In times in which conservative voices within and outside various European parliaments integrate nationalisms appealing to emotions only, it is important to influence the young generation reminding them of human principles. This can be seen as one of the most imortant challenges of the 21th century that must be mastered in a human and effective way. Populism has spread throughout Europe and can be considered as a terrible danger to democracy. It has awoken the desire of protection against the unknown and throughout social strata it has created isolation. The project could be developed for several years joining more and more depth. Students work on the same task for two subsequent years, although the places of cultural interest will change. In every school year there will be a visit to Sicily and to Hamburg and surroundings. Next October 24 German students of the Gymnasium Oldenfelde (GOld) and 18 students of the I.S.I.S. V. Fossombroni in Grosseto (Tuscany) and the Liceo E. Majorana in Piazza Armerina (Sicily) will participate. The number of students will change each year, depending on the number of students who will choose Italian as a foreign language in Hamburg, on the number of students who will choose German in Grosseto and on the number of students that will join us from Piazza Armerina. In the long run, the GOld would like to add Spanish students from a Spanish school together with their German partners to the project. As a consequence we would have three European countries and two different regions of Italy participating. During our first visit to Sicily the students will observe cultural contrasts, they will discover different contexts of life in two European countries, Italy and Germany, and they will understand that it is possible for different cultures to live together peacefully. The students` task will be to create videos as messages of peace showing these contrasts as precious values of society and this way propagate them. Our aim is that the students perceive cultural diversity, creating these messages of peace with the help of their videos and pictures taken on our trips to various places of cultural interest. When the Italian students will come to Hamburg in April 20, they will continue to search for the above mentioned contrasts in exactly the same way, so that the students observe that multiculturalism is possible and that it is an enrichment in Germany, too. In the end the students formulate wishes for a unified and multicultural Europe of the future. Our aim is that feeling European citizens in their hearts, they will continue to get involved and play an active role. The next step is an evaluation among students and teachers of how the project will continue in the following school year. The project of the second year can be considered as being the follow-up project with other students that will experience exactly the same thing with different places of cultural interest in Sicily and Hamburg. Each school year the results of the project will be transferred to the groups of students participating at the project in the next school year. The students will talk about their experience, they will show their protocols, publish the project`s results on the Twinspace with E-twinning and on a web blog. Furthermore, they will present the project to the public on different occasions, e.g. exhibitions. Other not measurable social and intercultural results are: - a heightened awareness (in particular for cultural differences as enrichment of society), - reinforcement of intercultural competences such as tolerance and openness, - improvement of the foreign languages, - training of research and methods, planning of projects, aiming for a goal, cooperation on a project focusing, evaluation. The topic is supposed to create sensibility towards the challenges arising from a Europe in which populism is becoming a dangerous reality. The students become aware that a unified Europe is in danger and that European values such as peace, democracy and human rights cannot be taken for granted anymore. Then, the students understand that they as individuals are responsible for doing something against this tendency and that they need to play an active role. Another aim is a call for peace in a unified Europe and the recreation of a European identity.
In times in which conservative voices within and outside various European parliaments integrate nationalisms appealing to emotions only, it is important to influence the young generation reminding them of human principles. This can be seen as one of the most imortant challenges of the 21th century that must be mastered in a human and effective way. Populism has spread throughout Europe and can be considered as a terrible danger to democracy. It has awoken the desire of protection against the unknown and throughout social strata it has created isolation. The project has been developed for several years going more and more in depth. Students worked on the same task for two subsequent years, although the places of cultural interest had changed. In every school year there was a visit to Sicily and to Hamburg and surroundings. In october 2019, 24 German students of the Gymnasium Oldenfelde (GOld), 18 students of the I.S.I.S. V. Fossombroni in Grosseto (Tuscany) and 8 students of the Liceo E. Majorana in Piazza Armerina (Sicily) participated in the project. The number of students changed in the second year, depending on the number who chose Italian or Spanish as a foreign language in Hamburg, on the number of students who chose German in Grosseto and on the number of students that joined us from Piazza Armerina. In the long run, the GOld would like to add Spanish students from a Spanish school together with their German partners to the project. As a consequence we would have three European countries and two different regions of Italy participating. During our first visit to Sicily the students observed cultural differences, even contrasts in different contexts of life in two European countries, Italy and Germany, and they understood that living together peacefully is possible in „Europe“. The students` task was to create videos as messages of peace showing these differences (contrasts) as precious values of society and this way propagate them. Our aim was that the students perceive cultural diversity as an enrichment, creating messages of peace with their videos showing various places of cultural interest with the people they met there. When the Italian students came to Hamburg in September 2020, they continued to search for the above mentioned differences, contrasts in exactly the same way. The students observed that multiculturalism is possible and that it is an enrichment in Germany, too. In the end the students formulated wishes for a unified and multicultural Europe of the future. Our aim was that feeling European citizens in their hearts, they will continue to get involved in creating peace actively. The next step was an evaluation among students and teachers of how the project would continue in the following school year. The project of the second year can be considered as being the follow-up project with other students that experienced exactly the same thing with different places of cultural interest in Sicily and Hamburg. The results of the project were transferred to the groups of students participating at the project in the following school year. The students talked about their experience, they showed their videos, published the project`s results on the Twinspace with E-twinning and on the homepages of the three schools. Furthermore, they presented the project to the public on different occasions, e.g. exhibitions or the opening day at the school for elementary schools. Not measurable social and intercultural results were - a heightened awareness (in particular for cultural differences as enrichment of society), - reinforcement of intercultural competences such as tolerance and openness, - improvement of the foreign languages, - training of research and methods, planning of projects, aiming for a goal, cooperation on a project focusing, evaluation. The topic was supposed to create sensibility towards the challenges arising from a Europe in which populism is becoming a dangerous reality. The students became aware that a unified Europe is in danger and that European values such as peace, democracy and human rights cannot be taken for granted anymore. As a consequence, the students understood that they as individuals are responsible for doing something against this tendency and that they need to play an active role. Another aim was a call for peace in a unified Europe and the recreation of a European identity.