Summary: Our project aims to unite different cultures and is therefore our contribution to intercultural peacekeeping. As part of an economically disadvantaged region, our school, the Primary School of St. Marein bei Neumarkt wants to establish a cooperation with the osnovna šola lovrenc na pohorju in Slovenia, that used to be located in Lower Styria. A common origin of the population groups has existed since the migration with Karantanien. Farm, town and mountain names, archaeological findings, as well as culinary and cultural characteristics witness our common roots. Knowing that separating aspects, existing in the background as a result of historical events, need to be processed, we strive to recognize the similarities and address the differences with our pupils. As we experience certain economic disadvantages due to our border location, we want to encourage our pupils to widen their horizon by improving their English and IT skills. In order to be able to offer our pupils the possibility to communicate in English in a virtual classroom situation, we need to purchase appropriate equipment (such as Ipads for etwinning). Our team (consisting of 6 teachers and 761 pupils) has chosen to observe the ecology patterns of plants, taking as an example, an apple tree from the stages of blossoming in spring to apple harvesting and processing in autumn. Our pupils will document the process with jointly agreed natural calendars and will then compare their results with the observations the other pupils have made. Through special support and training in the MINT subjects, our pupils become critical thinkers and acquire the key competences of lifelong learning. Certain topics that our children deal with we hope to transform into musical and artistic practice. The exchange of cultural and culinary specialities will enhance their intercultural dialog and lead to more understanding and respectful interaction. This partnership and the continuing exchange through Twin-Space or visits throughout the upcoming two years will also help to create close friendships. Both partners will benefit from the project, as they will learn from each other and reinforce their awareness of the common European cultural heritage.
Final Report The project „Naturdetektiv unterwegs“…. (natures`s detective on the road) researches, discovers and observes certain processes and their connections with nature. This transnational project was based around a common origin in which both historical and cultural backgrounds were considered, with the aim to establish the findings as a fix part of cultural heritage. Lifelong learning from and with each other using different languages such as Slovenian, English and German, aimed to strengthen the basic European idea of global unity. During four short working meetings and six further encounters (four Styria- Stajerska meetings and an organized festival in St. Marein/Neumarkt) an abundance of dialectics were swapped around and collected, and are still used in Slovenia and Styria. We always aspired to recognize things that are the same, as well as those items that are different. We knew that there were separating aspects within the project that followed historical events, and these require further clarity and sharpening. Both Lovrenc na Pohorju and St. Marein/Neumarkt are located in economical disadvantaged peripheral areas. Throughout the project we have enabled our school children the opportunity of broadening their horizons by improving their language skills. Substantial improvements have been made in English and now the school children can boast basic Slovenian language skills. As the children have had to work with I-Pads, their IT knowledge has profited well. This incidentally also applies to the teachers. A mutual knowledge platform and knowledge exchange has been formed between the teachers of our partner schools and they have been able to develop their own personal skills with additional intercultural competence. Furthermore, we have been able to examine and exchange different teaching methods, as we constantly learnt with and from each other in all subjects. All teachers have profited from the expertise of individuals within the schools. The knowledge transfer covered the subjects; art, culture, music, nature and sciences. The topic of bionics was of special interest to our colleagues from Slovenia and we have, in the meantime, handed over all relevant documentation to them. It is a subject not on the current teaching agenda in Slovenia and therefore the information exchanged, could result in the subject forming part of the teaching curriculum. The visit to the bionic adventure island may also be seen as an inspiration to establish something similar in Slovenia. The knowledge acquired from the research stations of the Via Natura could possibly, if adapted for children, be of particular interest. A lot of intensive work was put into producing the joint nature watching calendar. The pupils observed the growth process of certain plants- from the start of budding, right up to the falling off of leaves. From the different plants, herbs and fruits observed, items such as creams, juices, teas and herb salts were produced- it goes without saying that the suggestions and ideas were swapped back and forth. As we have no sweet chestnuts available in St. Marein/Neumarkt, the pupils and teachers of our partner schools in Slovenia, collected them locally and made them available to us. We in return, were able to arrange two sweet chestnut festivals. The cooperation was always highly appreciative and valued and many friendships have been formed. This is why we are striving to continue the partnership and have formed a new project request titled “catch the knowledge”. We are hopeful that we will receive a positive reply to our application, thus enabling us to continue our successful partnership. We intend that developing additional language skills remains a top priority of this project. During the second year of the project both pupils and teachers were able to learn Slovenian language in as easy and playful manner. Once a week St. Marein/Neumarkt welcomed a Slovenian native speaker to the lessons, who taught in her mother tongue. Of course lessons in English were strongly enforced and pupils were encouraged to write letters to each other- this was the start of many penfriend relationships. We feel that these many penfriend relationships are a small contribution to peace within Europe. The intercultural dialog was promoted through the respectful, appreciative basic motivation of our pupils, who profit from our intensive teaching in all MINT subjects. We believe that these pupils develop into critical thinkers with awareness for the European culture and heritage. The success of our project is highlighted by the fact that both municipalities are interested in a further, continued cooperation, which is highly supported by the mayors in each location. Unifying, transnational cohesion as well as feeling to be part of the European unit aids peacekeeping. The acquisition of skills and key competences using English language, digital media and by the creation of value from European cultural heritage, targets both teachers and their pupils. It is no doubt that even the local population could benefit from this project. The parents of the Slovenian children and other members of the partner municipalities visited us in St. Marein/Neumarkt to attend our cross border festival. This was an additional event, over and above the short working meetings. A real friendship was formed between the representatives of both schools. Throughout the project we formed collections to each practical task performed; pages for the calendar, research and explorer maps, recipes for traditional/regional dishes, recipes for producing creams and herb tinctures and pairs of analogies to phenomena of bionics. As we did a lot of work on the MINT subjects, by using a questionnaire for both pupils and their parents, we found out just how much people knew about the main emphasis of MINT. Furthermore, all the teachers were subjected to a SWOT analysis. We also created an art gallery where all materials collected were on display to the general public and could also be used. All collections and press releases from 4 newspapers can be viewed on the RESULT platform. All activities have been captured and can be viewed on the schools website and in Facebook. In the schools were have a constant presentation of the project and the individual work collections. We constantly review our pupils progress both verbally and in writing. We plan to re-use the nature calendar idea in coming years, the same applies to various other activities and collections that will be updated throughout. As we are not only an excellent MINT school but also an excellent NATURPARK school, it goes without saying, that we will continue with these and other relevant topics as a main emphasis for our future classroom and lesson planning.