What do tomato, lettuce and sunflower have in common? Do our students actually still know how useful and ornamental plants grow? And how they can be bred? And can we perhaps use this topic to make a contribution to sustainability that everyone can afford? In today's everyday school life one can see time and again how well pupils master their digital world. Unfortunately, everyday life often become less important. In our project, we would like to sensitize students to this important topic and draw a bridge between nature and digital technology. Our project "Let's grow Europe" combines project-based work with many subjects (natural sciences, English, home economics, ethics, handicrafts) and involves different class levels. The focus of our project is divided into three phases: 1. recycling of vegetables (keyword: re-growing), construction of plant boxes (keyword: upcycling) In small international groups, practical experiments on re-growing are conducted and documented. This results in regrow instructions in English language with care instructions and "first-aid measures". All regrow instructions are summarized and printed in a booklet. In addition, plant boxes, if possible made of upcycling material, are built in this first project phase. 2. seed extraction from useful plants The student groups continue their research work and extract seeds from crops such as tomatoes and pumpkins. Seed cards (greeting cards with embedded seeds) and little seed bags with sowing instructions in English (care instructions and "first-aid measures") are results of the second project phase. 3. seed extraction from ornamental plants In the third phase of the project, the student groups continue their research work and extract seeds from ornamental plants, e.g. marigold and sunflowers. Seed cards and seed bombs with information tags in English are the results. "Let's grow Europe" will last two years and will be carried out with 36 students and 6 teachers from Augsburg, Wageningen and Gödöllö. The pupils are between the 7th and 9th grade (13-15 years), i.e. at an age when environmental issues and sustainability are increasingly an issue (e.g. Fridays-for-Future). We pursue the following goals with our project: Through the international cooperation of the students from Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary we want to give the young people a platform through which they have the opportunity to look beyond their own school horizon and have a positive influence on a European companionship. The project-related work enables the pupils to have a look at project work in other countries. Pupils of different grades who are only secondarily involved in the project (e.g. national project week) should be motivated and benefit from the experiences of the participants (e.g. school gardens). The project gives pupils the opportunity to participate according to their preferred interests (natural sciences, horticulture, environmental protection, climate protection, sustainability, recycling/upcycling). Another central goal is to improve foreign language skills. We have agreed on English as the project language. English is not the native language for any of the participants and therefore our goal is a clear improvement of language skills in the areas of conversation, writing and presentation. The desired results will be achieved through group work, independent student work under the guidance of experts, practical experimental learning, knowledge transfer at extracurricular learning locations as well as the preparation and follow-up of multimedia presentations. Through the numerous presentations and continuous cooperation with the partner schools, foreign language skills are improved and intensified. We will ensure that all project results are available on the e-twinning platform. Information on our products (re-growing instructions, seed bags, seed cards, seed bombs) as well as a summary of individual project results will also be published on the school websites. The project material will be processed and will continue to be used in the schools. The school gardens, which have been created or improved, are a secondary product of our project and can be used sustainably. Our project deals with the issues of environmental protection and sustainability in general up to the concrete needs of our schools (school gardens) and wants to encourage pupils through qualified learning to raise their awareness on the topic and help them to become environmentally aware and responsible European citizens.
What do tomatoes, lettuce and sunflowers have in common? Do our pupils actually still know how useful and ornamental plants grow? And how they can be cultivated? And can we perhaps make a contribution to sustainability with this topic that everyone can afford? In today's everyday school life, one can see again and again how competently pupils master their digital world. Unfortunately, everyday issues are often pushed into the background as a result. In our project, we wanted to sensitise the students to this important topic and draw a bridge between nature and digital technology. Our project "Let's grow Europe" combined project-based work with many subjects (science, English, home economics, ethics, handicrafts) and it involved different class levels. The focus of our project was divided into three phases: 1. recycling vegetables (keyword re-growing), building plant pots (keyword upcycling). In international small groups, practical experiments on re-growing were carried out and documented. This was followed by regrow instructions in English with care instructions and "breakdown help". All regrow instructions were summarised in an online portal (padlet) and printed out. Some students made plant pots from upcycled raw materials. 2. seed extraction from crops The student groups continued their research work and gained knowledge about the extraction of seeds from useful plants, e.g. from tomatoes and pumpkins. 3. seed extraction from ornamental plants In the third phase of the project, the student groups continued their research work and extracted seeds from ornamental plants, e.g. marigolds and sunflowers. Seed cards and seed bombs were the results. "Let's grow Europe!" spanned three years due to corona and was carried out with 36 pupils and 6 teachers from Augsburg, Wageningen and Gödöllö. The students were between 7th and 9th grade (13-15 years old), i.e. at an age when people are increasingly concerned with environmental issues and sustainability (e.g. Fridays-for-Future). We pursued the following goals with our project: Through the international cooperation of pupils from Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary, we wanted to give the young people a platform to look beyond their own school horizons and to have a positive influence on European togetherness. The project-based work gave the students a look at project work in other countries. Pupils from different year groups who were only secondarily involved in the project (e.g. national project week) were motivated and could benefit from the experiences of the participants (e.g. school gardens). The project gave pupils the chance to participate according to their preferred interests (science, horticulture, environmental protection, sustainability, recycling/upcycling). Another key objective was to improve foreign language skills. We agreed on English as the project language. English was not the mother tongue of any of the participants, so our objective was to clearly improve language skills in the areas of conversation, writing and presentation. The desired results were achieved by means of group work, independent student activity under the guidance of experts, practical experimental learning, knowledge transfer at extracurricular learning locations and the preparation and follow-up of multimedia presentations. Through the numerous presentations and the continuous cooperation with the partner schools, the foreign language skills were improved and intensified. Information on our products (re-growing instructions, seed cards, seed bombs) as well as a summary of individual project results were also published in school weekly memos, school newspapers, etc. The project material was processed and continues to be used in the schools for teaching purposes. The school gardens that were created or beautified are a secondary product of our project and can be used sustainably. Our project dealt with the issues of environmental protection and sustainability in general to the concrete needs in our schools (school gardens) and wanted to encourage the students through qualified learning to increase their awareness on the topic and help them to become environmentally and responsibly aware European citizens.