The acceptance of populist, eurocritical and xenophobic positions and parties has unfortunately increased more and more in recent years in Europe and worldwide. Instead of concentrating on common European values, more and more countries are striving for isolation and national isolation, which completely contradicts the basic idea of the European Union. In order to counteract these tendencies and to make today's generation of pupils more sensitive to the importance of a strong European Union for our present and future, the Hanse Berufskolleg (Lemgo, Germany), the IES Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura, Spain), the Diss High School (Norfolk, England) and the Aristotelio Ekpedeftirio Serron (Serres, Greece) have joined to initiate the project "Europe - Knowing the past, living in the present, creating the future". The participants of the project are 16-20 year old pupils and the accompanying teachers. The aim of the project is that the participants, by dealing with aspects of the European past, recognise how important the European idea and the European Union are for their own present, future and peaceful coexistence. At the same time, they should understand that European cooperation is by no means a modern phenomenon, but a historical consequence. In order to achieve this goal, the following activities will be carried out: 1) The respective host pupils and their supervising teachers conduct an excursion to a selected historical place of learning and derive an aspect of European cultural history that still has socio-political relevance today. In preparation for the transnational meetings, the pupils of the respective countries prepare the information and prepare themselves for the assumption of their expert role for the respective external learning location. 2) During the transnational meetings, the host pupils act as experts, presenting the learning site to their international classmates through digitally supported presentations on the prepared aspect of common European roots. For this purpose, the whole group visits the learning place again. This process will be accompanied by a documentary film. 3) In the context of a second excursion to the respective host country, the participants will be taken to a place where the culturally connecting aspect of the historical place of learning can still be experienced today. This process will also be accompanied by a documentary film. The result of the project will therefore be a European media library of documentary films and digitally supported lectures, which will be published on the respective school homepages and can also be used after the project has been completed in class and at public events of the partner schools (e.g. at the open day). Through the joint development and review of the work results, the pupils also become aware that international cooperation was and is a basic prerequisite for a functioning and tolerant coexistence in the past, present and future of Europe. The long-term benefit of the project is not only that the learning films can be used after the end of the project, but above all that the project will have a positive effect on the attitudes and attitudes of the participants towards the European Union. Participants will not only expand their knowledge of the history of Europe, but will also develop and reflect on their own views on European cohesion. The recognition of how important a strong Europe is for our present and future will not only encourage participants to actively engage in the future of Europe in their school careers (e.g. in European projects and activities offered by partner schools), but will also allow them to reflect on how important social participation (e.g. by participating in European elections) and strengthening the sense of belonging in Europe is for our present and future.
The acceptance of populist, eurocritical and xenophobic positions and parties has unfortunately increased more and more in recent years in Europe and worldwide. Instead of concentrating on common European values, more and more countries are striving for national isolation, which completely contradicts the basic idea of the European Union. In order to counteract these tendencies and to make today's generation of students more sensitive to the importance of a strong European Union for our present and future, Hanse Berufskolleg (Lemgo, Germany), IES Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura, Spain), Diss High School (Norfolk, England) and Aristotelio Ekpedeftirio Serron (Serres, Greece) have joined to initiate the project "Europe - Knowing the past, living in the present, creating the future". The participants of the project are 15-20 year old students and the accompanying teachers. The aim of the project is that the participants, by dealing with aspects of the European past, recognise how important the European idea and the European Union are for their own present, future and a peaceful coexistence. At the same time, they should understand that European cooperation is by no means a modern phenomenon, but a historical consequence. In order to achieve this goal, the following activities will be carried out: 1) The respective host students prepare the transnational meetings by looking for information about selected historical sites in their region that illustrate aspects of European cultural history. In addition to these historical learning sites, non-historical places that have socio-political relevance with regard to the peaceful coexistence of people in the European Union can also be selected. The host students prepare the information about the sites in an interesting way for the international group of students and prepare themselves to take on the expert role for the external learning sites. 2) During the transnational meetings, the whole group visits the external learning sites. The host students act as experts who present the learning site to their international classmates using digitally supported presentations or other forms of presentations. This process is accompanied by camera. The results of the project are the presentations created by the students on the historical and non-historical learning sites that are visited during the transnational meetings. A collection of these presentations will be published on the project homepage. Furthermore, the respective host schools create a video about the project meetings, which presents the activities and experiences made during each meeting. The videos will also be published on the project homepage. A link to the project homepage can be found on the school homepages and the created files will be used in class and at public events of the partner schools (e.g. at the open day) even after the project has ended. Especially the videos are intended to create incentives for future students to join Erasmus+ projects. The aim of the joint development and review of the work results is that the students become aware of the fact that international cooperation was and is a basic prerequisite for a functioning and tolerant coexistence in the past, present and future of Europe. The long-term benefit of the project is not only that the presentations and videos can be used after the end of the project, but above all that the project will have a positive effect on the attitudes of the participants towards the European Union. Participants will not only expand their knowledge of the history of Europe, but will also develop and reflect on their own views on European cohesion. The recognition of how important a strong Europe is for our present and future will not only encourage participants to actively engage in the future of Europe in their school careers (e.g. in European projects and activities offered by partner schools), but will also allow them to reflect on how important social participation (e.g. by participating in European elections) and a strengthening of the sense of belonging in Europe is for our present and future.