The Project ‘Healthy human in the healthy environment’ (‘Environment and human health’ )was created out of the necessity for environmental potection as well as for care about young people’s health. As teachers, we feel obliged to make all our students aware of the complex relation between the human activity and natural environment. Through our project we want to show that we play an important role in the changing environment and we cannot stay passive but we have to try to eliminate the fundamental errors made by human beings towards the environment. The aim of this interdisciplinary project (biology, geography, French, English and ICT) is to make the students’ learning more attractive by implementing the innovative methods and by motivating them to know the basic elements of the school syllabus.The students will acquire skills that will be useful in their future life. Secondary school students from four European countries will teach each other by presenting a healthy eating approach and their attitude to the issue of balanced development, from their persona perspective from the perspective of their countries.They will share their knowlegde of the local or regional environmental problems . They will put the acquired knowledge of biology and geography into practice by working out better ways of healthy eating and of the individual environmental protection. The international project wil give students the opportunity to practise and improve their language skills in French and English. The students will develop the skills of critical thinking, undertaking community-based initiatives and becoming active and creative. As for the teachers, they will be able to acquire new skills, learn new teaching techniques and to develop their professional profile. Moreover, they will share their knowledge with their teacher colleagues in their school. All the participants of the project will improve their ICT skills using advanced technologies (blog, video conference) and using new programs in order to prepare the materials for the project (eg.e-book, Glogster, the Internet guide). During the international group meetings we will prepare several products that will help us promote the ideas we will write about on the blog (posters, presentations, films, article and so on). In addition, we want to encourage students to active citzenship by taking part in international actions aimed at the protection of the environment (World Water Day, Earth Hour, Earth Day) and at health care (the European Day of Healthy Food). We will also organise in our towns a ‘May trip on the bike’, promoting healthy lifestyle and ecological means of transport. The project will contribute to the students’ growth of knowledge and communication skills development. It will teach them how to undertake initiatives and get involved into community life. The schools will enrich their educational offer and gain the reputaion as modern institutions.
Our schools started the project owing to a common interest in human being’s impact on the Earth and vice versa. Thinking about the future we decided to make the students aware of the fact that it is a man, as an individaual, who is responsible for wathever is happening to our planet and for its sustainable development. Through our actions we wanted to encourage them to become ecologically active.Moreover, observing our students, we noticed that they were not always able to choose appropriate products. Instead, they preferred reaching for fast foods or unhealthy snacks. As a result, we aimed to expand our students’ knowledge of healthy lifestyle and diet and to encourage them to do sports regularly. We also wanted to give them more detailed information about saubstances which influence our body negatively and, finally, to outline a sensible approach to health and environment, which they would be able to put into practice now and in the future. Groups of about 20-30 students, 16-19- year- old teenagers, shared their knowledge concerning local and international ecological problems, prepared interactive posters getting in touch via the Internet, created brochures and films about their actions and prepared insturctional materials – the recipes for traditional dishes of the regional cuisine. The students became each other’s teachers and partners in caring about the Planet and sharing their knowledge of their culture and traditions. The additional value of the project was popularising consumption-conscious approach , limiting food waste and air and water pollution, as well as learning about renewable sources of energy. Doing the project tasks gave students the opportunity to develop their language skills by working in international groups and their TIC skills by using new technologies and programs.They acquired information by attending interdisciplinary classes, meeting dieticians and conservationists and undertaking various initiatives in their local communities. The teachers developed their professional skills. The main effect of our cooperation is an online blog with a manual for young people containing a wide range of recipes for healthy eating and various articles about sustainable development. Thanks to new applications we have created a lot of materials such as interactive posters, e-books, films, presantations, newsletters and apps to learn vocabulary as well as brochures, leaflets, infographics, CDs and teaching aids. The project had a positive influence on all the participating schools. All the planned tasks have been acomplished. The atmosphere of cooperation and understanding and the coordinators’ creativity were the highlights of the project, which made it even more successful. The schools are going to continue some ecological actions like: Earth Day, Water Day, cleaning the world, planting trees or a picnic on a bike.