"The Baltic Sea Forum – Integration through Core Values" offers students from six schools around the Baltic Sea a forum for the discussion of core values. Hereby the project addresses current issues which impact the way people have come to interact on different regional levels: The need to integrate people from abroad, growing nationalist tendencies and the uncritical over-consumption of online media paired with a lack of face to face discourse. Our project reacts to these developments by creating a safe environment for students from six countries around the Baltic Sea in which to meet and find out how students from other countries think about vital topics. The core values which we want to address are related to social and environmental issues which are widely discussed, namely gender equality, minorities and refugees, relationships, freedom of thought, health and the protection of the environment. For some of these aspects, international cooperation is needed when it comes to problem-solving, e.g. environmental issues. Moreover, these topics are especially suited to motivate young people to engage in democratic processes. In general, children are protected by the UN children's rights, which is why we would like to encorporate them in our project. In two annual international project meetings, the six student delegations will come together to learn about their rights and discuss resulting responsibilities. They will then create motivating teaching material (films, texts, role plays etc.) which will be collected in form of a resource pack to be used in lessons. Back home, the students will assume the role of a teacher and conduct lessons, using the material that they have created. Hereby the students take an active role in shaping the future in their (social) environment. The “Baltic Sea Forum - Integration through Core Values“ will raise awareness for core values, important social issues and the children's rights in our school communities because these topics will be taught by the students and in different classes. The resource pack will also be published and made available for teachers and students in the EU.
"The Baltic Sea Forum – Integration through Core Values" offered students from five schools around the Baltic Sea (DE, EE, LV, PL, SE) a forum for the discussion of core values. The project addressed current issues which impact the way people have come to interact on different regional levels: The need to integrate people from abroad, growing nationalist tendencies and the uncritical over-consumption of online media paired with a lack of face to face discourse. Our project reacted to these developments by creating a safe environment for students from five countries around the Baltic Sea in which to meet and find out how students from other countries think about vital topics. The core values which we addressed were related to social and environmental issues which are widely discussed, namely gender equality, freedom of speech, migration and refugees, health and the protection of the environment. For some of these aspects, international cooperation is needed when it comes to problem-solving, e.g. environmental issues. Moreover, these topics turned out to be motivating for our students and encouraged engagement in democratic processes. In general, children are protected by the UN children's rights, which is why we encorporated them in our project. In two annual international project meetings, the five student delegations came together to learn about their rights and discuss resulting responsibilities. They created motivating teaching material (2017: films, photo stories, role plays, 2018: films, drama, debates) which were collected in form of a resource pack for use in lessons. Back home, the students assumed the role of a teacher and conducted lessons, using the material that they had created. Hereby, the students took an active role in shaping the future in their (social) environment. The “Baltic Sea Forum - Integration through Core Values“ contributed to raising awareness for core values, important social issues and the children's rights in our school communities because these topics were taught by the students and by teachers in different classes. The resource packs were published on a public twinspace and thereby made available for teachers and students in the EU.