According to the European report “Generation What?”, Europe is not a matter very close to their hearts for most young people. In addition to that, Europe is facing a lot of problems at the moment, just to mention the Brexit. From our experience as teachers we can say that hardly any of our students can tell us how the European elections are carried out or how to apply for a job in Europe. This is what we want to change with our project. We want to teach our students about the EU and provide an e-book with teaching materials for other schools in the world regarding the following topics: EU politics and elections, living in the EU, working in the EU as well as the future of the EU. The objectives of our project are, on the one hand, to make our students understand how Europe works in theory. On the other hand, we want to make Europe practical for our students by working with students from different directions of Europe – the South (Greece), the East (Poland and Romania) and the West (Germany). Furthermore, we want to improve their methodological and digital competence by using tools and software like Excel or design software they often do not know well. Concerning the number and profile of participants, it can be said that for every mobility meeting there will be five students from each country visiting the host school adding up to 15 students (between 14-18 years old). Additionally, all the students from the same age group within the host schools (between 50 and 150) will attend project-related events. Even more students will be involved in U18-elections. Furthermore, we will invite parents, for example to a farewell party. Every country will have an Erasmus+-team consisting of at least two coordinators and three more teachers. To describe the activities and methodology involved, it can be said that the focus of the first meeting is the creation of advertisements for the EU as well as an U18-election. During the second meeting there will be an informative afternoon relating to living in Europe. The main goal of the third meeting is to create a website with information of how to apply for a job in the four countries involved. During the fourth meeting we want to discuss the future of Europe with the help of a scenario. All the activities mentioned will be accompanied by experts’ talks. However, we do not only want to provide students all over the world with pure knowledge but we also want to make them familiar with cooperative learning methods they can use later to gather their own information and to make qualified decisions as an EU citizen. We will use some better known forms like jigsaw puzzle but also some less known forms like Six Thinking Hats or the Scenario technique to introduce different methods. We need the meetings in the four different countries to try out and improve our teaching materials. All the results will be put into lesson plans including material other schools can use later on. The main result of the project is an e-book with lesson plans including the produced material (e.g. texts, videos) and cooperative learning methods used (e.g. Six Thinking Hats) about the EU politics and elections, living in the four countries involved (e.g. education), working in Europe by the example of the four countries involved (e.g. qualifications for jobs) as well as future scenarios of the EU. This can be used for subjects like Social Sciences, Politics, Geography, Religious Education, European Clubs or cover lessons at every school in the world. The International Commission on Education for the 21st century mentions the following key objectives in their report: learning to learn, learning to be, learning to do and learning to live together. This is what we would like to achieve with our project as a long-term result. We expect longer term benefits on different levels: 1. Regarding the participating students and teachers The chosen cooperative learning methods will help us to improve social competences like critical thinking and problem-solving, flexibility and adaptability, initiative, accessing and analysing information as well as curiosity and imagination, which are important for careers, further education (e.g. university) and citizenship. Moreover, the students will gain a lot of knowledge about the EU (politics, benefits, drawbacks, etc.), will be able to use ICT tools, for example design software, will be able to act as responsible citizen on a local, national and international level and will improve their communication skills in English. 2. Regarding participating schools all over the world Teachers from all over the world can use the material and lesson plans, which will be uploaded on microsoft education and our website, to talk about Europe. They can contact the project partners to ask questions or use skype to allow students to meet online. We hope to make new contacts with schools from other countries and, therefore, make the topic of Europe more popular.
A lot of young people living in Europe do not know what an important role Europe plays in their everyday lives. It has become clearer to them recently, for example by the example of “Brexit”. It is much more complicated now to go to university in England or to go on a school exchange to Great Britain. The horizontal priority “Development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences” as well as the priority “SCHOOL EDUCATION: Promoting the acquisition of skills and competences” has been achieved. The students have even prepared themselves for life after school, which can be seen from the example that competences for a job interview have been practised during the meeting “Working in Europe”. With the help of the activities and results of the project “EU 4 U – Electing, living and working as a young person in today’s Europe and in the future” lesson plans could be created in order to make students at the age of 15 to 18 familiar with the theoretical and practical background regarding the topic of “Europe”. These educational materials have been tested by European Schools from three directions of Europe – the South (Greece), the East (Poland and Romania) as well as the West (Germany). The project work can be subdivided into four big topics. During the first meeting in Poland information sheets as well as lesson plans regarding the topic of “European elections” by the example of the European elections in 2019 have been developed. In addition to that, video messages by European politicians like Jerzy Buzket as well as Jadwiga Wiśniewska were provided. In addition to that, posters to advertise for the EU were created. The didactic method used here was “Speed Dating”. Moreover, a U18-election has been carried out and was evaluated by the four participating schools. During the second meeting in Greece information sheets as well as lesson plans regarding the topic “Living in Europe” were created. The focus was on a lesson plan in order to discuss which problems there are in the EU and which possible solutions can be found. On top of that, short films about Easter traditions as well as about the life of young people in the four different countries were made, which can be used in lessons. The didactic method used here was group work. For the third meeting in Germany information sheets as well as lessons plans regarding the topic “Working in Europe” were created. Thus, the qualifications for popular jobs in the four countries were compared. They were examined according to hard skills and softs skills with the help of a jigsaw puzzle. Furthermore, lesson plans regarding the topic of “Job interviews” were created and a discussion round dealing with the topic “World of work” was developed and carried out. In addition to that, a city quiz about Paderborn has been developed. The fourth meeting was carried out digitally. Responsible for this meeting was the Romanian school. The topic was “The future of Europe”, which was worked on with the help of the method “Six Thinking Hats”. Moreover, videos were presented in which former Erasmus students talked about the fact what they do after their time at school. Meanwhile, they partly even live in other European countries. Furthermore, a digital city quiz about Iasi as well as a Kahoot-Game about the four countries involved in the project were developed. In addition to that, posters about the future of Europe have been presented with the help of the Artsteps Gallery App. During the first three meetings a real culture day was carried out and there were also cultural elements during the digital meeting, which was carried out by the Romanian school. This culture day is the connecting element of all four meetings and can be related to the meeting in Greece, which is related to the topic “Living in Europe”. All the materials were published on the website https://projecteu4u.eu/wp/ as well as on the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform. The lesson plans, which were created and tested during the Erasmus+-Project, can be used for school lessons all over the world. For example, the materials for practising job interviews can be used in English lessons related to the topic of “The world of work”. The films about Easter are suitable for lessons in Religious Education and the material related to the European Elections can be used in bilingual Politics lessons.