To strengthen the student's interests in the field of natural science in the context of an increasing heterogeneity at our school Stadtteilschule Fischbek/Falkenberg, Hamburg and with that the newly evolving challenges in language acquisition (especially in German and English) are the main objective of our "Smart Cities" project. In every European city a speech-sensitive education due to the increasing migration plays a vital role in our everyday school life. In addition, the phenomenon of relatively weak student performances within the MINT-subjects is obvious in Germany's city states. In response to these developments, our school together with our district officials have developed a project with the core topic "Smart Cities", in which the natural habitat in our school forms a green axis with our school's neighbourhood. The outcome of the international project, in which we cooperate with three more European schools, are to be used for future projects at each participating school. Each institution that is involved in this project will have the chance to implement the experiences of the programme within their individual future education programmes in order to ensure sustainable projects. Especially a change in perspective achieved by an international exchange programme strengthens the student's interests in natural science and aims at enhancing student performance (expertise and communicative skills) on a long-term level. At the same time, language acquisition skills will be improved. Within the individual project activities at each participating school, students will be confronted with the various fields of natural science in connection with technical expertise, drama and cultural history. They actively take part in presentations, local excursions and meetings with the local officials as well as companies on the sport. From the collected material and information the students prepare various forms of presentations: media-supported oral presentations, information leaflets, furthermore the create and form mini-drama plays on stage or even create innovative technical products in the field of "Smart Cities" bearing sustainable and ecologically friendly city life in mind. All products of the individual school's project in every participating country will actively be presented to the school community and its district. According to the selection of various activities at each school and diversely applied methods we furthermore aim to ensure a sustainable improvement in social skills such as teamwork, intercultural communication as well as respect and tolerance. Our aims are to connect each school community with its surrounding district with joint events and meetings allowing a context-based language acquisition and exchange; to compare our experiences with lesson models (especially project-based education) from other European schools and exchanging know-how and expertise; and finally we aim at applying the synergies and intercultural experiences that our group of about 18 students (year 8 to 11) and 8 teachers will make abroad in our lesson plans and everyday school life. All of the participating teachers have long-term experiences in teaching heterogeneous learning groups since our school (StS Fischbek/Falkenberg) represents a broad spectrum of heterogenous students in each form from year 1 up to 13. Despite all of the above objects we are confident to say that our students will make experiences at all the participating partner schools from we can all considerably benefit in order to ensure language acquisition skills and improving natural science skills at the same time.
To strengthen the student's interests in the field of natural science in the context of an increasing heterogeneity at our school Stadtteilschule Fischbek/Falkenberg, Hamburg and with that the newly evolving challenges in language acquisition (especially in German and English) have been the main objectives of our student exchange project "Smart Cities". In every European city a speech-sensitive education due to the increasing migration plays a vital role in our everyday school life. Due to workshops at our exchange schools, we could realize this aim for our participating students. In addition, the phenomenon of relatively weak student performances within the MINT-subjects is obvious in Germany's city states. In response to these developments, our school together with our district officials have developed a project with the core topic "Smart Cities", in which the natural habitat in our school forms a green axis with our school's neighbourhood. The outcome of the international project, in which we cooperate with two more European schools, are to be used for future projects at each participating school. Each institution that is involved in this project has the chance to implement our experiences from the programme within the school's individual education programmes in order to ensure sustainable projects on a national and international scale. Especially a change in perspective achieved by an international exchange programme visibly strengthened the student's interests in natural science and enhanced the student's expertise and communicative skills on a long-term level. For example, our students could experience several interactive workshops at the geo-science department at the University of Olomouc. Within the individual project activities at each participating school, students have been confronted with the various fields of natural science and technology in connection with the subjects drama and cultural history. They actively took part in presentations, local excursions (visiting an ecological farm in Olomouc) and meetings with the local officials (the headmaster's welcoming at each school, meeting the mayor and county representative of Olomouc). In addition, the students took part in presentations and workshops at the Geo-Science department at Olomouc University, due to Corona an online presentation of the College for Applied Science at FH Hamburg Harburg, Interactive Science Museum Olomouc, Climate House Bremerhaven, Waterworks Hamburg. On the basis of these experiences and information exchanges, the students prepared various forms of presentations: media-supported oral presentations or information leaflets. Furthermore, the students created mini-drama plays on stage or worked on an innovative technical product bearing a sustainable and ecologically-friendly city life in mind ("Smart City Life"). This product, basically a plant container made of sustainable materials and a self-watering technology, combines technology with nature and aims at improving the air quality in closed rooms such as offices and classrooms. Here, the students used plants that have the highest oxygen delivery: aloe vera, ivy and hemp. All products of the individual school's project in every participating country Werke actively presented to the school community and its district. According to the selection of various activities at each school and diversely applied methods we furthermore ensured an improvement in social skills such as teamwork, intercultural communication as well as respect and tolerance. Our aims to connect each school community with its surrounding district with joint events and meetings allowed a context-based language acquisition and cultural exchange; to compare our experiences with lesson models (especially project-based education) from other European schools and exchanging know-how and expertise; and finally we were able to apply the synergies and intercultural experiences that our group of 21 students (year 10 to 13) and 2 teachers made abroad in our lesson plans and everyday school life. The participating teachers have long-term experiences in teaching heterogeneous learning groups since our school (StS Fischbek/Falkenberg) represents a broad spectrum of heterogenous students in each form from year 1 up to 13. Despite all of the above objects we are confident to say that our students have made profound experiences in language acquisition skills, gaining skills in operating with natural sciences and improving teamwork as well as communication skills. We were able to recognize and measure this in the classroom.