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Treasures of nature - little hands discover and protect our European future

2018-1-DE03-KA229-0474402018School Exchange Partnershipsfinalized
Countries: DE|ES|PL|IT|FI|FR · Grant: €171,368
Environment and climate changeCultural heritage/European Year of Cultural HeritageKey Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) - basic skills

Project summary

By exploring the "treasures of nature" of Europe, the seasons, the weather, the natural phenomena, its endangered animals and plants in Europe, their habitats, natural parks and the meaning of environmental protection and preservation, we want with all students (aged 6-12 / 14 years) and all teachers of the partner schools to find out and discover similarities and differences, how people in Europe deal with nature, its benefits of nature for animals and humans and its preservation and protection, leading to education of its people.Handicrafts and designing with natural materials and trying out recipes with herbs and fruits from nature are another focus of the project, which at the same time promotes a healthy diet.These project components serve to achieve the core of the project, particulary: the implementation of the key competences in the field of literacy,creativity culture and language writing skills. The joint implementation and documentation from the weather observations,studies and presentations on endangered animals and plants, as well as the natural resources of an European country,play a significant role in the development of mathematical, scientific and digital skills and impart knowledge in teaching and learning methods, from which all schools benefit far beyond the project period.In this way, we are intensifying the effective strategies to improve the basic skills. Through the close cooperation of the partner classes, the numerous student and teacher mobilities, the constant exchange of results on the eTwinning platform, we achieve a high openness / acceptance of all participants to all people in Europe,including those who have impairments.As active participants, they help to shape the project and would willingly participate in the mobilities. At the beginning of the project, a map of Europe with nature parks of the individual countries is prepared by everyone, which shows the way from country to country, from school to school and from city to city. The geographical position of the partner country /partner cities arein an interdisciplinary way, developed and planned. Each school creates a PowerPoint presentation in collaboration with parents about the school, its surroundings and the nature parks or forests in the region. As a result of the project, each partner school will create another PowerPoint presentation on the nature of the school environment and two annual calendars, puzzles, memory games, posters, two photo books, a feel and touch range in each school, as well as PowerPoint presentations and children's films about endangered animals and plants of their country.We also work on these products during student- teacher encounters. The activities and project results of the entire period are documented and later on presented. The student- teacher encounters serve concrete insights into the lives of others , into the divergent nature of Europe and the direct coexistence. They are particularly important to enable children to experience the different facets of natural and linving spaces and the treasures of nature in Europe and to get to know, to explain and to understand the differences and/or the commonalities within Europe better. Participants learn to sustainably protect their own and the nature of Europe. The quality of the project is strengthened by the cross-border cooperation. We expect a constructive cooperation of all participants in the interest of the development and dissemination of the European idea during the student and teacher mobilities, as well as at the project meetings, in planned project days and weeks. Improving teaching quality, learning conditions, learning methods and learning materials to further develop the basic competences and thus to develop a more sustainable improving learning outcomes are achieved through joint advice, class visits and exchange of experiences within the colleges, and the mutual presentation of school systems and presentations of teaching methods for inclusion.The main topic of nature is a differentiated collection of material consisting of worksheets with different task levels. Partial evaluations are carried out, followed by an overall evaluation of the cooperation, the goals achieved, the quality of the results and the progress of the children.Presentations,exhibitions,media work in the school,in the environment and the public play a decisive role. This will be done in conversations, interviews and evaluation sheets / tests, feedbacks provided by parents,citizens of the region,network partners of the schools,school boards, administration and teacher training courses. Our goal is to continue the partnerships beyond the project period, to make the idea of Europe an integral part of school life and school development allow. Further projects will be carried out and firmly established through eTwinning, Erasmus +, within the class partnerships and student exchanges. All results will be prepared in such a way that they will be used sustainably.

Final report summary

By exploring the “treasures of nature” of Europe, the seasons, weather, natural phenomena, endangered animals and plants in Europe, their habitats, national parks and dealing with environmental protection, all students (aged 6-12 / 14 years) and all educators at the 6 partner schools found commonalities and differences, how people deal with nature, the benefits of nature for animals and humans and the need to protect them, and made all children aware of this in a sustainable way. Recipes with herbs and fruits from nature were another focus and included a healthy diet. These project parts served to realize the central topics, in particular the implementation of the key skills in the field of reading, language and writing skills, creativity and culture joint implementation and documentation of weather observations and presentations Iions on endangered animals and plants as well as the natural treasures of a European country served to develop mathematical, scientific and digital competencies and imparted knowledge, skills, teaching and learning methods from which all schools benefit well beyond the project period the strategies for improving the basic competences.We achieved through the close cooperation of the partner classes, the numerous pupil and teacher mobilities, the constant exchange of results through eTwinning and e-mails, a high degree of openness / acceptance of all participants towards all people in Europe, including those with disabilities, who, as active participants, helped shape the project and took part in the mobilities. At the beginning, everyone made a map of Europe with the nature parks of the individual countries, showing the way from country to country, from school to school and from city to city Each school created a Power Point presentation about the school, the surrounding area and nature parks or nature in the region. Three annual calendars, puzzles, memories, posters, two photo books, a feel and tactile route in each school, PowerPoint presentations about Nature and the weather, PowerPoint presentations as well as children's films about endangered animals and plants in their country. We also worked on these products during the student and teacher encounters. The activities and project results of the entire period were documented and presented. The student and teacher encounters served concrete insights into the lives of others, into the different nature of Europe and direct participation They were of particular importance so that the children got to know the different facets of living spaces and natural spaces as well as the treasures of nature in Europe, better imagined, explained and understood the differences / similarities within Europe. The participants thus learned their own. The quality of the project was strengthened by the cross-border cooperation. A constructive cooperation of all participants in the interest of the development and dissemination of the European idea always existed during the student and teacher encounters as well as at the project meetings, in planned project weeks and - We achieved an improvement in the quality of teaching, the learning conditions, learning methods and learning materials in order to further develop the basic skills and thus improve the learning results through joint consultations, class visits, exchanges of experience and digital meetings as well as the presentations of school systems and presentations of teaching methods for inclusion. A differentiated collection of materials with different task formats was created for the focus on nature. The presentations, exhibitions, media work in the school, in the environment and the public played a crucial aspect in order to be able to assess the impact of the project in concrete terms. This was done in discussions, interviews and evaluation sheets / tests, and feedback was given by parents, citizens of the region, network partners of schools, school authorities and administrations and in teacher training courses. Our aim was to keep the partnerships in place beyond the project period, to make the idea of ​​Europe an integral part of school life / school development. Further projects follow via eTwinning, Erasmus +, # ErasmusDays, within the class partnerships, European calendar, European Christmas tree and student / teacher exchanges. All results have been prepared in such a way that they can be used sustainably.

Project partners (6)