"Erasmus + that meant two years of experiences full of friendships around Europe. I developed personally through working together on our project with other schools“. This quote comes from a student who participated in our last project, "The Magic of Sound" - the second European project in which our school participated. Because of many positive experiences from students and teachers, we would like to establish projects like this as a kind of a tradition. By now we know the participating schools well. Through the exchanges that have taken place, we became aware of one linking element: Water. It is life line of our cities, forms a basis of national and international economy, is energy source and worthy of protection worldwide. Because of this our ideas have solidified into four major pillars which we want to work on intensively: Water as a Basic Element of Nature, Water as a Source of Energy, Water as Travel- and Trade Route and Water Analysis. We want to explore these topics under the title "The Magic of Water". The participating schools are Justus-von-Liebig-Gymnasium, Germany, Colegiul National Moise Nicoara, Romania, Devonport High School for Girls, UK and XV. gimnazija, Croatia. We are united by a great interest in scientific studies. Justus-von-Liebig-Gymnasium is an aspirant to be MINT-EC school, XV. gimnazija has been awarded prizes in international science competitions like World Olympiads, Devonport High School has strong links with the local university in the field of science and Moise Nicoara is regularly successful in national science competitions. All schools have project teams consisting of teachers from a variety of subjects so that we will be able to deal with water in an interdisciplinary way: We have teachers for Maths, Physics, Biology, Languages and Music on our teams. The participating students will be hand-chosen in internal selection processes. Around 20 students aged 14-17 will actively participate from each school. However, the wider school community will be involved and can profit from their experience. Our aim is to coach the students to work independently, but in close contact with their peers. We teachers will provide the means and will support them in challenges. The students will develop ideas about the topics, discuss them with us and get suggestions for further ideas. The students will learn skills such as experimenting, doing water analysis or creating statistics, which are all important methodological competences. In the course of the project they will repeatedly do presentations, also in front of an international audience. Through lectures with external partners the students will gain knowledge and will be able to critically reflect on topics such as energy supply. By doing all this, they will improve their language- and social skills like team-working. All this will contribute to turning the pupils into responsible citizens who recognize the value of water as a European cultural heritage and can critically reflect on it. With reference to the four pillars of our project, we aim to reach the following objectives during our four project weeks: In Germany we will especially deal with the topic of Energy Supply, in Romania the main focus will be Water as a Basic Element of Nature, in Croatia Water Analysis will be at the centre of our attention and in England we will concentrate on Trade Routes. Despite these priorities, all objectives will be dealt with during each project week. We have planned these activities: Taking and analyzing water samples from natural water sources and drinking water in each country, visiting hydropower stations and recognizing the influence of water energy compared to other energy sources in each country. To appreciate the role water plays in nature, we will visit museums like the Eden Project in England and a renaturation area in Germany. Guided tours will give us an insight into the history of trade routes in important cities and help the students work on a European map showing their development. In the course of the two years, data and information will be collected and edited. During the 5th and final project meeting, all results will be brought into a final shape: The comparative statistics on water analysis is to be given to a National Office for Environment, a poster on the different energy sources can be published, a parent evening about the sustainable dealing with the resource water will happen and the topic "Trade Routes" will be carried into classes in form of a quiz. The collected results are to be presented to a EU representative in Brussels. It will be interesting to exchange ideas about European water protection. Through this project, all involved parties will get great benefits. Fish farm Salgen serves as an example: The school will gain an external partner for years, the teachers will get stimuli for teaching and field trips, but most importantly the students will develop their value-orientation and social skills.
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