominated by science and technology. Their way of life is influenced by consumption. The interest in a sustainable design of the environment is, however, still low. The realization that prevention of waste is vital for the future has hardly been socially accepted. There is a lot of garbage and you can see it every day in school. Packaging is carelessly thrown on the floor or in the next waste bin. Without mental change and awareness-raising, sustainable development in this sector cannot be achieved. The students should learn the importance of sustainability in their daily lives and be motivated to behave accordingly. The center of action is its own way of life, because it determines well-being and provides a starting point for change. Although the three partner schools have been recognized as "schools for the environment in Europe" for years the implementation of this topic can be realized even more effectively. For our pupils at the level of the middle education diploma, this topic opens up by the fact that design competencies are trained and implemented. Our activities cover four areas: Rethink: Think about your consumer behavior: Realize your own consumption patterns and consumption of raw materials; Reduce: Avoid waste and discard: Good resources through low consumption; Use consumer goods for as long as possible and pay attention to them as well as to ensure that they are manufactured environmentally friendly and fair when purchasing consumer goods; Recycle: Return the consumer goods back to the material cycle. Reuse: Pass on consumer goods to others; Care or repair consumer goods, so that you can keep them for a long time. In order to offer this topic selection in a "appropriate way for young people", the focus lies among other things on environmental competitions about waste separation for classes, Givebox for everyday items, installation of a school compost, as well as operational explorations with interviews. Therefore we will follow the pedagogical guideline “from near to far”, “from individual to society” and “from perception to participation”. In this project the pupils will learn to lead an environmentally friendly lifestyle. The daily routine at school goes to everyday life and to parents, and thus to society. We know that there is no linear relationship between environmental awareness and environmental protection. The main focus of education for sustainable development is therefore not the instruction, but the ability to take an appropriate course in social communication on future-oriented questions. The students learn the conditions of natural science and technology, work, the economy and society. Furthermore they improve their natural sciences, mathematical, media and linguistic competences. With our projects, we want to strengthen their sense of responsibility and their competitiveness for their professional life. Through the stays abroad, the pupils can deal with the cultural and linguistic diversity as well as the diversity of lifestyles and patterns of interpretation in their world more constructively and responsibly. With our projects, we also want to strengthen the awareness of sustainability as well as the future viability of our schools by exchanging European teaching concepts and the international discussion on "Resource-saving behavior" with the European partners. During the project, the results will be published promptly and comprehensively in a final documentation. Each partnership focuses on its own range of activities, develops concepts and methods for implementation, so that the activities can be tested, adapted to local conditions and then integrated by the partners. The own school programs, models and curricula are further developed and modernized.
The Erasmus+-project „ resource-saving behavior: sustainable consumption, waste prevention, waste separation and recycling” took place in the years 2017-2019. Participating schools were the Schiller-Oberschule Sarstedt, Daugmales patmaskola (Latvia) und Debreceni Dózsa György AltalanosIskola (Hungary). Due to this partnership “gaining relevant skills and competences” and “education for sustainable development” were combined (sparsamer Ressourcenumgang – Strategie Europa 2020). Participants of our school were 14-16 year old students with a motivation for language proficiency, the European culture and environmental knowledge. The participating teachers were a native Hungarian, the project manager of the environmental school and an English teacher. Communication languages were German and English. The four project pillars (Rethink, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse) formed the concrete project framework. The three partner schools were now able to share their experiences, which they had already gained in the field of "Environmental School in Europe" with the other project schools. The student exchange program of the Erasmus + project (lessons, city rallies, science parks, company visits, leisure time in families) has been instrumental in improving the language skills of our students in terms of language fluency, grammar and vocabulary, openness in dealing with other languages or communication problems. The intercultural competences were also improved: The participants wanted to be good hosts, find new friends and learn about different cultures. The feedback from conversations, observations or written evaluations showed that the project went well. The students were supposed to learn how to communicate, act and make decisions so that they can participate in European communications. The high level of student motivation showed us that the ten sub-competences of the design competence of the transfer 21 program (Berlin 2007) were well suited to the implementation of the chosen priority "acquisition of relevant skills and competences". The students dealt with the environmental topics and were able to get their own statements and evaluations on self-developed and conducted surveys and interviews. Active learning methods and new technologies were used more often during the lessons. Interdisciplinary work was carried out during the lessons, project weeks or in working groups. New scientific methods were tested, the culture, history and geography of the partner countries were studied and some classes created upcycling products. Everything during the project was reflected and incorporated into the school’s curricula. Furthermore waste separation was introduced and organized in all rooms of the school building. The colleagues of the Erasmus+-teams quickly identified with the project. Regular meetings structured the project and promoted communication with the partner colleagues. The headmasters of the schools always took part in the projects. The schools from all three countries worked together and therefore a lot of different results can be used in the future (questionnaires about waste separation, way to school, e-mobility, statistics "Ecological Footprint", lectures on regional agricultural products, evaluation sheets). The partner schools were able to exchange good learning and teaching strategies and interesting topics of different regions. The participating students were involved in planning, implementing and evaluating the project. Individual projects were organized in the three schools with all pupils and colleagues, so that the project had a positive effect on the school communities and strengthened the environmental awareness of all students in terms of resource-saving consumption behavior, waste reduction and upcycling. Due to connections to local authorities, businesses and newspapers, the Erasmus+-project results are available for a wide audience. Also, the schools got a good reputation for taking part in the Erasmus+-project. Moreover all activities with the pupils and the results can be found on the homepage of the Schiller-Oberschule Sarstedt, Daugmales patmaskola and Debreceni Dózsa György AltalanosIskola.