Do! Learn! Be sustainable!

Project summary

The name of the project is “Do! Learn! Be sustainable!” This project is aimed to help teachers and children from different European countries to keep in touch and motivate them to learn about and understand what sustainable development is, as well as to expand their understanding of the concept. The aim is also to improve their English language skills and ICT skills. Different methods will be used throughout the project. Drama and arts allow the children to express their ideas creatively. Through entrepreneurship education, the learning experiences will expand to include project management and the value of work. Learning by doing helps the students put the theories into practice. Children and teachers come from different parts of Europe: Finland, Italy, France and Spain. Participating schools are all public schools but there are differences between them in the number and age of children.These differences will bring us a rich diversity of ideas. Sustainable development is currently one of the most important challenges in the world. We approach this subject by dividing it into four sections: cultural, ecological, social, and economical sustainability. One section will last one semester, and each partner school will be responsible for coordinating the activities during this section. During these sections the following activities will be: Cultural sustainability: Food path Saving and promoting local and traditional products. Visiting a local farm or food production business and learning how the products are made. Traditional local recipes are chosen and made into a recipe book. Musical path Collecting traditional songs, music and/or dances of their own territory and performing them. Cultural path Saving, preserving and promoting a historic site in the partner school’s own city. Making a presentation and coming up with ideas (submitted to the officials) how to make the site more available for children and families. Literary path Writing a script for a story based on a national epic and performing it in Italy through puppet theater and making the puppets themselves by using recycled materials. Ecological sustainability: Recycling path Learning and coming up with ideas how to improve recycling in their schools. Learning about decreasing the use of plastic etc.and learning about the life cycle of products. Making a questionnaire for the homes to find out how different families recycle their waste and holding a recycling sorting competition in France. Growing path Growing plants and/or food in the school premises and learning about growing one’s own food and environmentally friendly choices. Transportation path Holding a green transportation week or day. Challenging the students, families and the community to use sustainable transportation during that time period. Social sustainability: Team path Gathering ideas for supporting team play and team building in classrooms and forming a material package for the teachers. Discussing about bullying, especially cyber bullying and inviting a police officer to discuss with the students and the teachers. Gathering ideas how to prevent bullying. Fitness path Presenting ideas from each school about how to get more physical activity during the school days, including small changes inside the school days to make the pupils move more. Arranging playful “winter olympics” in Finland with the help of pupils, parents and local businesses or organisations. Cooperation path Being part of a cooperative art display. During the mobility making art together from recycled materials, inspired by sustainable development. The materials used are from the homes and the local businesses. Economic sustainability: Consumption path Visiting local businesses or workshops that deal with economical sustainability and learning about sustainable ways of consumption. Arranging an exchange market where pupils can exchange items and donating the rest to the charity Footprint path Watching a documentary about consumption/carbon footprint. Calculating one’s own carbon footprint, both the students and the families will fill in the questionnaire. Holding discussions about how to consume sustainably Sharing path Taking part in “Solidarity run” in collaboration with UNICEF Conclusion path Concluding the whole project and examining what has been learned about sustainable development by making an artistic presentation for Spain. At the end of the project an Erasmus Day will be organized to present the results of the project, as well as the participants’ experiences, to other teachers, students, parents, the local communities, and the press. The desired impact is to improve the awareness of sustainable development and the ways of living sustainably in everyday life. The future of the planet will one day be in the hands of the generation we are educating. Through internalizing the goals of sustainable development they can make a difference for our own countries, Europe, and the world.