When on a Friday in the summer of 2018 a then 15-year-old Swedish schoolgirl skipped school for the first time in order to draw attention to the climate problem, a movement arose with which many of our students across Europe could connect. In Neumünster, Barcelona, Lampedusa and Athens, too, there were demonstrations organized by students on Fridays, in which all generations finally took part. In biology, the teaching of the ages of the earth is standard at universities and schools. Each era is linked to certain lead organisms, for example, in the Earth's Middle Ages 206 million years ago, dinosaurs. Despite the dominance of certain organisms, the earth was in biological balance. The imbalance, which is now visible to everyone, is a matter of concern for humans. Young people in particular are looking for answers and want to make a difference. With our project we want to answer the questions and show options for action. In doing so, we extend the problem of climate change caused by CO2 emissions by the aspects of mobility and communication in order to finally answer the scientifically already discussed question, whether the earth is not already in the Anthropocene or in the "Europocene", because from Europe the industrialization began, with which mankind finally left the natural cycle of life. In addition to the acquisition and application of specialist knowledge (biology, foreign language) in the field of environmental and climate protection (e.g. material cycles, mobility, communication), the exchange with the pupils of the partner schools and the people on site (e.g. politicians, scientists, family members) is about discovering and consolidating common values such as democracy, protection of the basis of life and thus human dignity. Acting on the basis of knowledge can be mentioned as a further aim of the project, i.e. the acquisition of school and subject-specific competences (dealing with specialist knowledge, gaining knowledge, communication and evaluation) Four schools are participating in the project and the people involved are Erasmus newcomers. The schools are secondary schools that lead their students to the highest possible level of education. The teachers involved are mainly scientists. The students were born in 2002/03 and have chosen different focuses (natural, social, linguistic) in their respective schools. The participating schools are located in small towns or sub-centres, and the parents tend to be from the middle class. A total of four mobilities, each lasting 5 working days at student level over a total period of 23 months, will follow on from the in-service training of the teachers involved. The pupils are accommodated in families. Three mobility visits to different locations for each school ensure that all pupils involved visit another country at least once. The local activities are in the context of the objectives set, in that, in addition to meetings with people or regions particularly affected by the changes (visits to nature reserves, universities, farms, fishing enterprises, research institutes, climate houses, start-ups), activities take place in the context of everyday school and family life. Meetings with representatives of the respective local political level round off the activities. The planning work to be done before or between the mobilities leads to the implementation of the goals on site through the activities described. The further planning of the work between the meetings to be discussed together at the meeting as well as the steering and evaluation or control of the results are as central as the planning and creation of the respective products. In this context, adherence to democratic principles is just as important as respecting and taking into account cultural and personal circumstances - regardless of the role as guest or host. In principle, the almost adult young people should be given age-appropriate co-responsibility for the project by involving them in the planning of the project from the very beginning. It goes without saying that all methods and media of the digital world are used. In addition to the hardly measurable and describable results for the individuals involved and their environment, a broadly diversified product range is aimed for. In addition to eBooks with documents and audio-visual content, content will be uploaded to the Twinspace and other digital networks. The central result is a multilingual travelling exhibition that grows up with the meetings. The people and institutions involved will benefit on many levels: personally, socially, but also in terms of content and curriculum, the results will improve the quality of teaching and interaction. Once initiated, further Erasmus projects will follow.
The topic Anthropocene is socially and scientifically relevant. The topic as such was unknown to the teachers involved. It was not always possible to place the relevance and significance of the topic in the familiar context of climate change and environmental protection. In this respect, the communication and application of specialised knowledge was only partially successful. Due to the pandemic, the project's hook, Greta Thunberg - School Strike for the Climate, has also completely lost its relevance. In addition, each school naturally and quite rightly interpreted the sub-topics individually and shaped them in a regionally specific way - this in the sense of democratic equality. By also giving the pupils co-responsibility for the design of the respective workshops and the collection and design of the results (also for reasons of burdening the teachers), the goal of "knowledge transfer and application" was not always realised as expected. Nevertheless, all the people involved are now familiar with the term "Anthropocene" in terms of content and the ongoing media coverage underlines this. The momentum that developed in this way contributed to the horizontal goals coming into focus all the more, in addition to the vertical goals, because the pandemic became the all-defining factor of our time and thus also of our project. The interaction of all participants is characterised by respect, responsibility and tolerance. The insights and friendships that were created continue to shape all those involved to this day. The importance of the fundamental values of our free democratic basic order became clear to all project participants not only after Putin's war of aggression on Ukraine. The central idea of the importance of community for our world was also felt and carried in daily interaction. In this respect, the project goals were achieved and in many places they clearly exceeded expectations. The activities carried out were related to the formulated goals. However, the pandemic also shaped the planning, the implementation and the results of our project. (A short summary of the activities carried out is not possible due to the sheer number of them, which is why we will refrain from doing so here, entirely in the spirit of the above-mentioned guidelines). Activity C2 - Circuits - in Italy (Lampedusa) was marked by Corona coercive measures which led to the German coordinator of the project being taken into Corona preventive detention for a week. The circumstances of this measure contradict all legal standards, are tantamount to arbitrariness and have caused lasting damage to the project, as the teacher concerned came out of this activity damaged in health. There will be a separate statement on this. The early activity C4 - Communication in Spain (Sabadell) was characterised by very close human cooperation and intensive social contact. Due to the conditions at the school (premises, lack of staff, etc.), the output in terms of content was limited to a minimum. In addition, there were disciplinary problems among some of the pupils, which made cooperation more difficult. The first problems with the budget also became apparent - the rising prices on all sides as a result of inflation made some activities impossible. Activity C3 - Mobility - in Germany (Neumünster) was marked by another Corona wave, which led to considerable problems with accommodation for the participants. Here it also became clear how difficult the situation was overall, because the delay due to the pandemic meant that the project had to be divided among several class levels, which had a negative impact on the content output. Activity C5 - Summary - in Greece (Acharnes) was again characterised by Corona. The German group was affected by 50%, which understandably led to considerable uncertainty and fear on the part of the host families. This, the problems already mentioned and the school circumstances (infrastructure, cultural circumstances) also blurred the focus on content-related aspects. Overall, the project lacked the resource of time. The Etwinning platform was used intensively in the beginning, but after the system update/changeover, the data disappeared and could not be restored due to the lack of time and personnel resources. The pupils do not use Etwinning to get in touch with each other, but the usual platforms - but this intensively and away from the channels to be controlled by the teachers. Italy and Germany initially published their results on Etwinning, Italy then on Facebook, Germany within the school in showcases and on its own homepage. The planned touring exhibition in Germany could not yet be realised because extensive renovation work was being carried out at the school. Many friendships have developed since then. A lively multilateral exchange has taken place and is still taking place. Pupils visit each other and keep in touch on the "social networks".