The challenges of internationalization, of European citizenship, and the effects of the great recession and economic Crisis on Southern and Eastern Europe, have encouraged a group of four highly concerned and motivated schools to offer to as many students as possible the chance to achieve integrated skills and competences in Science, Business and European Cultural Heritage that could allow them to move freely and fully aware within a changing and challenging international labour market. “Natural Soap Scientists. From Production to Business” aims at imagining a more ecological future by developing a vision and turning a crucial issue, such as the disposal of used cooking oil, into action and change, creating and selling “eco-soaps” through chemical laboratory work and business web planning, in the specific South-Eastern European context where the tradition of olive trees growing and oil production are deeply rooted. This project will try to achieve four main objectives: the acquisition of transdisciplinary skills, which means to promote pupils' and teachers' efforts, within different disciplines working jointly, to develop new competences; fostering and increasing laboratory activities in education in order to promote active participation and autonomy in learning, thus encouraging motivation and inclusion; promoting scientific education and increasing scientific literacy by addressing at the same time sustainability and the improvement of Europe's achievements in Science and Technology. Four schools are involved in this project, which is coordinated by an Italian applicant organization: I.I.S.S. “Tommaso Fiore” Modugno-Grumo, whose mission is to spread scientific culture and entrepreneurship by teaching its students how to improve integrated competences in Science and Business in order to boost the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, and cultural awareness. Liceul Teoretic Nicolae Balcescu Medgidia, from South-East Romania, has as its main goal to provide education for active citizenship and European cooperation, thus its teaching staff encourages student’s mobility, and motivate them to learn a European language and to acquire the necessary skills for a future European career. IES Francisco Ros Giner from South-East Spain: its main concern is to make students aware of the importance of helping people, no matter where they come from, or what religion or ideas they have. 4 GEL Hrakleiou from the Greek island of Crete, pushes its students to access European standards and do experiences in foreign countries; indeed, its involved staff meet high standards with concern to internationalization and commitment to research in the fields of Science and Technology. Project's activities and mobilities will develop through workshops, lessons and seminars dealing with European citizenship and legislation concerning sustainability, chemical laboratory, web business planning and marketing, developing and applying ICT to business and teaching/learning practices, rethinking European Heritage through traditions connected with oil and the Mediterranean scrub. Visits to local “eco-firms”, farm cottages, and museums are also scheduled. In carrying out the project pupils will mainly be encouraged to cooperative-learnig and peer-learning through group works: both during each mobility and through planned sharing activities on Internet platforms. At the very center there will be learners' autonomy and learning to learn competence, through an idea of “laboratory” teaching, where pupils are active participants, learning activities are product-based, being responsible is highly encouraged, theory and practice are integrated. All the activities will be based on clear and well targeted objectives, tasks and assignments that will mainly address scientific literacy, business and market, European culture. Project's results are strictly connected to “Europe 2020 Strategy”, with concern to teaching/learning of an economy based on knowledge and innovation (“smart growth”), the promotion of a greener and more competitive economy (“sustainable growth”) and, in the mid/long run, the encouragement of a high-employment economy which should deliver social and territorial cohesion within the wider European integration process (“inclusive growth”). Finally, possible partnerships with local NGOs beyond the end of the project would benefit local communities through an actual change in practices that affect people's daily lives. Moreover, the project is meant to lead to results beyond formal education by leading to a widening inclusion of pupils in the labour market.
“Natural Soap Scientists. From Production to Business” has helped students from four southern European countries imagine and design a more ecological future by developing a vision and turning the issue of used cooking oil disposal into action and change, creating and promoting “eco-soaps” through activities in chemical labs and business web planning. The whole project and its activities developed in the specific South-Eastern European context where the tradition of olive trees growing and oil production are deeply rooted. A group of four schools from Italy (I.I.S.S. “Tommaso Fiore” Modugno-Grumo – coordinating school), Greece (4 GEL Hrakleiou), Romania (Liceul Teoretic Nicolae Balcescu Medgidia) and Spain (IES Francisco Ros Giner) has offered to as many students as possible the chance to achieve integrated skills and competences in Science, Business and European Cultural Heritage that is allowing them to move freely and fully aware within a changing and challenging international labour market within the European Union and beyond. This project has actually achieved four main objectives: 1) acquiring transdisciplinary skills, aimed to promote students' and teachers' efforts from different disciplines to work jointly and thus develop new competences; 2) fostering and increasing laboratory activities in education in order to promote active participation and autonomy in learning, thus encouraging motivation and inclusion; 3) promoting scientific education and increasing scientific literacy by addressing at the same time sustainability and the improvement of Europe's achievements in Science and Technology. The Italian school shared its mission that is to spread scientific culture and entrepreneurship by teaching students how to improve integrated competences in Science and Business in order to boost the entrepreneurship, and cultural awareness. The Romanian institution shared its main goal that is to provide education for active citizenship and European cooperation, by encouraging students’ mobility, and motivate them to learn a European language and to acquire the necessary skills for a future European career. The Spanish partner school shared its main concern that is to make students aware of the importance of helping people within a wider community, despite their individual identities. Finally, the Greek school made available its teaching staff who meet high standards with concern to internationalization and research in the fields of Science and Technology. From project application to its implementation, moving within a general context of economic fragility, the four partner institutions have been focusing on education and sharing processes in order to move beyond that fragility. In 2020, Covid-19 emergency raised new and even more harsh challenges. And in the end, precisely that strong commitment to Science (particularly Chemistry) and Technology (particularly ICT) helped the entire project to go on through the pandemic crisis with hope and optimism. Project activities started and revolved around the saponification process in Chemistry laboratories and continued through several workshops dealing with implementing Europe 2020 strategy and UN 2030 Agenda (climate change and energy targets) in the field of education, recycling and reusing; understanding local legislations and social behaviour towards used oil disposal; developing an economy based on eco-tourism; making posters, brochures, props, and on packaging; discovering and promoting different local cultures in the Mediterranean area. Students could also attend specifically designed lessons on how to create eco-firms, on marketing soaps and beauty products developed at a local level with local resources, and on oil traditions in European literature and cultural heritage. During planned mobilities, students and staff had the chance to visit eco-firms, museums, and farm cottages, and finally relevant European heritage sites in south-east Italy, south-east Spain, east Romania and the island of Crete. Students’ activities took place during the mobilities and before and after them. Moreover, due to Covid-19 emergency, an additional Staff mobility was added in order to have the involved staff meeting to face project’s closures and deadlines. While one student mobility in Greece was actually cancelled and replaced by a highly participated online mobility, hosted by the Greek school. Project's results were connected to “Europe 2020 Strategy”, with concern to teaching/learning of a new economy based on knowledge and innovation (“smart growth”), the promotion of a greener economy based on reuse and use of local resources (“sustainable growth”) and in the longer term, the encouragement of a high-employment economy which should deliver social and territorial cohesion within the wider European integration process (“inclusive growth”). With concern to the longer-term results, the four partners have been working all along the whole project in order to involve their local and national communities in increasing awareness about themes such as the vegetable oil waste (traditionally very common in the four countries involved). All schools started to work on specific agreements with their local authorities in order to both make them aware about sustainability policies and get the opportunity to place used oil bins in their schools in the safest possible ways. Moreover, all partners presented packaged soaps and related products in local fairs both promoting Erasmus+ activities and a strong engagement in environmental issues. In the current school year (2021-2022), all partners are using or planning to use the results of the project or continue to implement some of the activities after the project's end, through learning/teaching schemes which promote territories and local and national heritage by using audio-visual communication and visual cultural practices; which promote scientific culture by reshaping local and national syllabuses of several disciplines (either concerning Science or Humanities); which use social media to communicate results at a European level in order to share and learn best practices in everyday learning and teaching activities.