Our project comprises the themes healthy diet and lifestyle, sustainability, career education, entrepreneurship and Fairtrade. Students will learn about the importance of physical exercise in combination with healthy food for the personal well-being and academic performance. They will compare and evaluate their schools‘ and their individual approaches to healthy food and sports. Furthermore, students will study and experiment with traditional and modern, healthy and sustainable food concepts and apply their knowledge and skills in a final cooking workshop and collate a range of healthy, and culturally as well as nutritionally diverse recipes. With regard to sustainability, students will examine the consequences of careless consumerism and explore the value of organic, regional and Fairtrade products. An evaluation of the partner schools‘ commitment to environmental issues such as waste, recycling and sustainability should also lead to a reflection on the students‘ own environmental attitudes. Students will also explore how career education is conducted in the different countries and visit a job fair at one of the partner schools to enquire about possible career options. The project is also designed to encourage entrepreneurship among students by giving them responsibility for a wide range of tasks. Our students are growing up in a fast-moving society in which an unhealthy lifestyle, fast food and wasteful consumerism are prevalent, whilst at the same time the ideal of physical fitness and beauty is spread by modern media. Therefore it is important that the students understand the positive impact a healthy diet and lifestyle have on their cognitive and physical performance. Likewise, a better understanding of environmental issues and the need for sustainability are increasingly relevant in our world. Career education and entrepreneurship are vital in order to prepare our students for their future. The students involved will be aged 14-18. Most of partners schools have an intake of students with a wide range of abilities. We will involve as many students as possible in our project work. Some tasks such as the logo competition, the survey about school food, or the reflection on the students‘ eating habits and environmental attitude can easily be organised to encompass the whole school or at least whole year groups. Although the official mobilities are litmited to 100 for the whole project group, we are very much hoping to take 120 students to the different partner schools. Similarly, it is our aim to let more local students participate in the activities which will take place during the exchange meetings. Research, practical and creative work will involve different subjects such as science, biology, sustainability, physical education, humanities, home economics, geography, economy, ICT, art and English, and requires a cross-curricular approach. Special emphasis will lie on the students’ hands-on experience. For each project phase, we have planned a range of preparatory tasks to ensure that the students get the maximum benefit from the activities to be carried out during the exchange meeting. Those activites include, for example, numerous workshops run by experts from local or regional institutions and by teachers, visits to a job fair, organic farms, Fairtrade companies, relevant museums, modern food companies and a bio-mass factory. We expect a wide range of project results which include, for example: • presentation on the importance of physical exercise in combination with healthy food for the personal well-being, powers of concentration and academic performance • presentation on the comparison of school food at the different partner schools • international cookery book, comprising traditional and healthy and sustainable modern recipes • presentation on sustainability with regard to food (purchase, production and consumption) • presentation on the importance of regional and organic food • presentation on the comparison of the partner schools‘ concepts on environmental issues • presentation on the principles of Fairtrade • presentation on career education at the different partner schools • various films/videos about the different project phases and meetings Our students will benefit from this project in various ways. First of all, working on the project will deepen their understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and sustainability. It will also raise their cultural awareness of others. This, in return will help to prepare them for the European job market. Moreover, it will give them the opportunity to use and improve their foreign language, IT, research and presentation skills. This project will raise the European profile of our partner schools within their communities considerably and also enables us to enrich our schools' curricula and should lead to improved concepts on school food, physical exercise, sustainability and career education.
Our project comprised the themes healthy diet and lifestyle, sustainability, career education, entrepreneurship and Fairtrade. Our students are growing up in a fast-moving society in which an unhealthy lifestyle, fast food and wasteful consumerism are prevalent whilst modern media spread the ideal of physical fitness and beauty. Therefore, we wanted to focus our project work on the themes healthy diet & lifestyle, environmental issues, sustainability and Fairtrade. Furthermore, we wanted to compare career education in our partner schools, an important element of school education, so students explored how career education is conducted in the different countries and visited a job fair at one of the partner schools to enquire about possible career options. The project was also designed to encourage entrepreneurship among students by giving them responsibility for a wide range of tasks. Students learned about the importance of physical exercise and a healthy diet for their personal well-being and academic performance. They compared and evaluated their schools`, and their individual approaches to healthy food and sports. In various workshops, students also studied and experimented with traditional and modern, healthy and sustainable food concepts and collated a range of healthy, and culturally as well as nutritionally diverse recipes. With regard to sustainability, students examined the consequences of careless consumerism and explored the value of organic, regional and Fairtrade products. They evaluated their schools’ commitment to environmental issues such as waste, recycling and sustainability and also reflected on their own environmental attitudes. They also gained an insight into the zero-waste movement. The students involved were aged 13-18. Most partner schools have an intake of students with a wide range of abilities. We tried to involve as many students as possible in our project work. Some tasks such as the logo competition, the survey about school food, or the reflection on the students‘ eating habits and environmental attitudes, were organised to encompass the whole school or at least whole year groups. Although the official mobilities are limited to 100 for the whole project group, we are very proud to have taken 129 students to the different partner schools. Adding in the students from our associated Turkish partner school, which participated in all stages of our project, we come to a total of 154 students who had the chance to take part in an STE. Altogether, around 540 students from all partner schools were involved in some part of the project. Research, practical and creative work involved many different subjects and required a cross-curricular approach. Special emphasis lay on students’ hands-on experience. For each project phase, we a range of preparatory tasks were planned to ensure that the students got the maximum benefit from the activities carried out during the exchange meetings. Those activities included, for example, numerous workshops run by experts from local or regional institutions or by teachers, visits to a job fair, an organic farm, Fairtrade companies, a zero-waste shop, museums, a Roman villa, a research institution, modern food companies and a thermal power station with an innovative algae production line. Project results achieved include, for example: • discussion and evaluation of the importance of physical exercise in combination with healthy food for the personal well-being, powers of concentration and academic performance • comparison of school food at the different partner schools • international cookery book • presentation on sustainability • discussion on the importance of regional and organic food • evaluation of the partner schools‘ concepts on environmental issues • presentation on the principles of Fairtrade • presentation on career education at the different partner schools • films about the different project themes, phases and meetings Our students have benefited from this project in various ways. First of all, they have deepened their understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and sustainability. Hosting a partner and/or staying with a host family has also provided a valuable cultural experience. Moreover, working on the project has given students the opportunity to use and improve their foreign language, IT, research and presentation skills. This project has raised the European profile of our partner schools within their communities and has enriched our schools' curricula. At some schools, concepts on food, physical exercise, sustainability and/or career education are being reviewed and improved as a consequence of our project findings. In some cases, changes have already been implemented: All schools have taken action to improve their environmental policies. Some partners have also taken steps to provide healthier school food. The PE department at Langerfeld Comprehensive can now use the equipment bought for the bootcamp.