Our project is based on a common and ever-present topic throughout Europe: the effect of learning environment on students and teachers. Countless schools in Europe are in need of investment, but more often than not there is little funding. Therefore, we study what kind of improvements could be done with little or no extra funding. We take a closer look at the school buildings: we observe the structures, design of classrooms and other learning environments as well as climatic conditions. Our aim is to analyze the circumstances and to make proposals for improvements. Therefore, our main goal is to find answers to questions: how can we improve our learning environments. We want to make realistic, applicable plans that take into consideration various points of view from climate change to digitalisation and new methods of learning and teaching. We are 5 schools from different parts of Europe: Huittinen/Finland, Poznan/Poland, Liberec/Czech, Fano/Italy and Olhão/Portugal. This means we are from different kind of cultures, societies and climatic areas. This allows us to compare the results and shows others relevant points of view, such us exposure on sun or snow. Our students are 16 to 18 years of age, and we want to make their voice heard: it is their task to propose improvements. They are, after all, experts of learning and it is them that the learning environment affect most. The participants will be chosen according to their motivation and skills, and the process is open and transparent. Also participating will be teachers of different school subjects. This way, we have a wide variety of knowledge and expertise, because our project is based on various school subjects. We have planned a step-by-step schedule, where each part is an important part of the whole, and each part is based of the previous activities. We use modern 21st cenury technology, such as robotics and 3D technology. We produce database, reports, videos and posters with dissemination in mind. In all, our findings provide a toolkit to be used for making the schools better learning environments. 1) The first part provides the basis for the analysis. We build weather stations, air monitoring stations and study the bacterial culture of our respective school buildings. We gather data into database and monitor e.g. temperature, carbondioxide, air pressure and humidity throughout the project. This is done in order to give us data for the next activities. 2) In the second activity, we observe the structure of school buildings. We study how have they been designed in different climatic conditions, and if they remain appropriate in the climate change. Cultural heritage is also observed. 3) Then we continue to the design of classrooms and other learning environments. We observe if the classrooms are up-to-date or do they need adjustments. This takes into consideration a variety of things: digitalisation, furniture, ergonomics. 4) The next part is to consider health and well-being issues. We take a look at e.g. recreational areas and student services. We want to promote healthy habits for e.g. school breaks. 5) The main task of this project is to design an ideal school. Here, we combine all the findings of previous activities. The students, in co-operation with teachers, plan schools that are sustainable, energy-efficient, ergonomic and comfortable. In order to have an impact, our ideas and proposals have to be realistic. Our aim is to change the conditions and surroundings in our schools, where the short-term impacts should be seen as small-scale, cost-effective changes. In the long run, our toolkit is ready to use when renovations, alterations or even new buildings are planned. Also, the students will be aware of active European citizenship, as this project also includes influence on local level. Even after the project has ended, the work and effects should remain. In this kind of project, dissemination is vital. Not only it is important to present the results in our respective schools, but also share them with other schools and local authorities. The results could be of regional or even national importance, as many schools face the same circumstances and problems, and so the solutions should be applicable. We build a website to shared to results for all to use. Within the project, we use eTwinning as a platform to collect the findings and products.
Our project was based on a common and ever-present topic throughout Europe: the effect of learning environment on students and teachers. Countless schools in Europe are in need of investment, but more often than not there is little funding. Therefore, we studied what kind of improvements and practical activities could be done with little or no extra funding. We took a closer look at the school buildings: we observed the structures, design of classrooms and other learning environments as well as climatic conditions. During the project we analyzed the circumstances and made proposals for improvements in our respective schools. We aimed to make realistic, applicable plans that take into consideration various points of view from climate change to digitalisation and new methods of learning and teaching. There were 5 schools from different parts of Europe: Huittinen/Finland, Poznan/Poland, Liberec/Czech, Fano/Italy and Olhão/Portugal. This means we were from different kind of cultures, societies and climatic areas. This allowed us to compare the results and show others relevant points of view, such as exposure on sun or snow. Our students were 15 to 19 years of age, and we wanted to make their voice heard: it was their task to propose improvements. They are, after all, experts of learning and it is them that the learning environment affect most. The participants were chosen according to their motivation and skills, in an open and transparent process. Participating teachers were of different school subjects. This way, we had a wide variety of knowledge and expertise. We planned a step-by-step schedule, where each part was an important part of the whole, and each part was based of the previous activities. We used modern 21st century technology, such as robotics and 3D technology. We produced databases, reports, videos and posters with dissemination in mind. In all, our findings provided a toolkit to be used for making the schools better learning environments. The first activities provided the basis for the analysis. We built indoor air monitoring stations which were put in use in respective schools. We gathered data into database and monitored e.g. temperature, air pressure, gas resistance and humidity to give us information of conditions inside the buildings. In the second activity, we observed the structure of school buildings. We studied how have they been designed in different climatic conditions, and if they remain appropriate in the climate change. Cultural heritage was also observed. Then we continued to the design of classrooms and other learning environments. We observed if the classrooms are up-to-date or do they need adjustments. This took into consideration a variety of things: digitalisation, furniture, ergonomics. The next part was to consider health and well-being issues. We took a look at e.g. recreational areas and promoted healthy habits for e.g. school breaks as well as sustainability. After these parts, we reached our main task: to design an ideal school. Here, we combined all the findings of previous activities. The students, in co-operation with teachers, planned schools that match the needs and wishes of students, but also are sustainable, energy-efficient, ergonomic and comfortable. In order to have an impact, our ideas and proposals had to be realistic. Our aim was to change the conditions and surroundings in our respective schools, where the short-term impacts should be seen as small-scale, cost-effective changes. In the long run, our ideas and results ready to be used when renovations, alterations or even new buildings are planned. Also, the students are now aware of active European citizenship, as this project also included influence on local level. Even after the project has ended, the work and effects should remain. In this kind of project, dissemination is vital. Not only it is important to present the results in our respective schools, but also share them with other schools and local authorities. The results could be of regional or even national importance, as many schools face the same circumstances and problems, and so the solutions should be applicable. Within the project, we used eTwinning as a platform to collect the findings and products.