The project “Local Treasures in European Context – LTEC” – aims to bring together 5 schools from remote areas, either small urban or rural ones, in an attempt to have their students and teachers work on discovering, researching, documenting, presenting and promoting local treasures in the wider European context of commonly shared heritage. There are 4 main areas put under scrutiny: Historical Treasures, Natural Treasures, Arts and Crafts, and Traditions and Local Cuisine, for each of which each participating school will investigate, document, research, present and promote 3 to 5 different realities, which will all then be taken to another level, linked, compared, contrasted and merged within the larger European context. Inter and trans-disciplinary approaches to learning will be developed, together with team work and autonomous learning, while key competences in the areas of learning to learn, communication, certain basic literacy, digital and entrepreneurial skill development will be focused upon mainly, but not only. Research and documentation will involve, besides the partner school, other local organizations that will aid the process, while presentation and promotion will cover various formats, from flyers to brochures, and from photography to documentaries. Cross-examination of findings, products and research results will also occur, both internationally and versus younger control groups, in order to ensure viability and increase impact. Ultimately it is hoped that this project will also contribute to boosting local pride, the sense of belonging, increase local potential of attracting business development, thus offering the young participants incentives to think globally and act locally and to envisage future opportunities that will eventually put their locations on the larger European Map.
The project “Local Treasures in European Context – LTEC” – which initially aimed to bring together 5 schools from remote areas, either small urban or rural ones, in an attempt to have their students and teachers work on discovering, researching, documenting, presenting and promoting local treasures in the wider European context of commonly shared heritage, finally worked with 4 partners from the areas described, namely with partner schools from Romania, Poland, Italy and Turkey. There were 4 main areas put under scrutiny: Historical Treasures, Natural Treasures, Arts and Crafts, and Traditions and Local Cuisine, for each of which each participating school investigated, documented, researched, presented and promoted many different realities, which each was taken to another level, linked, compared, contrasted and merged within the larger European context. Inter and trans-disciplinary approaches to learning were thus developed, together with team work and autonomous learning, while key competences in the areas of learning to learn, communication, certain basic literacy, digital and entrepreneurial skill got under focus. Research and minute documentation was involved, while presentation and promotion of the found realities under each topic covered various formats, from flyers to brochures, and from photography to documentaries. Cross-examination of findings, products and research results also occurred, both at international levels and with various control groups in order to ensure viability and increase impact. The numerous local treasures that the project presented to direct and indirect beneficiaries, to stakeholders and to the general public helped the involved smaller and larger communities to connect and find common grounds, aided a deeper understanding of the inherent common cultural background and put existing differences in a light that promoted cooperation throughout the project developments. Last but not least this project also contributed to boosting local pride and the sense of belonging, increased local potential of attracting business development, and offered the young participants incentives to think globally and act locally, and to envisage future opportunities that will eventually put their locations on the larger European Map.