Nutrition as much as new technologies have in common that they help reveal social inequalities. School has a role to play in acting positively on health and knowledge. Our project entitled IPSO FACTO (Innovative Pedagogical Scenario On Food And Consumption Trends and Opportunities) has two main goals: 1) raise the students’ awareness of the influence of food and eating habits on their health, the / their environment by using information technologies and digital communication 2) enable the teachers to try out innovative educational approaches Imagine a European magazine on food and health issued by students. Its editorial policy aims at promoting solidarity and citizenship. We will try to underscore healthy gestures as well as social and rather than stigmatise some inappropriate behaviours. Those high-school pupils turned into journalists will go to the four corners of Europe, ie Finland, the Czech Republic, Italy and France, looking for new experiences that will alert on some hazards. They will also look for accounts from people who are involved in defending citizen’s well being. In their own country, the students will have to interview health specialists and conceive prevention plans. Their research will be available on websites and translated into 5 languages so to enlarge it thanks to the use of the eTwinning site. Thanks to this experience, the values of fairness, cooperation and solidarity will make sense for our students who will also develop many basic and cross-disciplinary skills, facilitated by the use of the IT tools. The challenges regarding the project remain numerous. First, It is about developing the 21st century “4 C” skills : to Create, Cooperate, develop a Critical mind and Communicate using IT Tools and social networks. Our students will become aware of the impact of nutrition on their health in a practical way. Nutrition must be understood as the point of balance between energy intake and physical exertion. Hence our choice of a choreography as a final production. However our partnership will go beyond this choreographic show. Our IPSO FACTO project will be detailed in Good Practice guide as a toolkit to be used by educators to raise the students’ awareness on nutrition, eating habits and health, boost their confidence and spirit of initiative, encourage their practice of foreign languages as well as their mobility, teach them to collaborate and in so doing, prepare them for higher education. IPSO FACTO is implemented with methodology and quality standards. IPSO FACTO relies on a steering committee, a project commission and various working groups. A balanced scorecard to evaluate all the activities will be used and assessment surveys will be carried out. Assessment grids will also be shared among partners. This project is led by the Headmasters and teachers of four high schools... 90 students are involved, aged 16 to 18 and from various classes: technology, science, literature and sports sections. 72 of them will be part of the mobility project, among whom 6 for a longer period.
According to the French Observatory of Inequalities, children from the lower classes are more exposed to the risk of obesity. To this health determinant is added a new factor of social inequality:digital skills. What role can the school play in acting on this determinant of health and this determinant of knowledge? In November 2016, two teachers from the French School of Green Venice in Niort launched the idea of a European project on the theme of nutrition and health, based on the use of Web tools. After posting this idea on the eTwinning Live platform, they met teachers from different European countries to launch an innovative project. The IPSO FACTO project for Innovative Pedagogical Scenario On Food and Consumption Trends and Opportunities was launched on September 1, 2017. It was based on two broad objectives: 1) to educate students about the impact of nutrition on health and environment, using information and digital communication tools; 2) to enable teachers to implement innovative teaching scenarios. The principals and nearly 40 teachers from four high schools completed this project. Two high schools with more than 1000 students: the Green Venice High School in Niort (France) and the Istituto Istruzione Superiore High School "Enrico Fermi" (Italy); Two high schools with fewer than 400 pupils: Mäntsälän Lukio High School (Finland), Gymnazium Havlickuv Brod High School / College (Czech Republic). The high schools of Niort and Catanzaro are located in popular neighborhoods and that of Mäntsälä in rural areas. These students would never have had the means to participate in this project without the initiative of the teachers and the financing of the project by the European Union. In total, more than 100 high school students have invested in the IPSO FACTO project. Aged on average from 16 to 17 years, they came from various sectors: technological, scientific, literary, sports. 76 of them took part in a mobility project. Several activities were implemented during meetings or remotely, using the e-Twinning platform. Most of the activities resulted in collaborative productions such as the production of a quantitative survey on eating habits in Europe, the writing of electronic magazines, the production of video interviews of nutrition / health experts or the production of a choreographic show filmed and broadcast on Youtube ,. The exchanges allowed cultural visits, participation in traditional meals, participation in a scientific conference on GMOs, the visit of an Italian association committed to sustainable food, participation in scientific experiments. Finally, immersion in foster families helped strengthen the bonds between participants and overcome cultural barriers. The activities allowed students and teachers to develop the "4 Cs" skills: Create and Cooperate, exercise a Critical spirit and Communicate meaningfully using information and communication technologie. Through a pragmatic approach, students were made aware of the impact of nutrition on health: the realization of the survey on eating habits in the project's partner countries led in particular to student debates about our differences. The interview of experts or professionals (expert patients, sports coach, doctor, nurse ...) was a motivating and shared experience thanks to the video. The writing of articles for magazines or the preparation of the exhibition encouraged students to collaborate between different nationalities, by setting up work groups mixing all nationalities. Teachers have implemented innovative teaching scenarios involving collaborative working groups between several nationalities. They overcame a major difficulty: reconciling their educational goals despite differences in school curricula. They also acquired project methodology skills. The experience of the project (almost 100% of people would recommend it to a friend) suggests that knowledge of good eating habits (such as the Mediterranean diet) is potentially long-term. Students realized that foster meals were a key element of hospitality. Finally, they understood that working in international groups is difficult but possible, thanks to the learning of digital tools. In addition, families saw the value of a European exchange project through the progress and motivation of their children.