The interdependency of workouts, nutrition, concentration and learning success are the focus of this project. In the digital age kids and teens of all ethnic groups spend more and more time with game consoles or smart phones than actively exploring their surroundings. The influence of media consumption and the lack of exercise are not only unhealthy, but they also negatively influence their concentration abilities and their learning successes. New methodological and didactical concepts for teaching and school need to be developed in order to respond to the relevant needs of students as well as teachers. Therefore the project aims to encourage children and teenagers to deal with their psychological and physical health and to develop new patterns of behavior, which also affect their learning. Those patterns should be practicable at school and in lessons. Thus – against the background of the results of the project – the participating schools should develop and try out new concepts for media use, nutrition and physical education The realization of the project is based on the idea of a transnational exchange. All participating schools have sustainable concepts in each case in different fields of the project. The Spanish school provides a modern concept for mobile phones and has a focus on media education. The school from Finland is experienced in modern and sometimes alternative didactical concepts for many years. The Europaschule Herzogenrath offers an exemplary nutrition concept and the Europaschule Köln concentrates on developing self - learning courses (Lernparcours) in the fields of movement and learning. Moreover the school offers physical activities (bewegte Pause) during break. The students who take part in the project should be between 14 to 16 years old as the development of self- learning courses also considering didactical methods demands a certain amount of reflectivity. In order to take the students´learning progress into account, the project is designed for well – performing students. The responsible teachers all have a sufficient knowledge of English and most of them teach science and/ or PE. 30 students and 6 teachers from each school will actively take part in the project. The project aims to show students how to improve their learning abilities by being sensitive to their nutrition and physical exercises. Hereby the focus is underlined by the insight that learning can be fun. The students develop own strategies facing theory and practice, which combine physical exercise, nutrition and learning in their everyday life. The first step is to assess the actual state of students´reality and their experiences with learning in relation to lessons (methods etc.), school life (nutrition, breaks, media use etc.) as well as their private life (hobbies, sports, media use etc.). Those findings should be transnationally compared in order to develop ideas for a new school that takes the students´needs into account. In this second step students should for example develop self- learning courses, healthy recipes and tips for learning. Of course, those ideas should be tried out and assessed in the third step, so that in the fourth step approved approaches can be implemented and used. The teachers help the students to design methods, which can be used in lessons. Working with external experts such as the Sporthochschule Köln supports the students in both ways, scientifically as well as practically. All participating schools originate working groups or courses in which students work on the contents, plan, carry out and follow up the transnational meetings and design the products (cookery book, self-learning courses etc.) Three teacher´s and three students´meetings are planned. The first teacher´s and the first student´s meeting should take place at the Europaschule Köln, the other meetings at the other participating schools. The student´s and teacher´s meetings should alternate. After completing the project the results will be published digitally on the schools´ homepages. Among other things the students design a cookery book and self- learning courses, which can be taken on and further developed or modified. Moreover they develop a portfolio or a website (the students shall decide themselves which presentation seems to be the best during the project). The teachers share the results with the colleagues, for example in a training. In the long term school life itself should be modified in order to provide students a convenient combination of healthy nutrition, room for movement as well as relaxation. The approaches which prove to be successful are implemented in the work of the participating schools (school concept).
In the age of digital media children and teenagers spend more and more time with their game consoles, smartphones, etc. instead of doing outside activities. Lack of exercise and a large amount of media use are unhealthy and, in combination with bad nutrition, can have a negative impact on concentration and learning achievement. The project was based on the idea of “bewegtes Klassenzimmer” (classroom in motion) and had the aim to make young people reflect on their physical and mental health. In addition, they should develop new patterns of behavior which have a positive impact on their learning strategies. These patterns of behavior were supposed to be applicable both during lessons and in everyday school life. In order to achieve this aim, they developed self-learning courses for different subjects and grades, combining learning content with moving andmedia use for an optimal result. The long-intended term effect was developing and testing new concepts for media use, nutrition and movement at all participating schools. The realization of the projects was based on the idea of a translational exchange. Each participating school has a sound concept in a different field of the project. The Spanish school provides a modern concept for the didactical use of mobile phones and focuses on media education. The Finnish school has used modern and sometimes alternative didactic methods for many years. The Europaschule in Herzogenrath offers an exemplary nutrition concept and the Europaschule in Cologne concentrates on developing self-learning courses (Lernparcours) in the fields of movement and learning, and has implemented the system of breaks in motion (“bewegte Pause”). The students who took part in the project were between 14 and 16 years old, and predominantly doing well with regard to their academic performance, as the development of self-learning courses under consideration of didactic methods required a certain amount of reflective faculty. The teachers who participated in the project all had a sufficient knowledgeof English, and most of them teach science or sports. On average, 15 students and 5 teachers from each school took part in the project. At the start of the project, a survey was done to assess the status quo (questions about learning habits, sports, nutrition and media use). The result was that the amount of physical activity needed improvement at all schools. The first student meeting in Herzogenrath focused on nutrition, especially breakfast. The students got to know the different breakfast habits and found out about the positive influence of healthy food as energy source on concentration in lessons. Another focus of the workshops was the introduction of several activation techniques that could be used in lessons as well as afterwards. Teachers and students tried out cooperative learning methods presented by a representative of a German health insurance company (Techniker Krankenkasse). This presentation was an incentive for the realization of the self-learning courses. With regard to nutrition, it was very interesting to compare the eating habits of the participating countries and their impact on academic performance. In the course of the project, the students developed several recipes which had a positive influence on the ability to concentrate. Each school then had the task to incorporate these results in the development of learning activities. Each school prepared three self-learning courses with different learning contents. Those were presented and tested at the students meeting in Finland, and then evaluated with regard to practicability and effectivity. In Finland the best two self-learning courses of each school were chosen, and the students then produced videos of those courses in their native language. To communicate with each other, the students used the previously established Instagram account during the time between the meetings. There they also exchanged recipes and tips. In Spain, the videos were translated into English, and an English audio file was added to the videos, so that the videos contained two audio files each. A Finnish colleague created a blog (erasmusmove.blogspot.com), and it was filled with videos, recipes, reports of the students and a radio report ofthe project made by a Spanish local station. The participating schools published a link to the blog on their home pages,so that the videos can be used as a visual aid by students and teachers of all schools.