"EUREKA, EURopean hEroes of Knowledge: Argonauts" is a project deeply linked to the topics of Cultural Heritage, culture and creativity, foreign language teaching and learning. The cooperation among four European countries- Italy, Greece, Turkey and Romania is based on research activities about common roots in Europe, through the knowledge of ancient literature, classical subjects such as Greek and Latin. Eureka means that we want to find the solution to solve every problem due to prejudices, intolerance, racism. We have found European common cultural roots studying the routes of ancient heroes (in Homer's Odyssey, in Apollonio Rodio's Argonauts poem and in Virgilio Aeneid). The planned activities will be realized in order to achieve objectives which come from specific priorities. Social and educational value of European Cultural Heritage and its contribution to job creation, economic growth and social cohesion is one of the most important priority on which the objectives had been defined. Another important priority of our team is promoting open education and innovative pracitce in a digital era. The projects aims at: - extending the knowledge of different cultures thanks to personal relationship with foreing partners; -appreciating cultural differences and similarities; - eliminating the prejudices arising among young people from differences in culture, by sharing common cultural roots, literary traditions, passion towards history of art; -giving students the chance of sharing experiences in real social context. -promoting hard and soft skills improvement. Teachers from Italy, which is the leadership school, from Greece, Turkey and Romania, will be actively involved in the planning and organization of the project. They are highly motivated and convinced supporters of the importance of the tangible as well as intangible values of the European cultural heritage, first of all the importance of classical studies. They will share their skills in different areas and experience (school partners are perfectly complementary) to conduct the whole community to the awareness that preserving love for art, ancient literature, history, is fundamental for the future generations identity as citizens of their country and of Europe.They will prepare and support students from each school for mobility and the whole community during the activity in the schools. Families in each country might be involved as hosting families, so to offer a real familiar context. During the duration of the project- 24 months- different activities will be realized to achieve the prefixed objectives according to the methodology of learning by doing (laboratories and workshops) and peer to peer education. So, the students will be challenged by creating WEB PAGE, BLOG, JOURNEY DIARY, LEAFLETS,LOGO CONTEST, USE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA, ART COMPETITION, PROJECT CORNER IN SCHOOL, BOOKLET. At the end of the project, the pupils of the four countries will be involved in the organization of the final show, the final product of the project: a THEATRAL PERFORMANCE, acting in English language, based on the most significant passages from Homer's Odyssey, Apollonio Rodio's Argonauts and Virgilio Aeneid. The show will also include "tableaux vivants" performance, dealing with scenes from the most famous painting illustrating ancient heores myths. 5 mobilities planned in the project: the first one in Italy to define and plan, with only teachers; the other ones to realize the activities planned together by the use of Etwinning or emails. Students, teachers, and parents involved to share, preserve and contribute to the maintenance of cultural identity. As a result, by the experience, the whole school community, and the parental figures will gain a better knowledge of themselves from the humanistic point of view and will mature the ability to understand the difference as a form of enrichment for themselves. The idea of the value of the journey, as a positive adventure into knowledge and culture, is more and more actual and modern. Students and teachers will benefit from the development of skills in managing and coordinating a project according to specific tasks among different partners as well as they will improve the knowledge of the English language as a vehicular language in real multicultural contexts, thanks to the ICT use. The potential longer-term benefits for the participants as well as for the Schools are very high. First of all, they will open itself to a greater vision of the learning-teaching process enriching the national curricula. The concrete tasks will enable partecipants to solve problems for the benefits of others. In addition, the study of foreign languages will have a concrete usage based on the interaction with other people to achieve a common goal. New passion and motivation for the educational process of teaching and learning will grow up. The local community and the wider public will benefit from project results, which will become OER.
"EUREKA, EURopean hEroes of Knowledge: Argonauts" has been a project deeply linked to the themes of Cultural Heritage, culture and creativity, teaching and learning of foreign languages. Cooperation between four European countries - Italy, Greece, Turkey and Romania has been based on research activities on common roots in Europe, through knowledge of ancient literature, classical subjects such as Greek and Latin. Eureka means that we want to find the solution to solve every problem due to prejudice, intolerance, racism. We wanted to find common European cultural roots by studying the routes of ancient heroes (in Homer's Odyssey, Apollonius Rhodius' poem of the Argonauts and Virgil's Aeneid). The planned activities have been carried out in order to achieve objectives deriving from specific priorities. The social and educational value of Europe's cultural heritage and its contribution to job creation, economic growth and social cohesion is one of the most important priorities on which the objectives have been defined. Another important priority of our team has been the promotion of open education and innovative practice in the digital age. The project aimed to: - expand the knowledge of different cultures thanks to the personal relationship with foreign partners; -appreciate cultural differences and similarities; - eliminate prejudices that arise among young people due to cultural differences, sharing common cultural roots, literary traditions, passion for art history; -give students the opportunity to share experiences in real social contexts. -promote the improvement of hard and soft skills. Teachers from Italy, which is the school of leadership, from Greece, Turkey and Romania, were actively involved in the planning and organization of the project. In affirming the importance of the tangible and intangible values of Europe's cultural heritage, first and foremost the importance of classical studies, the partner schools shared their skills and experience in different fields (the school partners proved to be complementary). The participating teachers and students brought the whole community to the awareness that preserving the love for art, ancient literature, history, is fundamental to the identity of future generations as citizens of their country and of Europe. The Covid 19 pandemic, as well as the conflict between Ukraine and Russia have created countless problems in managing mobility, modifying the planning and logistics of the same: the families of each country, although available to host in the planning phase of the activities, could not host for reasons of health security. During the duration of the project - 24 months, extended due to the aforementioned problems - several activities were carried out to achieve the objectives set according to the methodology of learning by doing (laboratories and workshops) and peer to peer education. The project outputs have been: WEBSITE, BLOG, LOGO CONTEST, E-BOOK, USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA (FACEBOOK PAGE), ART CONTEST for stage costumes for the final show, PROJECT CORNER IN EACH PARTNER SCHOOL. At the end of the project, the pupils of the partner countries have been involved in the organization of the final show, the final product of the project: a THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE, in English, based on the most significant passages of Homer's Odyssey, Apollonius Rhodius' Argonauts and Virgil's Aeneid. The show has also included a "tableaux vivant" performance, based on a famous painting illustrating ancient myths related to the Argonauts. The mobilities carried out in presence have been 4 instead of 5 as the pandemic and the war prevented mobility in Romania, which was replaced by a week of synchronous online activities, coordinated by the Romanian school first mobility (October 2019) in Italy, kick off meeting with teachers only; second mobility: (March 2022) in Italy with teachers and students third mobility: (April 2022) in Greece with teachers and students fourth mobility: (May 2022) in Turkey with teachers and students. Students and teachers have benefited from the development of skills in the management and coordination of a project based on specific tasks between different partners and improved the knowledge of English as a vehicular language in real multicultural contexts, thanks to the use of ICT. The potential long-term benefits for participants and schools are very high. First of all, they gained a broader view of the learning-teaching process by enriching national curricula. The concrete tasks allowed the participants to experiment with innovative methodologies, based on the use of ICT and group work. In addition, the study of foreign languages has had a concrete use based on the ACTION ORIENTED APPROACH, making every cultural activity event, increasing involvement and motivation. The local community and the general public has also benefited from the results of this project, which has become OER, through massive dissemination.