The project "Europa Naturally! Forest and Sea - Diversity and Responsibility" originates in the identification of the participating schools with their immediate environment. The KGS Waldschule Schwanewede owes its name to the neighbouring forest, and the Collège Gran Man Difou in Maripasoula is located in the midst of the rainforest. In French Guiana, the forest and sea ecosystems are inseparably linked by the mangroves, while northern Lower Saxony is characterised by its proximity to the North Sea. Both the forests and the sea are severely threatened by human activity in both countries. So it is in the interest of both school communities to get involved in a European project that focuses on forests and the sea and that aims to protect these ecosystems. Our main goal is to motivate our students to become committed activists in environmental and climate protection. This project also strengthens the European sense of community, promotes critical thinking in the European context and opens up realistic perspectives for action in Europe. We support students in the development of key competences such as communication techniques, methodological competences such as research methods and presentation techniques as well as scientific research methods. In international teamwork, foreign language skills are applied and expanded, openness and tolerance are practised and the European awareness of all participants is promoted. A total of 27-28 students from Schwanewede and Maripasouola will take part in the project. The origin of these children could not be more diverse in terms of cultures, mother tongues, religions, family and financial backgrounds as well as educational opportunities. With this project we want to overcome all disadvantages and open up future perspectives for young people in Europe. The students learn that children from insignificant Schwanewede, remote Maripasoula or even from an isolated village Haut Maroni can make their voices be heard as EU citizens who are committed to environmental protection in Europe. Methodically we give the SuS the opportunity to learn scientific work in theory and practice and to understand scientific contexts, e.g. the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea as a common ecosystem, the special importance of mangrove forests for the CO2 cycle and the uniqueness of the North German Wadden Sea. The students know that forests are the lungs of our earth and compare the biodiversity of the tropical rainforest with that of the European mixed forest. They understand the significance of the rainforest for our climate and can judge the dangers of deforestation and extinction of animal species. As our students are still very young, this work is largely action-oriented. The students visit places where nature is endangered as well as places where nature and species protection is successfully practised or where people even live in complete harmony with nature. They collect information and material for an exhibition and conduct interviews on Europe and environmental protection with the people they meet. The students recognize the need to preserve nature and to protect it from further destruction by humans. Joint action is initiated on the basis of a pan-European sense of responsibility. The students develop ideas for spreading information, for active environmental and species protection and for sustainability. In addition, they get in touch with NGOs such as Greenpeace, BUND and NABU in order to find out about campaigns for environmental, species and climate protection they may participate in. These joint actions promote democratic action and active EU citizenship. The students turn a motivation film for student exchanges, design an information leaflet about the project and develop an exhibition on European bio-diversity in the forest and the sea for Climate Day 2021 in Schwanewede / the <<Sciences Festival>> in Maripasoula. The evaluation of the internationally conducted interviews (see above) leads to a presentation of the results on Europe Day 2021. The students finally initiate a campaign on environmental and climate protection at both schools. We want to strengthen the European and the environmental profile of both schools by integrating the project's topics into the school's internal curricula of the above-mentioned subjects and thus into everyday teaching. This also corresponds to the efforts to anchor the "17 goals for sustainable development" in schools. With our participating students we expect not only an increase in scientific and political understanding as well as an increased interest in natural sciences, European politics and foreign language learning, but after the experience of international teamwork in a meaningful project, we also expect a strong personal development, more self-confidence and an increased willingness to stand up for their goals in Europe and to act as responsible citizens.
The project "Europa Naturally! Forest and Sea - Diversity and Responsibility" originates in the identification of the participating schools with their immediate environment. The KGS Waldschule Schwanewede owes its name to the neighboring forest, and the Collège Gran Man Difou in Maripasoula is located in the midst of the rainforest. In French Guiana, the forest and sea ecosystems are inseparably linked by the mangroves, while northern Lower Saxony is characterized by its proximity to the North Sea. Both the forests and the sea are severely threatened by human activity in both countries. So it is in the interest of both school communities to get involved in a European project that focuses on forests and the sea and that aims to protect these ecosystems. We have achieved our main goal of motivating the pupils to become committed activists in environmental and climate protection. In addition, the European sense of community has been strengthened, critical thinking in the European context promoted and realistic perspectives for action in Europe opened up. The students have developed key competencies (e.g. communication techniques) and methodological competencies (e.g. research methods) as well as presentation techniques and scientific research methods. During the international teamwork, foreign language skills have been applied and expanded, intercultural learning promoted and the European awareness of all participants strengthened. Finally, about three times as many pupils as originally planned benefited from the project, namely about 85 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19. About half of them were involved regularly and on a long-term basis and 50% only took part in a single activity (e.g. excursion, presentation). The background of these children could not be more diverse in terms of cultures, mother tongues, religions, family and financial backgrounds, and educational opportunities. With this project, we wanted to overcome all disadvantages and open up future prospects in Europe for the pupils. Unfortunately, the planned horizon-expanding mobilities could not be carried out due to Corona restrictions. Nevertheless, the students learned how they can actively promote environmental protection in Europe. The students were first introduced to scientific methods and learned to understand scientific contexts, e.g. the Atlantic and the North Sea as a common ecosystem, the special importance of mangrove forests for the CO2 cycle, and the uniqueness of the North German Wadden Sea. Unfortunately, a large part of the planned hands-on practical learning experience was omitted because most of the excursions had to be canceled. Nevertheless, the pupils now understand why oceans and forests are the lungs of our earth and they have compared the biodiversity of the tropical rainforest with that of the European mixed forest. They recognize the importance of the rainforest for our climate, can classify the dangers of deforestation and the extinction of animal species, and are committed to preserving nature and protecting it from further destruction by humans. Both in the afternoon club and in class, joint action was initiated based on a pan-European sense of responsibility. The pupils have developed creative ideas for sharing digital information (cf. Padlet and journal). We cooperated with a forest educator, the Climate Museum in Bremerhaven, the Botanika Bremen, the Visitor Centre Cuxhaven, and the Centre for Maritime Tropical Research in Bremen and were informed about measures of environmental, species, and climate protection. Both Climate Day and Europe Day in Schwanewede and the <<Fête des Sciences>> in Maripasoula were made up for on a smaller scale after the lockdown in accordance with the current regulations. Besides the appreciation of the various presentations and films, the evaluation of the international digital survey on Europe was presented. Despite the painful reduction of our joint activities, democratic action and active EU citizenship could thus be promoted. The tree planting action initiated by the SuS had to be postponed several times due to contact restrictions and will take place after the end of the project in early summer 2022. Despite all adversities, both the European and the environmental profile of our schools have been sustainably strengthened because the topics of the project have found their way into the schools’ curricula via teachers’ conferences and thus into everyday teaching. This corresponds to our efforts to implement the "17 Sustainable Development Goals" in the schools’ curricula. The participating pupils have not only shown a growing interest in sciences, European politics, and foreign language learning, but also an impressive personal development with increased frustration tolerance, self-confidence, and willingness to stand up for their goals in Europe and to act as responsible citizens.