ENVSTORIES project is based on the thesis that every instructive activity aims at a better communication of human beings with their environment. Τhe experiential action, achieving successive goals, constructivism and interaction with the artificial and natural environment are teaching approaches essential to the evolution of the education process. ENVSTORIES will bring together “young changemakers” from four countries to brainstorm ideas for solutions to local, national and international environmental problems. The project aims at strengthen teachers' profile to effectively coach pupils in working effectively in relation to the subjects: -Health & Environmental Effects on Society -Natural Environment -Geophysical Hazards -Natural Resource Depletion -Waste disposal and recycling Through this material pupils will aquire practical, logistical and personal skills to lead environmental actions and spread the word about the need to live more sustainable lifestyles. The project will offer comprehensive training material for the above subjects, a teachers guide with the pedagogical approach and an online collaboration platform to be used by the pupils for the co-creation of interactive stories(in the form of e-books), spreading to their social environment the need for more sustainable lifestyles. Teachers, acting as coaches, will be assisting pupils to develop these (env)stories triggered by the offered training material. Pupils will have to work collaboratively using the platform in order to produce stories that will communicate complex concepts to others structuring information and data in meaningful and useful ways (storytelling). During the project, the pedagogical framework behind ENVSTORIES platform will be developed related to the specific goals while complex environmental missions will be created by teachers and environmental experts and will be given as challenges to groups of pupils in order to create their own stories tailoring their messages for the intended audiences(Other pupils and Parents). Blended mobility of school learners(age 10-12) will take place with pupils form Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Turkey will visit NKUA to learn about geology and nature from actual hands-on experiences. The students with their teachers will use the platform during a full school year to learn and to create stories and will visit cultural heritage sites (natural history museums, geological parks) to gather material (photos, videos) for their stories. Feedback will be gathered and applied to the methodology and tools. The final platform with the training material, the pupils' stories in the form of interactive e-books and a teacher's guide will become publicly available for open for all use at the end of the project. ENVSTORIES will focus on creating awareness, knowledge and experience to the teachers, pupils and the wider community on sustainable development, which is achieved through the actions of environmental education. Consequently, our project objectives will be to: • Increase educators competences on advanced teaching methodologies (Experiential Teaching, Storytelling, Deep Learning ) and ICTs. • Provide educators and pupils with the necessary training material and digital tools to collaboratively create attractive stories tackling more complex tasks together than they could manage individually. • Develop a digital platform and interactive teacher guide to be used by all project partners and also other schools as a best practice. • Encourage and strengthen inter-cultural understanding and communication by school collaboration and pupils exchange. The duration of the project is 24 months and the activities planned are: A1: Project Management A2: Pedagogical framework and training material A3: Development of the ENVSTORIES Platform A4: Pilot implementation A5: Evaluation and Exploitation A6: Dissemination A7: Quality & External Evaluation Expected Intellectual Outputs include: 01: Pedagogical framework 02: Environmental training handbook 03: ENVSTORIES Platform 04: ENVSTORIES stories 05: Course materials certification. 06: Professionals guide on the use of ENVSTORIES methodologies and tools 07: Dissemination and Exploitation Plan In parallel, 5 workshops, and 3 conferences will take place for the dissemination of the project. The countries that constitute the consortium are Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Turkey. The consortium has been formulated to be able to handle all risks involved in the project and consists of 4 schools, 2 organizations in close connection with schools and teachers, a University relevant to environmental training, a certification company and and an IT partner.
EnvStories project is based on the thesis that every instructive activity aims at a better communication of human beings with their environment. Τhe experiential action, achieving successive goals, constructivism and interaction with the artificial and natural environment are teaching approaches essential to the evolution of the education process. ENVSTORIES will bring together “young changemakers” from four countries to brainstorm ideas for solutions to local, national and international environmental problems. The project aims at strengthen teachers' profile to effectively coach pupils in working effectively in relation to the subjects: -Health & Environmental Effects on Society -Natural Environment -Geophysical Hazards -Natural Resource Depletion -Waste disposal and recycling Through this material pupils will aquire practical, logistical and personal skills to lead environmental actions and spread the word about the need to live more sustainable lifestyles. The project offer comprehensive training material for the above subjects, a teachers guide with the pedagogical approach and an online collaboration platform to be used by the pupils for the co-creation of interactive stories (in the form of e-books), spreading to their social environment tηe need for more sustainable lifestyles. Teachers, acting as coaches, assist pupils to develop the EnvStories triggered stories by the offered training material. Pupils had to work collaboratively using the platform in order to produce 24 stories that communicate complex concepts to others structuring information and data in meaningful and useful ways (storytelling). During the project, the pedagogical framework behind EnvStories platform was developed related to the project goals. Teachers and environmental experts gave the initial triger to groups of pupils to create their own environmental stories by tailoring their messages for the intended audiences (Other pupils and Parents). A five day long, blended mobility (training school) of 30 school learners (age 10-12) and 10 accompaning teachers form Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Turkey took place in Athens and visited NKUA to learn about geology and environment, from actual hands-on experiences and work on their first e-book stories on the EnvStoreis platform. The students with their teachers will used the platform during a half school year to learn and to create stories. Unfortunately, duo to COVID19 outbreak, schools weren't able to visit many cultural heritage sites (natural history museums, geological parks) and gather material (photos, videos) for their stories. However, during the training school in Athens, they had the oportunity to experience many outdoor activities along with cultural and environmental importance places. Feedback from tutors and pupils was gathered and applied to the methodology and tools. The final platform with the training material, the pupils' stories in the form of interactive e-books and a teacher's guide is now publised and available for open for all use. EnvStories focuses on raising awareness, knowledge and experience to the teachers, pupils and the wider community on sustainable development, which is achieved through the actions of environmental education. Consequently, our project objectives are: • Increase educators competences on advanced teaching methodologies (Experiential Teaching, Storytelling, Deep Learning ) and ICTs. • Provide educators and pupils with the necessary training material and digital tools to collaboratively create attractive stories tackling more complex tasks together than they could manage individually. • Develop a digital platform and interactive teacher guide to be used by all project partners and also other schools as a best practice. • Encourage and strengthen inter-cultural understanding and communication by school collaboration and pupils exchange. The duration of the project is 27 months and the activities planned are: A1: Project Management A2: Pedagogical framework and training material A3: Development of the ENVSTORIES Platform A4: Pilot implementation A5: Evaluation and Exploitation A6: Dissemination Expected Intellectual Outputs include: 01: Pedagogical framework 02: Environmental teachers handbook 03: EnvStories Platform 04: EnvStories stories 05: Course materials certification. 06: Professionals guide on the use of EnvStories methodologies and tools In parallel we implemented 2 conferences, 5 webinars, and 1 fullday teleconference for the dissemination of the project methodolies and results. The countries that constitute the consortium are Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Turkey. The consortium has been formulated to be able to handle all risks involved in the project and consists of 4 schools, 2 organizations in close connection with schools and teachers, a University relevant to environmental training, a certification company and and an IT partner.