The aim of the Strategic Partnership is to develop an e-learning course and interactive online portal “WATERSCHOOL - strengthening open digital education and innovative practises through relevant, innovative teaching tools about water consumption in schools”, offering learning materials and OERs for training of teachers and educators. in order to develop inclusive water drinking related activities in school/classroom. This training and support will be done via a web-based open source learning platform that will be open source and also available through the School Education Gateway (SEG). We will also ask involved teachers to register and create twin space for the promotion on eTwinning. Using web-based/digital training platforms we will enable educators to acquire new skills and competences, innovative methods and pedagogies in order to develop inclusive water drinking related activities in school/classroom. Access to safe, tap water helps to increase pupils overall water consumption, maintain hydration, and reduce energy intake. In addition, adequate hydration improves cognitive function among children and adolescents, which is important for learning. In turn, the project activities will help provide softer outcomes of increased personal development and employability of educators and their pupils, and contribute to EU Sustainable Development Goals, to the Drinking Water Directive and to European strategies to reduce obesity and tooth caries rates in children. For the majority of kindergartens and primary schools, allowing pupils to drink water throughout the day is now commonplace. But to meet the requirements, it takes more than only allowing, it is necessary to implement drinking rituals and active promotion of water drinking in classroom. In secondary schools, water availability is less visible and water may be seen by pupils as a less attractive option than alternative sodas or softdrinks. Through an online set of best practice examples in various EU countries, a broad knowledge and experience of the project partners and the local cooperation and reflexion with school authorities and school partners the project will create tools for all target groups to sensitize for tap water consumption, to introduce water drinking into everyday life at school and to embed water experiences into the formal as well as informal education. Target groups The main target groups of the new projects are therefor teachers, headmasters and pedagogues of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools as well as representatives from municipalities as carriers of kindergartens and schools, school authorities, parents and water companies/water suppliers. Main results and outputs:: Guidelines and Didactic Concept for training (O1) Content for the training course, incl. films/ photo documentary (O2) English pilot e-learning course “Waterschool” (O3) E-learning course “Waterschool”, adapted to all partner countries and languages in 7 versions (O4) Educational online portal with OER translated in the language of the partner countries (O5) Testing and Evaluation Report (O6) Dissemination workshops in all partner countries (E1-E7) International Network The e-learning course will comprise 5 modules and 16 learning units covering the following topics: Module 1: Why drinking tap water in schools – arguments and resources, Module 2: Becoming a waterschool – key players and their support, Module 3: Encouraging consumption of water in schools – nudge the more preferred drinking behavior, Module 4: Health through water - Didactic materials/educational programs for pedagogues – also with sections for pupils – to support healthier drinking behaviour, Module 5: Protecting water resources - Didactic material/educational programs for pedagogues – also with sections for pupils – for water protection and waste reduction. The course will be evaluated during a testing phase with at least 15 participants in each country. They will test the e-learning course, modules and content as well as the online portal and give their assessment by interview and questionnaires. For dissemination purpose a European network with stakeholders from the participating countries, will be installed. It will also give feedback on the content and applicability of the e-learning course. The partnership consists of 8 partners from 7 countries – Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. The partners are institutions with experiences and competences in different areas of school education.
“WATERSCHOOL - strengthening open digital education and innovative practises through relevant, innovative teaching tools about water consumption in schools” More than 20 percent of children and young people in the EU are either overweight or obese. These rates have increased significantly over the past decades. The consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks is often associated with obesity in children and can also lead to dental decay and the resulting fillings. Almost 40 percent of the sugar consumed by young children comes from drinking sugar-sweetened drinks. Childhood obesity is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, orthopedic problems, mental disorders, underachievement in school and lower self-esteem. These health problems can be avoided by encouraging the consumption of drinks without sugar. Promotion and provision of drinking water in schools has shown to prevent overweight. The importance of drinking water in schools is well known by teachers. Besides improving health, proper hydration is an important prerequisite for concentration and performance in school. Even mild dehydration can cause cognitive impairment, tiredness and headaches, all of which will negatively impact academic attainment. Yet, about half of the children do not meet their minimum hydration requirements. These issues can and should be addressed by actively promoting tap water drinking in schools. Every minute, a million plastic bottles are bought around the world, and this number will still rise during the next years. Schools that promote tap water drinking are free of single use plastic bottles and play an important role in helping to implement the EU Plastics Strategy. The project “WATERSCHOOL strengthening open digital education and innovative practises through relevant, innovative teaching tools about water consumption in schools”, funded by the Erasmus+ program, started in September 2018 and ended in August 2020. It involved partners in Austria (lead partner), Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. Aim of the project was to create and provide free accessible open education resources in the English, German, Bulgarian, Italian, Czech and Slovenian language, that encourage schools all over Europe to become Waterschools and enable pedagogues to acquire new skills and competences, innovative methods and pedagogies which will assist them in developing and implementing water drinking related activities in the school and the classroom. This will help improve children’s health as well as the health of the environment, but also increase personal development and employability of educators and students, and contribute to the achievement of the EU Sustainable Development Goals, the Drinking Water Directive and the European strategies to reduce obesity and tooth caries rates in children and the EU Plastic Strategy. Target groups of the project were schools and kindergartens, teacher, pre-school pedagogues, school headmasters, local and school authorities, municipalities, parents and water supplying companies. In the development, testing and the implementation phase of the project, about 24.400 persons were involved in one or several of about 190 dissemination activities like workshops, meetings, public events, conferences, computer based trainings, personal meetings etc. Much more were reached via webpages and Facebook. Feedback concerning the implementation of the project, the tools created and results obtained was extremely positive. The involved target groups discovered a very important topic to deal with in schools, not only in the classroom but also in the overall school culture and developed a collection of valuable ideas and practises for teaching. Teachers especially appreciated the case studies, digital tools and the practical guidelines for a school to become a Waterschool. The importance of these tools and materials has been further highlighted by the need for online training programmes during the coronavirus restrictions. Results in detail: • A set of guidelines and didactic concepts for the Waterschool project (in 6 languages). • A survey of drinking behavior, water quality and access to water in partner countries’ schools (in 6 languages). • A Waterschool online portal with an e-learning course, various educational resources, good practise examples, a guide how to become a Waterschool, an interactive map of European schools that already became a member of the Waterschool-network, FAQs and a news section (in seven country versions – AT, DE, BG, CZ, SL, IT, UK – and in an European version). • Multiplier events in all partner countries have been carried out. • About 190 seminars, online-trainings, conferences and other dissemination activities have been carried out. All results, the educational tools and guides on how to become a Waterschool are available for free on the portal www.waterschools.eu, also through the SchoolEducationGateway and eTwinning.