The protection of the environment and taking precise actions against climate change are among the strongest concerns, both in the younger generation and the current EU commission. This project aims at engaging young people in taking an active part in the protection of the enviromment by encouraging them to cooperate with businesses and/or organisations, institutions etc. in order to take common action and in order to promote good ideas and promising strategies for environmental protection. Together, students from the different participating schools will be able to have the experience that their opinion counts and matters, also in the world outside school. Together, they will be creative and innovative, developing an award (OSCAR) to award businesses with. In the course of the project they will learn about the EU's commitment to environmental protection and see for themselves how and where precisely measures and strategies are applied that will support the goals set by the EU commission. All in all, the project is to consist of five workshops (Learning Teachning Trainings) taking place in the participating countries. There will also be preparatory work for each of the workshops (Timetable) in order to make sure that the different goals of the project can be met, such as: - gaining knowledge about the EU's programmes/ finding ways of working with EU organisations (e.g. Eurpe Direct offices) - preparing and organising the cooperation with businesses (on the basis of the already established connections from a former project) - preparing and applying peer-to-peer work - preparing and applying marketing - foster creativity by developing an award and creating exhibits (also digital exhibits) - connecting participating students during workshops, providng opportunity to improve language skills and to gain intercultural experience - preparing and organising public events at schools (Green Days/ Green Weeks) With the project we hope to make a substantial number of students take into consideration broader contexts dealing with the partners in Europe, as well as actions on local level. Students are meant to gain insights into different industries and fields of businesses as the different schools offer a variety of these due to their surroundings and relationships with local partners. Students will also learn how to publish results of their work. They will prepare, develop guidelines and create exhibits for smaller and a greater final exhibtion (Green Days/ Green Week). While preparing exhibitions, students will learn about and apply principles of peer-to-peer learning. Applying peer-to-peer learning, taking on responsibility for public events at school and outside (OSCAR award ceremonies) will contribute to the students' feeling empowered. They will realise they can make a difference and are taken seriously. Even though the number of students at each of the learning activities is limited to four (meaning that each school is taking twelve students to workshops in different countries) elements like the cooperation with businesses, exhibitions at school and OSCAR awards outside school will ensure that a broader number of students, a borader community at school and a broader local community are going to be involved. The most active part in the project will be taken care of by students aged 15 to 18. Due to the peer-to-peer approach, also younger students will be addressed. With this project we are aiming to engage and support young people in their interest of protecting the environment, to connect them during phases of preparatory work and multi-national working groups during learning activities and to empower them by providing them with an opportunity to make themselves listened to when awarding their OSCARs to businesses and setting up and managing exhibtions. The project will mainly involve students (age 15 to 18), teachers of various backgrounds and with different experience at their schools, different representatives of local companies/ institutions and representatives of organisations such as local "Europe Direct" offices. If the exisitng contacts of the schools can be used to the maximum we might even be able to invite and involve and MEP. As a long-term effect we aim institutionalising events like Green Days, taking place once in a term or once in a school year. We also hope to foster an ongoing interest of local partners, especially businesses, in the work done at school. For the students the project might create a live-long interest in environmental protection and a willingness to become active, take a stand and make a difference.
The application for the OSCAR project was approved of shortly before the pandemic started and travelling was no longer possible. So, the project partners started the project by sending christmas cards made of recycled material to be in accordance with the project's overall aim. Nevertheless, the project partners managed to adept to the new situation and arranged and conducted students' and teachers' workshops online. At one stage a students' workshop on the history and impact of the EU was arranged and conducted with the support of "Europapunkt Bonn". As soon as travelling was possible once again, on-site workshops were held, but the partners had to arrange those in a short period of time. Consequently, the implementation of measures and activities meant to be realised in between the workshops could not be realized (e.g. green weeks). Despite the challenges caused by the pandemic the preparation for the workshops and the activities during the workshops went quite closely according to plan. Students did get insights into different areas and industries, gaining knowledge about industrial processes and exchanging personal experience and examples for good practises. Objectives: The main objective, raising young people's awareness for more envirnmentally-friendly behaviour in private and public/ economic/ academic life was definitely achieved. Also, students developed some ideas of their own which might lead to them spreading ideas and behaviour that can save and respectively reduce CO2 emissions and in general inspire a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Raised awareness for local activities and approaches protecting the environment were part of every student meeting and the preparatory assignments. Due to the pandemic the initial workshops could not be held as planned in the application. However, in compliance with the main idea of the project we started off by creating and sending christmas cards to each other. The cards were made of recycled material. We also turned to recording videos and implementing online workshops for students and teachers along the lines planned in the application. As soon as on-site meetings were possible again, the workshops took place as outlined in the application. The intended chronological order of the workshops had to be changed due to different local circumstances. The first students workshop in Germany took place under Covid rules. This for example meant that foreign students could not be hosted in host families, could not visit the school premises and visit companies. Fortunately, we were able to book workshops in the local museum in order to learn about eco-friendly dying methods in the textile industry and general measures of reducing CO2 emissions in the production of textiles. The preparatory work of the students focused on local textile recycling such as collection containers, second hand shops etc. The second student workshop in Spain focused on the reductions of plastics in the toy industry and the development of materials that might serve as an alternative to plastics one day. In Ibi, we had the chance to visit a toy factory and to listen to an expert input on alternative materials. On the basis of these experiences students designed their own ideas of sustainable toys in internationally mixed groups. The third meeting was a teacher workshop that focused on eco-friendly production of wine and deepened the knowledge that teachers had already gained in an online workshop held during the pandemic. During this workshop the remaining workshops in Finland and Italy were planned.g and the preparatory assignments. The personal exchange led to an additional idea for the workshop in Finland. The Finish partner school organised a visit to a local fishery college. Students were introduced to eco-friendly approaches in the fishing industry and different professional fields. By visiting the facilities of the college such as hatching tanks students gained a practical and realisitc insight into this field of work. On a ferry trip students also gained hands-on experience about eco-friendly measures taken by the ferry operator "Viking Lines". The focus of the workshop was the varied topic of green tourism, so students developed ideas on eco-friendyl travelling thinking about means of transport, restaurants, local shops etc. During this workshop students were also asked to design an item for the exhibition workshop in Italy. The final workshop in Italy involved local students, staff and teachers from the partner schools. Schools presented the main outcomes of the project and students' results of all workshops were presented. A press representative attended the final presentation and published an article on the Italian partner school and the project in a national newspaper. Achievements: intercultural understanding, English language skills, independence, awareness for environmental protection, experience of cross-border, cross-cultural community, friendships, visits outside the project.