The biblical narrative "Noah's Ark" is a rescue operation in which Noah, his family and the land animals flee from the Flood with the self-built Ark, because people had spread all over the world and did not care about the good. God therefore wanted a new beginning. This story serves as a basis and metaphor for our planned project. In many areas our students have realized that they or the generations before them no longer deal well with our earth and environment, which in various ways now affects our students' everyday life. They have realized that these environmental problems know no borders and that they have to collaborate with other students from different countries, exchange in a common language (English) about environmental problems and their solutions in order to avert the threatening danger of Nemesis towards a more environmentally friendly way of life. Therefore, various countries of the European Union and its partner countries (in our case Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Germany and Norway) meet on the Ark at five minutes to twelve, just before it is too late to save the earth. As they head towards a new beginning in a more environmentally friendly world, they will encounter various environmental problems on their journey on the Ark that they will tackle with sustainable solutions. They take these sustainable solution products with them on their Ark and distribute them to their school communities to ensure that the world they are heading for is a more environmentally friendly one. Thus, symbolically, after each visit to a "port" of the partner country, an object is placed on the Ark. The last port will be the joint implementation of a sustainability week involving the whole school community, other surrounding school communities and various local institutions. Our vision is that a sustainability week will in the future draw circles and be carried out in various school communities and cities of the EU.
The biblical story "Noah's Ark" is about a rescue operation in which Noah, his family and the land animals flee from the Flood with the ark they built themselves, because people had spread all over the earth and did not care about good. God therefore wanted a new beginning. This narrative served as the basis and metaphor for our planned project. Our students noticed that in many areas they were no longer taking good care of our earth and environment, which affected their daily lives in various ways. They realized that these environmental problems know no borders and that they had to join forces with others and exchange information in a common language (English) about environmental problems and their solutions in order to avert the threat of nemesis towards a more environmentally friendly way of life. Therefore, different countries of the European Union and partner countries (in our case Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Germany and Norway) arranged to meet on the Ark at five minutes to twelve, that is, just before it is too late to save the Earth. As the project participants headed toward a new beginning in a greener world, they not only encountered various environmental problems on their journey on the Ark, which they combated with sustainable solutions, but also faced a global pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The voyage, originally scheduled for two years, extended by one year to three years, and the crew was not able to physically "anchor" in every port, or sometimes only part of the crew. In these cases, we contacted each other virtually and still tried to face the environmental challenges. In each of the partner countries, we addressed the pre-planned issues: water and alternative water sources, insect depletion, composting, ocean pollution, recycling, and food waste. The students took the sustainable solution products on their ark and spread them throughout the school communities of the partner schools to ensure that the world they were heading towards will be a greener one. At our last meeting, we came together in Germany and looked at the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which revisited the issues we've been working on over the three years. The international crew tried to show in pictures how they dealt with the environmental issues. The final event was an exhibition of our work, which was opened by the mayor of the city of Dormagen. It was an adventurous journey and yet we experienced a lot and were able to take many things with us. We made new friends, gained insights into five different cultures and were able to show ways of solving environmental problems.