Saving nature is one of the most important global themes of this time. All countries have their own climate change problems. It is really necessary to make students aware of the importance of treating nature responsibly and understanding what each one of us can do. With this project we want to improve the skills of teachers, students and their parents in the area of nature protection - we intend to increase the knowledge of the natural world that surrounds each one of us and to understand the potential and the problems that exist there. We also want to understand whether other countries or regions have the same problems as we do and how they are solving them. We will investigate what are UN sustainable development goals.To communicate with our partners, we will have to learn some vocabulary in other languages. We hope to stimulate the creativity of our students by awakening their interest in finding solutions to the problems identified. We will be four partners from four different countries – Germany (Grundschule Neuenkirchen-Schwanewede) who will be the project coordinator, Austria (Volksschule Vorau - Vorau); Portugal (Agrupamento de Escolas de Nelas - Nelas) and Bulgaria (СУ ЛЮБЕН КАРАВЕЛОВ - Koprivshtitsa). We will work with children between 6 and 10 years old. At the German school there will be about 51 students and their families directly involved in the project, but it is intended to cover its about 162 primary school students. At the Austrian school about 50 students and their families will be directly involved, but it is intended to cover it about 180 primary school students . The Portuguese school will have about 55 students and their families working actively in the project, but intends to cover its about 300 primary school students. The school in Bulgaria will have about 55 pupils and their families working on this project, but intends to cover its about 250 primary school students. Thus, we expect to cover a total of about 892 students. Each partner will make their own presentation showing their institution, their natural environment and the problems that exist there. Together we will investigate what attitudes each of us can adopt to combat the problems identified. The activities and materials that we are building (field trips, nature tours, pamphlets, games, ...) will serve not only to improve our knowledge, but also to disseminate it to more children and adults in our region. We hope that every child and adult who works on this project can influence others. We will do outdoor activities, mixing the pleasure of feeling Nature with the learning of a foreign language.All results of the project and photos will be presented in eTwinning to share it with other European schools. Throughout the project we will all become more aware of the current environmental problems, we will know the European Union's environmental objectives and the European values, we will change some of our current behaviours, we will have a deeper knowledge about partner countries, we will learn to use new digital tools and we will be better able to communicate in English. Even the pupils will develop their creativity. We will all make our contribution to protecting Nature by doing what we have learned throughout the project and sharing our knowledge with others. Even if this project ends, it will continue in each one of us if we have managed to understand what we can do for the preservation of Nature.
Saving nature is one of the most important global themes of this time. All countries have their own climate change problems. It is really necessary to make students aware of the importance of treating nature responsibly and understanding what each one of us can do. With this project we wanted to improve the skills of teachers, students and their parents in the area of nature protection. We intended to increase the knowledge of the natural world that surrounds each one of us and to understand the potential and the problems that exist there. We also wanted to understand whether other countries or regions have the same problems as we do and how they are solving them. We would investigate what are UN sustainable development goals. To communicate with our partners, we would have to learn some vocabulary in other languages. We stimulated the creativity of our students by awakening their interest in finding solutions to the problems identified. We were four partners from four different countries – Germany (Grundschule Neuenkirchen-Schwanewede) who was the project coordinator, Austria (Volksschule Vorau - Vorau); Portugal (Agrupamento de Escolas de Nelas - Nelas) and Bulgaria (СУ ЛЮБЕН КАРАВЕЛОВ - Koprivshtitsa). We had worked with children between 6 and 10 years old. By participating in the mobilities to the project countries, the students were able to directly experience the various challenges of nature conservation and the effects of climate change became tangible. During the first mobility in Germany various natural workshops made it possible for the students to experience how each individual can make a contribution to nature conservation. By visiting the National parc Wadden Sea and the museum "Climate House" in Bremerhaven the global effects of climate change were made tangible. “Flora and fauna” was the topic of mobility to Bulgaria. By visiting the Natural History Museum and a bear sanctuary, the participants learned that all of us are responsible for the species and the respectful treatment of nature. In Austria, the focus of mobility was on the interaction between nature and technology. Here the students gained their first experience in programming and constructing small robots with “Lego WeDo”. During a tour to the Dachstein glacier in Austria, it became clear how profoundly global warming is affecting the retreat of glaciers and how glaciers, and thus an important component of the global ecosystem, are gradually disappearing. In Portugal preserving natural heritage was at the heart of mobility. The threat to nature from ocean pollution, destructive forest fires caused by monocultures and the decline in species caused by overfishing and the proliferation of invasive species became visible during the visit to the Sealife Aquarium and the drive through forest areas destroyed by fire. Each partner had created their own presentation showing their institution, their natural environment and the problems that exist there. Together we investigated what attitudes each of us can adopt to combat the problems identified. The activities (Natural tours, visits of National Parcs and Protections Areas) and materials that we had created would serve not only to improve our knowledge, but also to disseminate it to more children and adults in our region. We hope that every child and adult who worked on this project could influence others. We planned and carried out outdoor activities, mixing the pleasure of feeling Nature with the learning of a foreign language. All results of the project and photos are presented on the project homepage www.natureisatreasure.eu. Throughout the project all participants became more aware of the current environmental problems. We learned to know the European Union's environmental objectives and the European values. We hope to change some of our current behaviours. We have a deeper knowledge about partner countries. We learned to use new digital tools and we are better able to communicate in English. Even the pupils developed their creativity. We will all make our contribution to protecting Nature by doing what we have learned throughout the project and sharing our knowledge with others. We hope at the end of the project that it will continue in each one of us if we had managed to understand what we can do for the preservation of Nature. Through the encounter between the students during the mobilities, the need for diverse language acquisition, in this case a common project language, became clear in order to be able to understand each other. Even limited language skills could help with mutual communication. Interest in the respective national languages was also aroused by the creation of common dictionaries on flora and fauna. Despite regional and cultural differences, it became clear that nature conservation concerns all countries equally and that the effects of climate change, although regionally different, can only be influenced through joint efforts.