Context Nowadays, children’s unhealthy eating habits, lack of physical exercise and sedentarism are a very serious issue which has recently arisen especially due to the time they spend indoors using Information and Communication Technology. This problem has becoming increasingly worrying because of parents’ lack of time to provide children with healthy homecooked meals thus augmenting obesity cases within teenagers. Besides causing a wide range of physical and mental health problems, overweight drastically increases the risk of developing obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, among others. Objectives - to reduce by at least 50% the number of fast food consumers in our target group after the 2 years of the project implementation - to raise and increase the awareness about healthy eating advantages of at least 70% of the participants - to increase the students’ physical activity to a minimum of 1 hour per day (60%) - to improve communication and interpersonal skills and self-confidence in a transnational European environment of at least 65% of participants - to share ideas and best practices - to work out and expand the knowledge on the wide range of European sports and culture diversity. Participants The project addresses three target groups – 12-13-year-old students, with weight problems or not (the reason for choosing these age groups is that at this stage of children’s lives, they have either started unhealthy eating behaviour or are open minded enough to start developing eating habits or sedentary attitudes with long-lasting effects). They will be the centre of all the activities, both carried out locally and at an international level, in the LTTAs. The 2nd group is that of parents who will be informed about the project development and will be invited to get involved in the activities organized by the school community so that they can get more aware of the importance of a healthy diet for their children’s balanced development. We would like parents to get actively involved in the schools’ activities to be able to witness their children interacting, observing how happy they are when practising outdoor activities. This way, we will be able to motivate parents to implement or continue these physically active initiatives as well as providing their children with healthy diets as much as possible. 3rd, teachers who will be part of the exchange programmes will have the opportunity to share experiences, to observe the similarities and differences, to identify good practices and duplicate them in their schools. Besides learning from their European peers, the participant teachers will become active resources themselves for they colleagues and other interested parties as a way to ensure the sustainability of the results of the project as well as fostering dissemination and follow up activities. Direct participants (from sending institutions): C1– 16 teachers C2-C5 – 20 students and 8 teachers From host institutions C1– 6 teachers C2-C5 – 120 students, 30 teachers, 100 parents Activities C1 – Lack of physical exercise and obesity – current trends in Europe (11 2019, TR) C2- Obesity – causes and consequences on the short, medium and long term (3 2020, ES) C3- You are what you eat - How to have a balanced diet (10 2020, RO) C4- Sports and physical activities to combat sedentarism and obesity tendencies (3 2021, IT) C5- Outdoor activities and hiking (5 2021, SI) Results We will produce the following concrete results: - initial and final survey report - collections of materials - students’ journals - brochure for parents and students about healthy diet and pastime dynamic activities - brochure for schools with a shortlist of all the activities that can be performed by schools dealing with the same issues - 4 exchange reports (results of each exchange and measure the impact on students) - 5 newsletters - impact study Impacts - expected gained knowledge and increased awareness of the real benefits of active healthy living and eating behaviour for children,parents and school staff - learning about the causes and consequences of obesity, practical ways to fight the current trend of sedentarism; how to become more active and spend time practicing activities outdoors (students are expected to change their current unhealthy eating behaviour and sedentary living habits as the project will teach them how to transform their life by using a flexible and sensible approach to nutrition) - the improvement of English communication, team work and critical thinking skills, intercultural competence - greater awareness of their own national identity within the European reality - becoming more culturally aware by learning new things about partners’ country - understandingthat cultural diversity and wealth are added values in any country’s identity The participating teachers will be more motivated professionals as they will develop leadership and coaching skills and feel more prepared to deal with a problem in their own schools.
Nowadays, children’s unhealthy eating habits, lack of physical exercise and sedentarism are severe issue which has recently arisen, especially due to the time they spend indoors using Information and Communication Technology. This problem has become increasingly worrying because parents lack time to provide children with healthy homecooked meals, thus augmenting obesity cases among teenagers. Besides causing a wide range of physical and mental health problems, being overweight drastically increases the risk of developing obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, among others. Objectives - to reduce by at least 50% the number of fast food consumers in our target group after the 2 years of the project implementation (extended to 3 years because of covid situation) - to raise and increase the awareness about healthy eating advantages of at least 70% of the participants - to increase the students’ physical activity to a minimum of 1 hour per day (60%) - to improve communication and interpersonal skills and self-confidence - to share ideas and best practices - to work out and expand knowledge on the wide range of European sports and cultural diversity. Participants The project addresses three target groups – 9-13-year-old students with weight problems or not (the reason for choosing these age groups is that at this stage of children’s lives, they have either started unhealthy eating behaviour or are open-minded enough to start developing eating habits or sedentary attitudes with long-lasting effects). They will be the centre of all the activities carried out locally and at an international level in the on-site and virtual LTTAs. The 2nd group is that of parents who will be informed about the project development and will be invited to get involved in the activities organized by the school community so that they can get more aware of the importance of a healthy diet for their children’s balanced development. 3rd, teachers who will be part of the exchange programmes will have the opportunity to share experiences, observe the similarities and differences, identify good practices and duplicate them in their schools. Besides learning from their European peers, the participant teachers will become active resources for their colleagues and other interested parties to ensure the sustainability of the project results and foster dissemination and follow-up activities. Direct participants (from sending institutions): C1 - 16 teachers C2-C5 – 20 students and 8 teachers XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX From host institutions C1 - 6 teachers XXXXXXXXXXXX C2-C5 – 120 students, 30 teachers, 100 parents XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Activities C1 - Lack of physical exercise and obesity – current trends in Europe (11 2019, TR) C2 - Obesity – causes and consequences on the short, medium and long term (5 2021, RO) C3 - You are what you eat - How to have a balanced diet (10 2021, ES) C4 - Sports and physical activities to combat sedentarism and obesity tendencies (3 2022, IT) C5 - Outdoor activities and hiking (5 2022, SI) Results We will produce the following concrete results: - initial and final survey reports, - a collection of materials produced after each LTTA, - students’ eating and exercise journals, - brochure for parents and students about healthy diet and pastime dynamic activities, - brochure for schools with a shortlist of all the activities that can be performed by schools dealing with the same issues, - five newsletters, - impact study at the end of the project. Impacts - expected gained knowledge and increased awareness of the real benefits of active, healthy living and eating behaviour for children, parents and school staff - learning about the causes and consequences of obesity, practical ways to fight the current trend of sedentarism; how to become more active and spend time practising activities outdoors (students are expected to change their current unhealthy eating behaviour and sedentary living habits as the project will teach them how to transform their life by using a flexible and sensible approach to nutrition) - the improvement of English communication, teamwork and critical thinking skills, intercultural competence - greater awareness of their own national identity within the European reality - becoming more culturally aware by learning new things about partners’ country - understanding that cultural diversity and wealth are added values in any country’s identity The participating teachers will be more motivated professionals as they will develop leadership and coaching skills and feel more prepared to deal with a problem in their schools.