“Sense your city, Taste its Sights” aims at making participants conscious of Agios Nikolaos, Barcelos, Gdynia and Tarragona’s cultural heritage, that is, their natural landscapes, archaeological sites, literature, arts, food. They shall learn its value as part of their own identity and as a wealthy gift for future generations. Besides, acknowledging the impact of heritage on cities and peoples might inspire teenagers to build not only their personal but also professional future upon. The five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste) will help students to discover partners' cities and lead them through the quest of international cooperation. Hence, their intercultural awareness, tolerance and open-mindedness will be increased. This project is also intended to giving students who are hundreds of kilometers apart from each other, the chance to get closer, exchange their traditions and points of view, share and appreciate their heritage while fostering a sense of belonging to a common European space. The main goals of the project are the promotion of the European cultural heritage to widen students' knowledge, the inclusion of students with socials and educational difficulties, the prevention of early school leaving, the improvement of students' communicative/ICT skills, the raise in interest for foreign language learning and the development of other lifelong key competences such as autonomy, curiosity, creativity. The project includes different types of tasks to be carried out before, during and after each short-term exchange. Besides, there will also be some long-term tasks to be completed throughout the whole project, namely the Glossary in Progress, The Multilingual Video and the board game "Sense your Cities". The cooperation among schools will result into tangible materials such as: a recipe calendar, a multilingual travel glossary, a multilingual video, a tutorial on traditional dances, a dancing event, a multilingual Christmas carols recital, several presentations, a travel brochure. Moreover, the completion of all these tasks will lead to the creation of the board game which will be a roundup of all they have learnt during the project' s lifetime. To monitor the proper implementation of every single stage of the project regular assessment will be carried out by means of online questionnaires, charts, personal interviews, performance observation, students' productions, final outcomes. Participants, 24 pupils aged between 13-15, will represent the working teams from each school during the short-term exchanges. These will favour international learning experiences and help develop intercultural awareness. Students and teachers who are not directly involved in the project will also benefit from the materials produced. They will be available online and at the schools to be used. Teachers will swap good practices and apply those significant to their teaching contexts. Furthermore, teachers will widen their professional network and thus facilitating future cooperation within Europe and the internationalization of the schools. Thanks to this project participants will develop key competences for lifelong learning since all tasks planned will favour cooperation, research, autonomy, curiosity. They will also be aware of intercultural differences because they will get to know other realities which will promote tolerance and respect towards other cultures. In addition, students will improve self-confidence because during the project they will have to face new situations which will make them conscious of their potential. Besides, all people involved in the project: students, teachers and families will be more open to engage in new international projects.
The main goal of the project “Sense your city, Taste its Sights” is to promote the cultural heritage of four European cities: Agios Nikolaos (Greece), Barcelos (Portugal), Gdynia (Poland) and Tarragona (Spain) through the five senses giving students, who are hundreds of kilometres apart from each other, the chance to know each other, share their traditions and points of view, exchange and appreciate their heritage while fostering a sense of belonging to a common European space. The inclusion of students with social and educational difficulties, the prevention of early school leaving, the improvement of students' communicative ICT skills, the rise in interest for foreign language learning and the development of lifelong key competences such as autonomy, curiosity and creativity have also been one of our main concerns throughout the whole project, playing a predominant role in the accomplishment of all the tasks proposed. Participants have had the opportunity to value and widen their knowledge about their home cities and learnt what to see, hear, smell, taste and touch in four other European cities. Seeing totally different landscapes, archaeological sites and traditions; hearing the waves that lap the four shores, its musical instruments and such different languages; smelling and tasting its most representative dishes and touching the essence of its history have become the main targets of this project. The observation and discovery of all these aspects have made possible the accomplishment of different types of tasks carried out before, during and after each short-term exchange; and also the long-term tasks which have been completed throughout the whole project. The cooperation among the four schools has resulted in tangible materials such as: “The Recipe Book” which includes the most representative starters, main courses and desserts of the four culinary traditions. “The Multilingual Travel Glossary” which gathers basic and useful expressions in the languages of the participant countries (Catalan, Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish), four “Glossary in Progress” language video tutorials”, each one in a different language to practice pronunciation and intonation, and “The Multilingual Video” where students communicate in the languages above mentioned. The four “Tutorials on Traditional Dances”, where each participant school shows and teaches the others how to perform them before the international dancing event. Four “Sing-along videos” which show the song “Ode to the Joy” in each national language for students to familiarize with the lyrics before the “Singing event” where the choir, consisting of all partner students, was another symbol of cooperation and unity. The four presentations of “Our City and the Sea” have brought closer our differences but also similarities and the travel brochures “Sense Agios Nikolaos, Barcelos, Gdynia and Tarragona” have awakened the desire to discover a city from a different point of view, the human senses. Moreover, the completion of all these short and long-term tasks has led to the creation of “The Board Game: Sense your Cities” “which is a round-up of what all participants have learnt during the project's lifetime. Through senses and surprise cards, students move around a board remembering what they have experienced and sharing the cultural heritage of four European cities. To evaluate the right implementation of the different stages of the project, regular assessment has been carried out. Online questionnaires, charts, personal interviews, performance observation, and final output have been the means used to guarantee the accomplishment of all our main objectives. The participants in the project were 122 pupils aged between 13-15 who represented the working teams from each school, 24 of whom took part in each face-to-face short-term exchange. These international learning experiences have helped to develop an intercultural awareness, making possible the participation of other students and teachers who were not directly involved in the project, but they also collaborated in the activities organized at each school as part of the process. The four school communities have benefited from the materials produced, which are available online and at the schools to be used at any time. Teachers have swapped good practices and applied those significant to their teaching contexts. Furthermore, teachers have widened their professional network, thus facilitating future cooperation within Europe and the internationalization of the schools. The implementation of this project has also made possible that from now onwards, students, teachers and families are more willing to take part in further international projects. Participants have developed key competences for lifelong learning since all tasks carried out have favoured research, cooperation and autonomy.