Our Erasmus+ project “Promoting European cohesion and integration through the development of intercultural sports games” will bring together students and teachers from three European schools in Italy, Spain and Germany over a period of 22 months. Therefore, it will contribute to the visualization of our European community of shared values. It will show that sport and Europe are a strong link by using the uniting and peacemaking effect of sport. In line with the project theme, our students will deal with the topic of “Sport in Europe” in a multidimensional and multiperspectival workshop, focusing on the development of new sports games. The big advantage is obvious: if students have developed a game themselves, they will completely identify with it – it is their game with their common rules. Their different ideas and different cultural backgrounds will merge into one newly created European sports game. An integral part of the project will be transnational meetings involving 10 – 15 students aged 13 to 16 and two teachers from each school participating in the project (Gymnasium Langen / Germany, Colegio San Enrique de Hermanas Carmelitas del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús / Spain und IIS Rolando da Piazzola / Italy). There will always be a theoretical and a practical part in these meetings. The focus will be on sports game development, but furthermore we will look at sport from different cultural and sociological perspectives like the meaning of sport in different cultures, trend sports, fair play, doping, gender stereotypes and equality of opportunity. The project will be designed in a multimedia way, using cinematic elements (short videos) as well as print and online media. A monthly report will document the work process. The process of developing games will be highly communicative in both national and international project phases, as it will be based on the negotiation of different ideas and their subsequent testing with the given material in the given spatial and social environment. (Planned process: 1. Playing known sports games, 2. Comparing the games, 3. Developing criteria respectively categories for new sports games, 4. Modifying known games using the criteria/categories + creating a game rules index for new sports games, 5. Inventing new sports games by using the game rules index) The games will be explained to the respective partner schools and subsequently played and filmed by the students. If necessary, further explanations and improvements will follow. The aim is to create an develop new European sports games in the course of the project, which will finally be played by international teams as part of a large final event. In addition to the event, there will be a project magazine and a DVD with all our project results including our games and a manual of "how to create and develop new sports games". We will also publish our project results online to enable other schools to benefit from our findings and to give them the possibility to play our games in their lessons. We believe that working together on a common European topic will stimulate the debate on the European idea and hence sustainably as well as positively strengthen it. The common creation of something new will connect the students across national borders and show that the in-depth understanding of other cultures can only be experienced in direct intercultural contact with other European nations. Besides the positive perception of cultural diversity, friendships will be established, prejudices will be reduced, foreign language and media skills will be expanded, and sports and creative skills will be promoted.
Our Erasmus+ project “Promoting European cohesion and integration through the development of intercultural sports games” brought together students and teachers from three European schools in Italy, Spain and Germany over a period of 34 months. Therefore, it contributed to the visualization of our European community of shared values. It showed that sport and Europe are a strong link by using the uniting and peacemaking effect of sport. In line with the project theme, our students dealt with the topic of “Sport in Europe” in a multidimensional and multiperspectival workshop, focusing on the development of new sports games. The big advantage is obvious: if students develop a game themselves, they completely identify with it – it is their game with their common rules. Their different ideas and different cultural backgrounds merged into newly created European sports games. An integral part of the project were the transnational meetings involving 10 – 15 students aged 13 to 16 and two teachers from each school participating in the project (Gymnasium Langen / Germany, Colegio San Enrique de Hermanas Carmelitas del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús / Spain und IIS Rolando da Piazzola / Italy). There was always a theoretical and a practical part in these meetings. The focus was on sports game development, but furthermore we looked at sport from different cultural and sociological perspectives like the meaning of sport in different cultures, trend sports, fair play, doping, gender stereotypes and equality of opportunity. The project was designed in a multimedia way, using cinematic elements (short videos) as well as print and online media. The process of developing games was highly communicative in both national and international project phases, as it was based on the negotiation of different ideas and their subsequent testing with the given material in the given spatial and social environment. Process of the sports game development: 1. Playing known sports games, 2. Comparing the games, 3. Developing improvements 4. Modifying known games by using the ideas for improvements 5. Inventing new sports games by using the modified games as a basis. The games were explained to the respective partner schools and subsequently played and filmed by the students. If necessary, further explanations and improvements followed. The aim was to create and develop new European sports games in the course of the project, which were finally played by international teams as part of a large final event. In addition to the event, there is a project magazine and a DVD with all our project results including our games. We will also publish our project results online to enable other schools to benefit from our findings and to give them the possibility to play our games in their lessons. As an additional product of our project work, a board game was created, which includes ten categories. The categories are food, history, music, sustainability, school, sports, physical activity, fun facts (fun facts), technology and sights. The questions and answers, respectively the task in the category "sporting activities" were created by the students in the three participating countries. The game characters, which are related to the participating countries and/or to the activities of the mobilities that took place, were made with the 3D printer at the Gymnasium Langen. The board game was originally planned as an alternative to the sports game development, as in the past three years sporting activities were restricted in the participating countries for longer periods due to the Covid19 pandemic. In the end, however, the project team managed to realize both products, and the developed board game could be played simultaneously with the developed sports games in international teams at the final tournament. Working together on a common European topic stimulated the debate on the European idea and hence sustainably as well as positively strengthened it. The common creation of something new connected the students across national borders and showed that the in-depth understanding of other cultures can only be experienced in direct intercultural contact with other European nations. Besides the positive perception of cultural diversity, friendships were established, prejudices were reduced, foreign language and media skills were expanded, and sports and creative skills were promoted.