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There is no planet B – acting sustainably

2020-1-DE03-KA229-0773562020School Exchange Partnershipsfinalized
Countries: DE|TR|SK|ES|FI · Grant: €131,202
Social responsibility of educational institutionsEnvironment and climate changeEnergy and resources

Project summary

“Dear future generations, I think I can speak for all of us when I say “SORRY”! SORRY for leaving our planet in such an alarming state to you. We simply did not recognize how unique our earth was.” Severe environmental changes like the dangers of global warming, natural resources that run out, the extent of poverty seen globally, wars or financial crises are ecological, economic, social and social challenges we have to face. The idea of our project “There is no planet B – acting sustainably” is aimed at and geared to Agenda 2030. Due to growing challenges children and adolescents have to acquire core capabilities to be able to see themselves as part of a global development including a sustainable shaping of their private and professional lives, to actively participate in society and to recognize their responsibilities in a global context. Our international team has been working together successfully for many years. The partners from Germany, Slovakia, Turkey, Finland and Spain are preliminarily working on contents and methods of teaching a variety of topics concerning global developments. On a national and international level 4 commissions are set up. In every participant country each internal project team will have 25 students who will permanently campaign for and deal with their special topic. In addition to that, their task will be to pass on information. Other important supporters of the project are the school management, business and political representatives, the ministries of education as well as school administrations. Every partner school is going to specialize in one aim of “sustainable living”, according to the SDGs, thus organizing the international exchange referring to the special topic, as for example sustainability of energy management or sustainable usage of water. In national audits, the teams investigate the present situation, e.g. power or water consumption, usage of materials or the traffic situation. They discuss the results with the school management and partners from businesses, politicians and administrations to deduce and agree on regulations for more sustainability which will be included in the schools’ mission statement. Furthermore, the democratically elected “climate parliament” (Klimaparlament) present and defend the findings and results in front of the school management. Additionally, the ideas have to be multiplied in classes by “climate agents” (Klimaagenten). As a final result, the new rules or regulations will be included in the school planners. One international audit will be organized and discussed via e-learning. The new project logo will be developed in Spain and then be placed on sustainable drinking cups or pots. The Slovakian team is going to offer sustainable designing of school uniforms and jewelry. In Germany there will be experiments in workshops which deal with energy problems. The international team is going to prepare a charity for socially disadvantaged families. The final event, a “Marketplace of the Future”, in Finland will present all the results. Special activities of the single participant countries as well as sustainable meeting places at schools, like the creation of a biotope at school, shall be transferred into and presented in a game which will be designed by the participants.They will be evaluated by our Turkish partner school. Using the activity-oriented method “learning by teaching” by Jean-Pol Martin, students learn while teaching their classmates. Here students have to choose their own methods and didactic approaches in teaching peers that subject. Members of the climate parliament will be able to teach and instruct climate agents in a self-organized way. The publication of the results shall, as successfully done before, be available on the schools’ homepages as well as on an own website. We go on using eTwinning, TwinSpace for communication and co-working. In this project, schools with different clientele will work together, which might lead to a number of problems. This consequently requires different strategies for solutions. The aim of the project will be to motivate all pupils, regarding their individual skills, opportunities, strengths or weaknesses and to show them ways how to influence their perspectives. We wish students to experience the necessity of taking an active part in designing their own future. A corresponding positive effect for more successful learning results will be seen as a short-term effect in lessons, as a long-term effect after graduation. The results of the project shall be conveyed to different target groups.

Final report summary

The idea of our project “There is no planet B – acting sustainably” was aimed at and geared to Agenda 2030. Due to growing challenges children and adolescents have to acquire core capabilities to be able to see themselves as part of a global development including a sustainable shaping of their private and professional lives, to actively participate in society and to recognize their responsibilities in a global context. Our international team worked together successfully again. The pandemic was a big challenge for everyone. We overcame all problems together as a team. Communication took place predominantly via eTwinning. The extension of the project to 36 months enabled the student exchange from C2 to Spain. The timeline has been readjusted and the content slightly changed. The partners from Germany, Slovakia, Turkey, Finland and Spain dealt with the contents and methods of teaching a variety of topics concerning global developments digitally. On a national and international level 3 commissions were set up. In every participant country each internal project team were 25 students engaged. They acted as multipliers at their schools. Other important supporters of the project were the school management, business and political representatives, the ministries of education as well as school administrations. Every partner school specialized thematically in one aim of “Sustainable living” and organized the international exchange referring to the special topic, as for example sustainability of energy management or sustainable usage of water. In national audits, the teams investigated the present situation, e.g. power or water consumption, usage of materials or the traffic situation. They discussed the results with the school management and partners from businesses and administrations to deduce and agree on regulations for more sustainability which will be included in the schools’ mission statement. Furthermore, the democratically elected “climate parliament” (Klimaparlament) presented and defended the findings and results in front of the school management. Additionally, the ideas have to be multiplied in classes by “climate agents” (Klimaagenten). As a final result, the new rules were included in the school planners. One international audit was organized and discussed via e-learning. Several international competitions took place. (logo, frame designed with the rules of sustainability, weekly poster of the mobilities) The Turkish team created the international calendar of sustainability. The Spanish team worked on the water situation in Andalusia. All participants have read the book “The memory of water”. The Finish team had organized a workshop in Castro del Rio and we saw the movie in Helsinki. The Slovakian team had prepared several workshops on sustainable design. (shirts and accessories) All schools rehearsed a performance with their fashion model. Performances took place in Nitra and Köthen. In Germany there were experiments in workshops which deal with energy problems. The international team prepared two charities for socially disadvantaged families in Nitra and Köthen. The final results were presented in Helsinki. Special activities of the single participant countries as well as sustainable meeting places at schools, like the creation of a biotope at school or a green classroom were developed in Nitra and Köthen. A international Escape game about energy issues was designed by the participants. Using the activity-oriented method “learning by teaching” by Jean-Pol Martin, students learn while teaching their classmates. Here students had to choose their own methods and didactic approaches in teaching peers that subject. Members of the climate parliament are able to teach and instruct climate agents in a self-organized way. The results were published on the schools’ homepages as well as on other platforms . We used eTwinning, TwinSpace for communication and co-working. In this project, schools with different clientele worked together, which might lead to a number of problems. This consequently required different strategies for solutions. The aim of the project was to motivate all pupils, regarding their individual skills, opportunities, strengths or weaknesses and to show them ways how to influence their perspectives. We wish students to experience the necessity of taking an active part in designing their own future. A corresponding positive effect for more successful learning results will be seen as a short-term effect in lessons, as a long-term effect after graduation. The results of the project shall be conveyed to different target groups.

Project partners (5)