All five (5) partners have decided to write the project concerning the protection of the environment emphasizing the use of renewable energy as the problem needs constant attention and urgent solution. Ecology is not a very popular topic among the young , so it should be introduced in an attractive and practical way. The project's aims include: -making students aware of the importance of using alternative sources of energy -encouraging students to improve their English and ITC skills -promoting an ecological life as a strategy for being ecological and healthy, thus leading a lifelong ecological lifestyle -imposing a long-term policy of schools in dealing with the problem of overusing electricity and neglecting environmental matters -supporting social inclusion and prevention of discrimination -developing knowledge among students and teachers of the diversity of European cultures thus promoting respect and tolerance for other nations NUMBER AND PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTS Students/teenagers: each exchange involves the participation of 5 students per country who will participate directly in the exchanges. These students will be selected prior to each mobility, according to transparent criteria which will involve command of English, ICT skills, voluntary work, involvement in the school-based activities and motivation. Teachers/Adults: there will be teams of 7 teachers at each partner organisation so 35 in total who will manage the project implementation. Each of them will be assigned clear tasks from the beginning ranging from linguistic to technical fields. Based on the importance and relevance of their contribution before each exchange the 2 participating teachers will be selected from this team. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES -During the exchanges, students will join classes in the morning and, in the afternoons, they will work towards the achievement of specific goals within each activity: -C1 in turkey at the beginning to have seminar from academic expert and to from EU project expert. -C2 in Portugal where the project teams will join the workshops about different kinds of renewable energy – there will be a meeting with an expert who will show the types of energy and present the advantages of such an ecological solution; other workshops will include students’ work based on previous findings made as a result of visits to local authorities offices (the Ecology Department), they will make posters about renewable energy, there will be some quizzes, etc. The final product will be an e-book regarding the main topic of the meeting. -C3 in Hungary in which the activities will be organized in a forum presented by the students that will include sub-topics such as - What do local authorities do to provide inhabitants with renewable energy?/ Why should we use it? / Effects on health and the nature/ The statistical data of applying renewable energy in our regions. The final product will consist in an online magazine containing all the results produced during the meeting. -C4 in Bulgaria . The students will put together the information and statistical data collected and create another e-book with a set of practical advices on how to deal with the most serious ecological problems and the likely consequences if no measure is undertaken. -C5 in Italy where participants will run workshops after which an online magazine will be produced emphasizing practices to be easily done in everyday life to protect the environment – it will be a summary of the all previous meetings. Apart from workshops, we are planning to organize visits to a recycling plant, local ecological farms and plants producing renewable energy appliances. METHODOLOGY -We have divided our topic into several sub-topics which will constitute the theme of each meeting and exchange envisaged in the project. During LTTAs, students will be at the centre of all the activities, as we believe that by involving them directly and supervising their work, the project will surely have a stronger impact on them. RESULTS AND IMPACTS We have assumed the publication of 5 intermediate products which will result from the activities performed during the exchanges. All these will be made available to larger audiences on the project website and through all the dissemination activities included in the dissemination plan. Therefore, we hope that there will be a positive, measurable impact at the level of participants (with a clear increasing in awareness of ecological problems among the target group members), of the local school communities and wider communities, at the level of the institutions involved and other related institutions, at local, regional, national and international levels. Investigating through different approaches, the project will identify and implement innovative strategies for a proper energy use, able to originate the production of new participatory and inclusive contents as well as new fruition opportunities.
All the five partners have jointly implemented the project's activities fulfilling its main aim about the protection of the environment and have emphasized the use of renewable energies through the production of further outcomes which actually can be considered as tangible outputs, thus overcoming the original plan. As a matter of fact, beside the foreseen outcomes, each partner during the extension time, forced by Covid's advent, has succeeded in producing a further original final product which has been shared during the last virtual exchange, thus making Ecology topic a real interesting, attractive and practical theme among both students and teachers. The project's aims included and fulfilled the following aims: -making students aware of the importance of using alternative sources of energy; -encouraging students to improve their English and ITC skills; -promoting an ecological life as a strategy for being ecological and healthy, thus leading a lifelong ecological lifestyle; -imposing a long-term policy in partners' schools and families in dealing with the problem of overusing electricity and neglecting environmental matters; -supporting social inclusion and preventing discrimination; -developing knowledge among students and teachers of the diversity of European cultures thus promoting respect and tolerance for other nations. The advent of Covid was faced with a more responsible attitude, since the same students advocated the creation of a forum in etwinning where they shared their points of views about its consequences on the environment, thus enlarging the former aims. Each exchange foresaw the participation of 5 students per country chosen according to transparent criteria which implied command of English, ICT skills, voluntary work, involvement in the school-based activities and motivation. Before each mobility, all topics have been previously dealt with in entire classes, giving priority to the inclusion of all the likely participants, thus comprising a greater number of effective participants. Even adults profited of the partnership because they themselves had the opportunity to deepen both their linguistic and technical skills and obviously they became more conscious about the environmental issues and developed new strategies on how to convey and deal this concern among the students in a more factive way. During all the four meetings in presence external experts have illustrated technical aspects related to the subtopics involving students in relevant workshops. Moreover the host schools have organized visits at local renewable energy plants after which students have collected all their presentations in online magazines or e-books according to the specific meeting topics: -C1 in Turkey: Requirements for a sustainable life -C2 in Portugal: Different kinds of renewable energy -C3 in Hungary: Advantages of Renewable Energies and the ways to apply them at home -C4 in Bulgaria: How to cope with the most threating environmental issues. -C6 virtually hosted by Italy since C5 had been canceled because of the pandemic. During this meeting participants have shared their productions on "How can we protect the environment- identifying factive measures" and "Eu regulations on environmental issues" During the project's lifetime, students have also built a brochure on the partnership, a thematic calendar for each year, a collection of essays on the future sustainable cities, a video-simulation of a future sustainable environment, an international sustainable menu and each country has effectively created specific further outcomes: Turkey: a solar powerbank Portugal: a solar oven Hungary: a school solar panel Bulgaria: a method to save energy while cooking Italy: an authonomous smart irrigation system All the products are available to larger audiences on the project website: https://ruigonca.wixsite.com/letsuseenergy, on the project's twinspace: https://twinspace.etwinning.net/84147/home, on facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/2671979326221663. There has already been a positive, measurable impact at the level of participants shown by the increase in tolerance and respect for each other, improvement in ICT, in English, in organizational, teamwork and leadership skills. The results, measured through quantitative and qualitative indicators, through Europass certificates and final products, pointed out a general increasing in awareness of ecological problems among the target group members, the local schools and wider communities, at the level of the institutions involved at local, regional, national and international levels, which has been proven by the website views and during the Erasmus Days and we, as a partnership, really believe this project will also in future have positive implications through the adoption of a new energy sustainable attitude in all the involved contexts and the use of the resources for both curricular and extra-curricular activities, even for future projects.