“Unity in Diversity of Europe” – this motto is the basis of a project, which aims to lead to international communication and insights into diverse living environments. 25 students per two classes, half of them from a high school in the middle of Hamburg, Germany, and the other half from a college in Reykjavik, Iceland, meet each other in the course of an interdisciplinary project. This project is made up of the subjects geography, biology, economy – society – politics and English and enables the Icelandic and German students to swap ideas on their different living environments. The huge contrasts of rural and urban areas provide diverse prospects. The students themselves compile contents for running fieldtrips for their exchange partners in their home country. Aside the enlargement of professional competences, all students get the chance to meet students of another European country in person. In preparation for and also for the follow up of the project “Unity in Diversity of Europe”, all students and teachers stay in touch via e-Twinning. Therefore, the students use tablets, which are an essential part of the project itself. The joint use of digital media is promoted intrinsically as well as English as language of the project. All in all, our entire project “Unity in Diversity of Europe” is a part of the EU-Strategy “Europe 2020” to promote the mentioned key competences as well as understanding and open-mindedness towards new aspects. The students experience a change of perspective. The awareness of how humans are influenced by their living environment is going to have a lasting impression on all students.
EVE (“Unity in Diversity of Europe”) – this motto was the basis of our project, which aimed to lead to international communication and insights into diverse living environments. One class from the Ida Ehre Schule in Hamburg and students from Verzló College in Reykjavik met virtually and in reality in order to be part of an exchange about diverse living conditions and spaces and to learn together and from each other. All of this was embedded into interdisciplinary work of the subjects geography, biology, economy – society – politics and English. Current happenings concerning the climate crisis was one of the student's heart of interest here. All together they worked on core issues like production and use of energy, recycling of trash and handling of the climate crisis in their own families, their schools, their country and in the whole of Europe. Furthermore the students dealt with the experiences and contrast of urban and rural living. Therefore they elaborated a program to guide the guests through their homeland to, for example, focus on the urban development from a small city to a commercial metropolis. Besides the extension of their professional competences, our project offered the direct contact and getting to know of peers of their age from another European country. This promoted the European idea and their European consciousness. Above that, being part of such a program, helped the students directly and indirectly to experience their European citizenship. All in all, our entire project “Unity in Diversity of Europe” was a part of the EU-Strategy “Europe 2020” to promote the mentioned key competences as well as understanding and open-mindedness towards new aspects. The students experienced a change of perspective. The awareness of how humans are influenced by their living environment is going to have a lasting impression on all students.