"Flip the switch" - the title uses a figure of speech to illustrate the effect the project is meant to have on the participating pupils and teachers. According to the physical definition, the use of energy means a form of work that is performed on bodies through movement, heat, light or a chemical reaction. In modern life, we use energy from many sources in many different ways every day - oil or gas is used as a fuel for the transport of people and goods or for the heating of our homes. Secondary energy like electricity produced by combustion of fossil fuels, nuclear fission or the abundantly available and environmentally friendly natural energy sources, is indispensable in the industry for production machines as well as in our homes for domestic appliances. A blackout, like it has occurred in spectacular ways in almost every part of the world, impressively shows how much we depend on the accustomed use of energy. The unconsidered, sometimes even irresponsible use of energy which can often be observed was the starting point of our project. Participants should learn about the history of the generation and use of energy, starting in the past and moving on to the methods and procedures practiced today, they should find out the consequences of their actions on the environment and learn about the opportunities for individuals to influence the development by their behavior and reduce their ecological footprint. At the end of the project, students should be able to change their thinking, to "flip the switch" and make their own responsible choices regarding the sustainable use of energy based on the knowledge they have gained. On the one hand, working with partners from other countries on a common subject proves that the use of energy and resources is a topic of global relevance, equally important and urgent to all nations. On the other hand, the examination of different forms of energy available or used in the partner countries or the measures taken there to tackle pollution and climate change also shows that we cannot assume the same conditions everywhere in the world, not even within Europe, and that we consequently will not necessarily make the same choices in energy policy. Last but not least, international cooperation is meant to increase the students' and teachers' intercultural competences, their ability to work in a team, their willingness to cooperate, the ability to approach other cultures and ways of working with interest, tolerance and acceptance.The development of the students' IT competences and the improvement of language skills through communication in English or French with other language partners are welcome synergy effects. The students (aged 14 -18 years) involved in the project will work on individually chosen aspects of the topic and will either deliver their results in various forms of presentation in plenary on the occasion of their trips to the partner schools, make surveys and evaluate them or collect the texts, pictures, diagrams in an e-book on Twin Spaces which is accessible for all project groups. An integral part of the project will be excursions to power plants, open pit mines, wind farms or solar plants. The inclusion of outside-school learning venues and cooperation partners such as museums, electricity suppliers or energy plants is necessary to give the students an insight into the reality of energy production, which cannot be adequately conveyed in school. The results will explain the dangers, efficiency and environmental compatibility of energy sources, suggest reasonable and practicable measures for a responsible use of energy for everyone and scrutinize energy policies on a national and international level. They will be visible on the homepages of the schools during the course of the project and will also be collected in the e-book on Twin Spaces, which will also be available in printed form for further use in class after the end of the project. Furthermore in the interest of regional dissemination all partners will organize a final exhibition in the premises of the schools which the local press will be invited to (texts, films/videos, slide shows, models, cartoons, diagrams, posters...).
"Flip the switch" - the title uses a figure of speech to illustrate the effect the project is meant to have on the participating pupils and teachers. In modern life, we use energy from many sources in many different ways every day - oil or gas is used as a fuel for the transport of people and goods or for the heating of our homes. Secondary energy like electricity produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, nuclear fission or the abundantly available and environmentally friendly natural energy sources, is indispensable in the industry for production machines as well as in our homes for domestic appliances. A blackout, like it has occurred in spectacular ways in almost every part of the world, impressively shows how much we depend on the habitual use of energy. This unconsidered, sometimes even irresponsible use of energy which can often be observed today was the starting point of our project. The participants should learn about the history of energy generation and use, starting in the past and moving on to the methods and procedures practiced today, they should find out the consequences of their actions on the environment and learn about the opportunities for individuals to influence the development by their behavior and reduce their ecological footprint. At the end of the project, students should be able to change their thinking, to "flip the switch" and make their own responsible choices regarding the sustainable use of energy based on the knowledge they have gained. The project was planned as a multinational partnership, because the issues it deals with are topics of global relevance and the change from an affluent society to a zero-waste lifestyle must be made worldwide. For centuries the thinking of industrial societies was exclusively determined by profit maximization, but since the later 20th century reports on environmental pollution and advancing climate change have started to generate a social and political awareness of the problem, which was expressed in the joint resolutions of all countries of the world at the 2015 climate summit in Paris. Because of the recent global natural disasters and the Fridays for Future movement, students today are open to the topic, they understand how important the availability of fertile soil, clean air and potable water is for their future. Even if - due to the pandemic - the desired international cooperation between schools has only been achieved to a limited extent and was mainly digital, the participating students aged 15-19 have accomplished many of their goals. They expanded their knowledge about the availiability and generation of energy from different sources and the resulting negative effects on our climate and human health and they understood how this is related to our consumption, for example in meat production or food miles, in our mobility and vacation trips, in the field of information and entertainment technology. They looked at national, European and international laws for environmental protection. Working in small groups, they demonstrated their ability to work as a team and met their partners openly, with tolerance and acceptance, with interest and the willingness to learn. They improved their foreign language skills in research, in the elaboration of results and in communication and developed their IT skills by conducting and evaluating surveys electronically, discussing their findings in video conferences, presenting results in the form of diagrams, ppt presentations, flyers and posters, short films, interactive maps or quiz games. Due to the contact restrictions after February 2020, many activities that require personal contact with other people or institutions could not be carried out on schedule, meaning that most of the excursions to extracurricular learning locations such as power plants, wind or solar systems could not take place. Furthermore the visit of museums, electricity suppliers and other cooperation partners had to be dropped, interviews in which students should ask people around them about their energy consumption could not be done. The trips to the project partner and thus intercultural learning experiences which a stay in the partner country would have involved were also omitted. The planned exhibition of results at the end of the project, which other school classes of the town/region and the press would have been invited to attend, as well as parents and other interested persons, had to be dropped and replaced by a presentation of the results in the form of a padlet which is now available to the school community via a link on the school homepage, to other European schools on the Erasmus Project Results Platform.