Sustainable diets

Project summary

The project "Sustainable diets" had the acronym of SUSDI. Four secondary schools were involved in it: INS Sabadell (Spain, coordinator institution), BG/BRG Biodekgasse Baden (Austria), Gymnazium Jana Chalupku (Slovakia) and Agrupamento de Escolas Trigal de Santa Maria (Portugal). The first activities of the project were carried out as planned in the application form. The European lockdown and the differences adopted in the different countries in relation to school attendance, due to covid-19 pandemic, provoked changes in the calendar and in some activities, but the global objectives of the project were achieved at the end. The most relevant priorities that the project addressed were: (a) "Promoting the acquisition of skills and competences" and (b)"Social and educational value of European cultural heritage. The degree of achievement of the objectives (O) is explained: O1) “To present the topic of healthy diet to secondary students in an innovative way using the methodology of IBSE (Inquiry Based Science Education), with an interdisciplinary STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) approach”. This objective was achieved totally. Students worked on the topic at their schools, in presential international mobilities and at the e-twinning platform specially during the virtual mobility to Slovakia that was established due to the covid situation that made impossible at participants to travel. O2) “To make students aware of the global warming challenge, and that they can be part of the key to solve it”. This second objective was achieved totally. To make students aware of the topic, the activities made were: - Students had to prepare and implement activities to explain to their mates in the international encounters. - At schools, students prepared and implemented the following activities: In Baden (Austria), secondary students explained the topic to primary students. In Brezno (Slovakia), students explained “The garden that teaches” to foreign visiting SUSDI teachers. In Tadim (Portugal) they prepared exhibitions on nutrition and vertical gardens In Sabadell (Spain), students prepared an exhibition at school on Sustainable and healthy dishes and created a video that was watched by all students of 3rd ESO as a part of their lessons on nutrition O3) “To create sustainable diets collaboratively among partners from different countries”. This objective has been achieved at the mobility in Sabadell in January 2020. During the mobility diets were created. Teachers had prepared a continuity of this work for students after the mobility. The lockdown due to covid stopped it, so the number and quality of diets created has been limited. O4) “To make students to implement the solutions created by them in the schools and local environment”. This objective was achieved partially (50%), due to covid pandemic. O 5) “To share the results and outcomes of the project to other stakeholders”. This objective was totally achieved, the results of the project have been shared in Erasmus conferences, in local press, in social media, at local magazines of the schools, all the activities and results are collected at the webpage of the project, https://sites.google.com/ies-sabadell.cat/home/eng, Eight didactic units, with an Inquiry based science education (IBSE) were designed and validated with students and are available in the languages of the team (English, German, Portuguese, Slovak language, Spanish and Catalan). The English version of them has been accepted to be published at the Erasmus European Platform of results (E+PRP). The number of participants of the project was approximately 20,000 persons, including students and their families, teachers and teacher trainers and local producers. 84 students have been granted to travel mobilities abroad in Tadim, Sabadell and Baden; 86 more students were granted to participate in a virtual mobility to Slovakia. 36 grants were for teachers to participate in staff training events. In all mobilities the number of local participants was higher than the participants who travelled. The project had the prevision of four mobilities for students in Austria, Portugal, Spain and Slovakia). Due to the pandemic situation of COVID-19 the project could implement physically three of them (in Austria, Portugal and Spain), and the mobility to Slovakia was changed into a virtual mobility. The experience of preparing and implementing a virtual mobility was very challenging and productive at the same time. It is to note that a higher number of students participated in the virtual mobility in comparison to the real mobility with foreign students. All the results of the project were uploaded at the webpage of it. They were: A) Teaching sequences on nutrition and global warming. Eight sequences were prepared and validated in different languages, as described earlier in this document B) Art productions made by students. C) Students’ presentations on "What I eat and global warming" D) School garden to learn on diet and global warming. School garden was prepared and implemented by Slovak students E) Contacting local producers and companies related to slow food. F) Logo of the project. G) A website of the project. H) Exhibitions at schools. I) SUSDI presented at media and webpages. J) e-twinning projects among partners during and after the project. The teacher-learning activities of the project were part of the participating schools. The methodology used in the classroom was Inquiry guided Science Education (IBSE) strongly recommended by researchers in Science Education. E-twinning platform was used during the project so that students could work collaboratively in specific parts of the project. Results of the project were publicized in local media, as local newspapers, magazines of the schools, and school websites, and social networks as Facebook and twitter of the participating schools. To assess project objectives, indicators of the accomplishment of the objectives and results of the project on time were used. To assess the quality of the project, indicators of the degree of satisfaction of all stakeholders were measured using online questionnaires with google forms. The answers to the questionnaires the activities performed during the project were used as formative assessment to change and to adequate, if necessary, the remaining activities. Results of the assessments were shared among participants and uploaded at the webpage of the project.