#EUjoy involves five schools: the coordinating school from Piacenza(Italy) and 4 partner schools from Austria, Romania, Spain and Greece which were contacted through Etwinning and chosen because they represent countries whose history and present situation can enrich the overall implementation of the project: young Europeans will be allowed to compare situations, attitudes and feelings towards the same topics in different countries in different geographical areas of Europe and therefore enlarge their perspective . Through an initial survey among students all five schools devised a general lack of interest of pupils in EU issues and agreed that this is often a result of ignorance; for this reason teachers developed this project with the aim to generally enhance their knowledge of the historical motivation for the creation of the European Union, of its political structures and its social functions and duties. Moreover our project aims at raising awareness of European issues as well as to engage young people to become politically and socially active: these objectives will only be achieved through a common work leading to the acquisition of a set of high quality skills. A solid media competence will allow them to understand and interpret various forms of media input and to reorganise information using different digital tools; the use of the English language to fulfil tasks, present works and as general means of communication will improve their language proficiency. Mastering these skills will lead to the improvement of their social, educational and vocational prospects and their civil competence. The project will give a concrete opportunity to future European citizens to develop their critical thinking concerning issues of evident importance for them. 20 participants per school will be selected through a trasnparent and fair process: after a public announcement on schools websites students aged 15-18 will apply to participate and the involved teachers in each school will form a group after analysing applicants' curricula and organising interviews. The project will be divided into five different steps and each step will include a first phase of work on Etwinnning, in which students will work in national groups on a specific tasks and a second phase to be implemented during a learning activity in one of the member schools in which, in addition to the whole hosting team, 5 students and 2 teachers per country will participate. During their mobility students will be hosted by their partners and this will also represent an opportunity for their social and civil development. The 5 foreseen steps are: 1 THE DREAM OF A UNITED EUROPE FROM PAST TO PRESENT 2 FREE CIRCULATION OF PEOPLE: MEETING OTHERS TO EXPERIENCE TOLERANCE AND INTEGRATION 3 - BEING EUROPEAN CITIZENS BETWEEN SENSE OF BELONGING AND URGE TO SEPARATION 4. EU: FOR OR AGAINST? LET'S DEBATE! 5. WE ARE EUROPEAN CITIZENS: OUR HERITAGE FOR THE FUTURE All steps will include a number of activities including searching, selecting, understanding and assembling contents, comparing and discussing ideas, producing, and presenting materials which together the production of final products (informative magazine, public flash mob on the theme of integration, video manifesto pro EU, open debate session, production of works of art, boards game and final ebook) will need the development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences. At the end the target group will have broadened their horizon in a manner that could not have been realized by working autonomously at home, feeling a stronger sense of belonging and a higher motivation in becoming active European citizens. The partners have agreed on a common dissemination plan to share information and results after the participation in all learning activities and therefore create a larger impact at school. The plan includes the spread of information concerning the quality, relevance and effectiveness of the project not only inside the partner schools but also in local communities by organising special dissemination events including public conferences, exhibitions, school open days and publication of articles in local newspapers. The participation in this project will contribute to the development of the involved schools in the long-term, as we all have plans to continue using its results in the years to come: the common website will be maintained and the communication among the partners will be kept alive, the project corner in each school will serve as motivation for other students to join any further projects, all final products board game will be used and hopefully distributed in each school and they might be interesting tools to plan CLIL History, Social Studies or law lessons . For all these reasons at the end of the project we expect an increase in the number of students applying for European projects and showing an overall improvement of cognitive, critical, social, communicative and digital skills.
#EUjoy involved five schools: the coordinating school from Piacenza(Italy) and 4 partner schools from Austria, Romania, Spain and Greece which were contacted through Etwinning and chosen because they represented countries whose history and present situation could enrich the overall implementation of the project: young Europeans were allowed to compare situations, attitudes and feelings towards the same topics in different countries in different geographical areas of Europe and therefore enlarge their perspective . Through an initial survey among students all five schools devised a general lack of interest of pupils in EU issues and agreed that this is often a result of ignorance; for this reason teachers developed this project with the aim to generally enhance their knowledge of the historical motivation for the creation of the European Union, of its political structures and its social functions and duties. Moreover our project aimed at raising awareness of European issues as well as to engage young people to become politically and socially active: these objectives were achieved through a common work leading to the acquisition of a set of high quality skills. The development of solid media competences allowed them to understand and interpret various forms of media input and to reorganize information using different digital tools; the use of the English language to fulfil tasks, present works and as general means of communication improved their language proficiency. Mastering these skills led to the improvement of their social, educational and vocational prospects and their civil competence. The project gave a concrete opportunity to future European citizens to develop their critical thinking concerning issues of evident importance for them. Participants were selected through a transparent and fair process: after a public announcement on schools websites students aged 15-18 applied to participate and the involved teachers in each school formed the national delegations. The project was divided into five different steps and each step included a first phase of work on Etwinnning, in which students worked in national groups on specific tasks and a second phase during a learning activity in one of the member schools. During their mobility students were hosted by their partners and this also represented an opportunity for their social and civil development. The 5 foreseen steps were: 1 THE DREAM OF A UNITED EUROPE FROM PAST TO PRESENT 2 FREE CIRCULATION OF PEOPLE: MEETING OTHERS TO EXPERIENCE TOLERANCE AND INTEGRATION 3 - BEING EUROPEAN CITIZENS BETWEEN SENSE OF BELONGING AND URGE TO SEPARATION 4. EU: FOR OR AGAINST? LET'S DEBATE! 5. WE ARE EUROPEAN CITIZENS: OUR HERITAGE FOR THE FUTURE Many types of activities were realized: searching, selecting, understanding and assembling contents, comparing and discussing ideas, producing and presenting materials, production of products (informative magazine, public flash mob on the theme of integration, video manifesto pro EU, open debate session, production of works of art and ebooks) . To fulfil all these tasks participants developed relevant and high-quality skills and competences. Although some changes had to be made to the initial program due to the Covid-19 pandemic (the Italian team could not join the physical mobility to Romania in February 2020 and the last mobility was a virtual one) the target group broadened their horizon in a manner that could not have been realized by working autonomously at home, feeling a stronger sense of belonging and a higher motivation in becoming active European citizens. The partners agreed on a common dissemination plan to share information and results after the participation in all learning activities. The plan included the spread of information concerning the quality, relevance and effectiveness of the project not only inside the partner schools but also in local communities by organizing special dissemination events such as public conferences, exhibitions, school open days and publication of articles in local newspapers. The participation in this project contributed to the development of the involved schools in the long-term, as thanks to the excellent cooperation among partners new activities will be planned (international debate sessions, further cooperation on Erasmus, use of materials and contents available to plan CLIL History, Social Studies or law lessons in each school).