The project is established on the cooperation of three agricultural high schools from the Czech Republic, Spain and Austria. The theme of the project is organic farming in partner countries. The aim of the project is to provide pupils and teachers from the Czech Republic, Spain and Austria with new knowledge and experience in the field of organic farming in the countries of individual participants. Throughout the project, schools will work closely with organic farms in their region. Farmers from these farms will familiarize students with the principles of organic farming, they will show them how they run their farms. Pupils from each partner school will create presentations about their country, school, methods used in organic farming in their country, and about organic farms in their region. Pupils will learn all necessary information for these presentations during excursions and practices on organic farms, during discussions with organic farmers and also from their teachers. These presentations will be sent to their foreign partners who will learn about these issues. This will be followed by educational activities, where pupils and teachers from partner countries will come to the host country and will deepen their knowledge during excursions and practical activities on various organic farms. This process will take place in the schools of all three partners. Each partner country will bring different organic farming sectors into the project. The Czech Republic will focus on organic farms engaged in meat and dairy cattle breeds and on goat milk products. The Spanish partner will bring to the project the knowledge of organic fruit, vegetable, olive oil and fertilizer production. The Austrian school will introduce an organic family dairy farm, a sheep breeding farm which also produces trees and does forestation in Alpine areas, and a brewery using organic barley grown by local farmers. The selection of cooperating farms was aimed at giving participants the opportunity to get to know the widest range of organic farming sectors, to see them work in practice, and to practice many activities themselves in practice. By implementing the project in international cooperation, partners will be able to share good experiences with organic farming in each country, better understand the benefits and importance of organic farming, and also learn from possible failures in other countries. During the whole project period, virtual activities will take place among pupils of partner schools, where pupils will communicate with each other via social networks, emails or Skype. The entire project will be conducted in English, so pupils and teachers will improve their language skills and learn to use vocabulary related to agriculture.
Our goal was to provide students and teachers with knowledge of the farming while respecting the principles of an ethical approach to animals, environmental protection, saving renewable resources, maintaining employment in agriculture and in the countryside, and maintaining the diversity of plant and animal species. We wanted teachers and students to share good experiences with organic farming in countries of the partners and better understand its benefits, importance and the need for support. At the same time, we wanted to strengthen the teaching of organic agriculture in all partner schools and to improve and expand cooperation with social partners involved in organic agriculture. Last but not least, we also aimed at improving the ability to communicate in foreign languages.
The project was based on the needs of all three partner schools to improve the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of their pupils in the field of organic farming, to advance the practical experience of teachers in the area of modern trends in organic farming and to improve the ability of pupils and teachers to communicate in foreign languages.