The mainstream of this project is to use “environmental sustainability behaviour” by giving it a new interpretation or a re-discovering of the common European regional, agricultural roots. There will be 100 students belonging to the higher-upper secondary school and the methodology used will be ”learning by doing”. Being both groups bilingual German/Italian, the students will learn to recognize how traditions may be re-interpreted. To use environmental sustainability behaviour has helped mankind in the past and it has made survival possible to men who were undergoing natural catastrophes and hunger. In 1815 Queen Katharina Pawlowa from Russia after having had a very rich wedding with King William I von Württemberg , arrives in her new country where the population was dying of hunger due to famine. She understood that simply giving to these hungry beggars would not be sufficient so she founded the Agriculture Institute, the First School for Noble Girls in Europe, “Königin Katharina Stift”, the bank (Sparkasse) and hospital (Katharinenhospital). Katharina’s foresight has been forgotten, in effect, we have destroyed our planet by overusing our resources. It is time to think, the use of “environmental sustainability behaviour” may save the planet and it may also guarantee even distribution of food resources to all men. Through this project the students will learn the meaning of sustainability connected to architecture, nutrition and agriculture. The themes which will be considered are part of the European Cultural Heritage 2018 (https://sharingheritage.de/en/) which correspond to the profiles of both school partners. The starting point of the project is Katharina’s experience and her foresight in understanding that giving to beggars was almost useless but rather take the appropriate measures to make this last in time. In Apulia, agriculture plays an important role in the local economy, as well. The region is among the first in Europe for producing olive oil, grapes, cherries, almonds artichokes, tomatoes and fish. Apulia attracts people for its artistic heritage and its uncontaminated nature. Ever since the 80’s bio-agricultural farms have been founded, today these are partnerships. Ex. “Biol Italia” is an international farm where their aim is to improve the quality of their bio-products and their sustainability through the non use of preservatives, yet giving their products fragrance, taste and natural coloring. The activities program have been particularly studied to aim at “slow-food” and “slow-life”, which Italy is well known to be queen of both. The activities for slow-food are various visits to agricultural farms in order to assist to the actual making of olive oil, mozzarella cheese and work in greenhouses. Visits to those farms which “Libera association” has confiscated from “Mafia”. The activities for slow-life are visits to Trani, Gravina di Puglia and Matera (cultural city 2019) and meetings with entrepreneurs and professional who deal with environment, sustainability and architecture (“case di luce”). The interdisciplinary contents and competences are intended to be valuable pedagogic answers to the globalizations process. The need to honour, the respect of Human Rights, equality and global justice is also a fundamental role of this project which aims not only to the previous goals but also to the awareness of conditions for a peaceful world. Along with the goals related to the contents of the project we automatically find an improvement in foreign language competence. In conclusion to the project, an app named “eco trips for students” will be made and will be available to other schools. For the realization of this app the students will also have to acquire the necessary technological-technical competences . During the period of time in between the exchanges, students will undergo tests which will be exchanged and corrected by both partners.
The core of the project was sustainable action as a reinterpretation of common European and regional rural traditions. As part of the project, about 100 students from the upper school worked in German-Italian tandems using the method "learning through teaching". The pupils recognised how tradition can be "reinterpreted". In the past, sustainable action has helped to ensure the survival of people who had to starve to death due to natural disasters. Queen Katharina von Württemberg, the founder of the Queen Katharina Stift recognised this and supported the people of Württemberg with her foresight (founding of the agricultural institute, Queen Katharina Stift, savings bank, Katharinenhospital). In the past decades, we have lost this foresight in civilised society. Thus we have almost destroyed our planet. It is now 5 to 12 and we must remember that sustainable action today is once again a necessity to save the planet, to establish distributive justice in the world and to protect the world. The students first dealt theoretically with sustainability and learned what sustainability means from a historical point of view and how one can learn from historical customs, here especially in the field of architecture, and shape the future sustainably with this knowledge. Both partner schools are connected to history and tradition in a special way due to their cultural and historical context. In the Year of European Cultural Heritage 2018, the above-mentioned topics were considered in a German-Italian or European context. The starting point of the project was the sustainable action of Queen Catherine, who reformed agriculture in a sustainable way. In the poverty-stricken kingdom of Württemberg, the queen faced a tough test: the people were suffering from the worst famine to date, caused by poor weather conditions and resulting crop failures. She realised that it does not help to distribute alms, but took sustainable measures to develop agriculture. Agriculture has always played a major role in Puglia as well. In olive oil, grapes, cherries, almonds, artichokes and tomatoes and fishing, the region is one of the top producers in Europe. Puglia attracts visitors with its unspoilt nature, ancient art treasures and traditional cuisine. Environmental awareness began in Puglia at the end of the 1980s, when some producers left conventional cultivation. Today, Puglia's organic producers are also supported by consortia and associations, such as Libera dalle mafie, which returns lands confiscated by the mafia to the citizens. The students have realised that they can contribute to a peaceful world through their consumer behaviour. The project activities focused on Slow Food and Slow Città as a counter-pool to Fast Food and Fast Life, as Italy is the motherland of the Slow movement. The following activities took place: Slow Food: visit to various organic agricultural enterprises (olive oil mill, Masseria didattica-Mozzarella production, flower cultivation, Apulia Kundi (seaweed start up). "Libera dalle Mafie", deals with the valorisation and promotion of typical organic products on lands confiscated by the Mafia. Slow Città: Visit to some of the towns that have been awarded the Slow Città label (Trani, Matera, Gravina) and to companies working in the eco-building sector. The criteria of ancient and modern sustainable building methods are being researched. Meetings were also held with citizens of these cities who volunteer in environmental protection and preservation of cultural heritage. The environmental department of Puglia was the first in Italy to pass a law promoting environmentally friendly public purchases. The project imparts interdisciplinary knowledge and skills and sees itself as a pedagogical response to globalisation processes. The question of the realisation of human rights, global justice and the conditions for a peaceful world played an important role. Sustainability concepts, e.g. waste separation, resulted at both schools. In addition to the content-related goals, the pupils have greatly improved their language skills. At the end of the project, we created an app that will be made available to other interested schools as a suggestion for an eco-study trip. In order to create this app, the students had to acquire appropriate IT skills. In the work phases between the group visits, we worked on thematically appropriate texts in the foreign language using the methods of foreign language teaching and exchanged them in the tandem method.