This project consists of schools realizing primary education. We met on e-Twinning and share the desire to initiate, organize and anchor an Erasmus project into our schools´ curriculum which addresses the issues of wildlife preservation with the aim of educating and promoting good environmental practices at our schools and local communities. Our schools come from diverse cultural backgrounds and geographic areas which we plan to visit and explore during this project. Our project plans on educating our pupils about their own and other partners´ local wildlife, their regional ecosystems and the problems and issues facing their regions with the resolve of finding feasible ways of protecting the wildlife. It is our aim that our pupils develop good environmental practices which will make them responsible citizens who appreciate, respect and take an active role in preserving the wildlife in their local region and Europe. Parallel to this our project also strongly aims at improving and developing several skills of our pupils´ English language as well as digital competencies by integrating both skills into the core activities of the project. The students will be immersed in the English language through bilingual teaching , constant contact with partner students via internet and regular multiliteral visits, and they will be using a wide range of web tools such as e-Twinning, you-Tube, Google Docs, Blog, Google Docs , and Padlet. During the two-year project the students will be engaged in a variety of product-orientated activities using both formal and informal teaching methods such as Project Based Learning and SOLE(self orginized learning environment). This project wil have a huge impact on many of our students´ lives. Many of them come from economically disadvantaged areas and this project will give them the rare opportunity to visit and learn about other countries , spend time with foreign families and make lasting friends. At the same time it will also motivate them to continue learning English by giving them the chance to learn and practise it in many informal and unique situations. We hope that this project raises the awareness of each school to the issues facing the wildlife in their local area, and that it initiates and anchors projects at each school focusing on them. We also hope that the students in our project continue doing the good wildlife practices they write about in their Guide and take an interest in keeping the Erasmus project alive at their schools.
The five schools realizing general primary education were involved in this two year project, and the partnership and the desire to initiate, organize and anchor an Erasmus project into our schools´ curriculum with the issues of wildlife preservation with the aim of educating and promoting good environmental practices at our schools and local communities were established on e-Twinning platform. As the schools came from diverse cultural backgrounds and geographic areas included in planned visits to explore local wildlife and local cultural and traditional inheritances; therefore this increased the visibility and experience of diversity for included participants of this project. Which also resonated successfully with the main project plan – to educating our students about their own and other partners´ local wildlife, their regional ecosystems and the problems and issues facing their regions with the resolve of finding feasible ways of protecting the wildlife. It was our aim at the beginning of this project that our pupils develop good environmental practices which would make them responsible citizens who appreciate, respect and take an active role in preserving the wildlife in their local region and Europe. Since the beginning of this project, in the Autumn 2018 till the autumn 2020, students leaded by their teachers, have learnt and established their awareness on topic such as: ,, Fish and Footprints’’ in Finland; ,,Bees and other insects’’ in Portugal; ,,Nature is getting ready for winter’’ in Poland; ,,Herbs for well-being’’ in Turkey and ,,Nature trails and Nature and we’’ in Latvia. Included short-term exchanges of groups of students served as possibility for students to know the uniqueness of the local nature in each country. Also great teaching-learning materials have been collected to be used in future educational work in each school. Should be noted, that also academic study has been done within this project to demonstrate the role of the Project Based Learning and Outdoor Activities as a method in the process of promoting knowledge for students, presented at University of Latvia. Teachers should be particularly praised whose energy and enthusiasm serves as a great example for students. It should be noted, in particular, that the final activities of the project were organised in a new unprecedented format, using internet and virtual capabilities. Thus demonstrating and proving that nowadays students and their teachers the same as Erasmus, as a programme, are very flexibly capable of adapting to the current situation, giving hope and inspiration for further work. As the OUTDOOR EDUCATION, using both formal and informal teaching methods such as Project Based Learning and SOLE (self organized learning environment) approach, served as great methodological sample and rise students’ willingness to participate and conduct actively; thus creating confidence and strong belief that groups of our students, will continue to implement the project idea, and rise of good environmental practices will make them as responsible citizens who appreciate, respect and take an active role in preserving the nature in their local regions and in Europe as whole.