Each country has its history and with this project we would like to share two passions: hiking and exile routes. In Spain, after the Civil War, thousands of people had to immigrate in order to escape from it. Almost 800.000 people crossed the borders to exile from Spain to France. In the case of Portugal, history was lead along the Tagus River and the Almourol Castle, where important historical events happened. If we talk about France, an example to connect history to walking is shown by Aimé Cesaire, who helped artists and intellectuals to cross the Absalon’s Forest in 1941 to escape from Vichy’s Regime and nazis by boat to New York. In Greece, in order to express feelings of peace pilgrims walked up until the top of Crete mountain where there was a small church. There they light candles to pray. Last but not least, in Estonia the Soontagana Castle and today’s Kurese Hiking Trail were used as a refuge for Estonians for many centuries and in different wars. Each country has chosen a representative path to explore these Exile Routes and they are going to be linked with curricular contents. As nowadays we can do all these pathways like trekking routes, as a part of important European cultural heritage our students will learn from past to present by doing exercise. In this project, both students and teachers will share the experience of participating in trekkings with the partner institutions and their local communities, and at the same time, they will practise different languages (English and national languages) and work on ICT skills about hiking contents. In this project schools will achieve these objectives: 1.To practice one trekking in each country related to an historical event in each territory 2. To involve students in outdoor activities, as well as respect for cultural heritage and historical and natural knowledge 3. To improve students skills related to ICT tools and language competence (especially in English) 4. To increase the acquisition of healthy habits 5. To overcome any disadvantage (cultural, social or economical) and face problems like bullying or early school leaving, making possible social inclusion of all students 6. To link history and current way of life by engaging them with the past Thanks to this project all schools can share their cultures, experience and learn from each other, using hiking ways as a framework. Appart, social inclusion will be a main priority, as some of the students participating have difficulties in being integrated in a educational environment. The language used during all the partnership will be English, although national languages can be promoted too. The last thing teachers would like to link in this project is that from the past, knowing, appreciating and understanding is the best way to avoid wars or European conflicts from the present or future (refugees from the Mediterranean, migration, Syria’s war…). All educational community will be able to participate in this project: hiking clubs, museums, town halls, sportive clubs, or excursion teams as well.All trekkings will need to be planned and involve research and preparation, but always adapted to all students to grant a possible succes for them. The methodology ways of the project will be done by: COLLABORATIVE work (TEAM WORK in each school and common activities will be developed through ICT, E-twinning or online platforms ), LEARNING BY DOING (facing hiking through SEARCHING/SOLVING/CREATING/SHARING models) and PROBLEM-SOLVING tasks (bad weather, bike breakdowns, people giving wrong directions, understanding/speaking languages, etc... in any such situation and groups will work together to solve these unexpected situations). All work of this project, as well as the exchange of students and teachers, will be combined with cooperation through eTwinning to ensure cohesion and coherence of the activities and to learn, communicate and develop the project in a cooperative way. There will be a connection of the KA229 project with the previous or ongoing eTwinning projects, and the use of eTwinning will be combined with the mobility of students and teachers from different countries using twinspace online meetings, chats, and project cooperation.The project will have a sustainable and multiplier effect impact because their results will be disseminated and used once the project will be finished, like: 1. Alll kind of presentations and products , Social media channels or Etwinning project; 2. All project activities and content (integrated in curricula or Innovativing teaching methods), Activities related to Cultural Heritage, New knowledge and concepts related to curriculum of different subjects related to the project; 3. Historical routes and hiking of each country will be interesting for hiking clubs, town halls or other educational alongside in Europe too. With this project, we expect to learn from past to future in order to make students be aware of their possibilities to lead to a better Europe.
AHAH has been an Erasmus + project created by secondary schools in Spain, Portugal, Estonia, France and Greece. It has been carried out based on the educational possibilities offered by paths, hiking trails or other outdoor activities. The objective has been to prepare, plan and use the trekking routes to achieve the following objectives: 1. To carry out a trekking/trail with heritage/historical/cultural value, and related to a notable historical event in the history of each territory. 2. To involve students in activities in the natural environment and outdoors, as well as respect for the cultural heritage and historical knowledge and nature of their own country. 3. To improve students' skills related to digital and linguistic competences (especially in English). 4. To increase the acquisition of healthy habits. 5. To overcome any disadvantage (cultural, social or economic) and deal with problems such as bullying or early school leaving, enabling the social inclusion of all students. 6. To connect historical events of the past with the current events, and check the link that occurs between the two. With this project, students have learned their historical past through the activity of trekking-hiking. With this healthy activity they have been able to learn, through cooperative and collaborative work, the history, causes and consequences of armed conflicts, and how there are other ways to solve problems in the world, without wars. It is a project that has been carried out with reference to the objectives of European policies linked to Erasmus+ and the ET2020 strategy to promote innovation and digital integration in teaching, and to acquire and develop basic skills and competencies. It has also promoted equity and social inclusion in the field of education. Regarding the proposed objectives, knowledge of European heritage is promoted through walking tours along routes with historical and cultural value, linked to conflictive situations in each of the partner countries. The five schools have tried to use innovative practices and solve problems of social integration (bullying, refugees or inclusion of diverse students). In addition, all the schools have sought their international projection on the history of each country to promote mutual understanding and raise awareness of the need for dialogue. The contents of the project have been cultural heritage, health and well-being, and digital competence and new technologies. Students from each school have participated in local activities, and more than 100 students and teachers in school exchange activities over the two-year duration of the project. Students have joined in the project, in cooperation and collaboration with partner schools. Hiking, as a healthy physical activity, has increased the number of practitioners, and the basic skills of the students have been improved thanks to the project.