Our planet is warming from North Pole to South Pole. Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are dying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It has become clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. With our project "HELP the Earth," we want the young to make remarkable records of success in an ideal world to reduce global warming with deceleration of unnecesarry mass production, mass consumption and mass disposal by learning and applying the principles of reducing, reusing, recycling, upcycling and downcycling. This project's main aim is to produce a citizinary that is knowledgable concerning the biophysical environment and its associated problems, aware of how to help, solve these problems, and motivated to work toward their solutions with a beginning of a clearly definable behavioral-science involvement while promoting lifelong learning, improving quality and effectiveness of learning experiences. Main goals: -to provide the students with an insight into the term "Our Sustainable World" covering it in all aspects: social, economic, environmental, -to raise awareness in the society on issues concerning global pollution and reducing, reusing, recycling, upcycling and downcycling, unnecesarry mass production, mass consumption and mass disposal, -to foster humanistic skills for a healtier world, better life, peace, creativity and innovation, -to enhance problem-solving skills with integrated learning, hands-on discovery and adaptations, -to provide greater understanding of concepts, application of knowledge and risk taking -to teach teamwork, collaboration, communication, how to research, plan, gather data, design, draw conclusions, -to prepare children for global problems, to boost 21st century skills, -to ensure equity, prosperity, social inclusion, -to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of education in EU, -to support the creation of flexible learning pathways, -to enable the students to realize themselves using their maximum potential. The participants will be around 750. The students who have good human relations and cooperative behavior will be the main figures of this project. As priority, students who are in need of learning different pathways and have economic problems or handicaps will be chosen. The project will involve experienced, willing, teachers from different branches who will be responsible for developing the activities. Families and NGO’s whose collaboration is vital are also involved. Accommodation and some parts of awareness tasks in our project will be carried out by the help of them. The activities will be: Global Warming activities on reducing, reusing, recycling, upcycling and downcycling, surveys, a school Global Warming program, creating "HELP the Earth" exhibition, miniature city, dream school, TEDX talks, seminars, visits to eco-friendly places, vinegar and hand cream making activity with their presentations, "HELP the Earth" Fest including many cultural and traditional activities, organising campaigns on collecting used oil, batteries, second hand clothes, toys, tires to be turned into cat and dog beds. Moreover 50 saplings in each country and in total 300 will be planted. "HELP the Earth"’ is a pedagogical project based on Kolb Methodology which argues that we learn from our experiences of life in our sustainable world. We will also employ Waldorf methodology which aims to use learner-centered teaching methods and gives importance to meaningful learning. Besides them Montessori Methodology is used to offer opportunities for collaborative intellectual exploration in which the child’s interests are supported, guided, to support the development of self-confidence, imagination, intellectual independence and self-efficacy. The Potential Long Term Benefits: By the implementation of Environmental Consciousness into education, the young requires more than the ability to memorize facts and procedures but to think deeply, to challenge accepted knowledge so that they will have the chance to get into Global socio-ecological problems, call for multidisciplinary solutions as decision-makers and future leaders of the world. They will gain insight into Economics, Politics, Behavioural Science and public engagement that will promote their participation in the democratic life in the EU as active global citizens, to contribute to the EU’s strategies to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change at a local, national and global level. Students will apply their creativity, knowledge, skill within and across disciplines and in real life situations. Dissemination will be made in many ways via printed-published materials, social networks, Erasmus+ project results, eTwinning platforms, representatives of local and regional authorities as well as local media and cooperation between educational authorities and institutions. Finally, Stop Worrying, Start Taking Action.
After the implementation of our international project "HELP the Earth" we can see that the project participants of the partners from Hungary, Spain, Denmark, France, Turkey and Germany have dealt intensively with problems of global warming. All participants learned through the various projects and activities, such as: Creating a tire bed from used tires (upcycling), creating a herb garden, making a solar cell with the help of hibiscus tea, sustainable use of resources (rainwater), planting of CO2-storing plants (European garden, bottle garden), production of food from local ingredients, production of a hand cream from beeswax and calendula oil, garbage collection and its recycling, cooking workshops, dyeing textiles with plant dyes, sustainably designed school (photovoltaics, solar energy, rainwater storage, recycling, geothermal energy), visit to a waste disposal plant, Reuse Aarhus, vinegar production for domestic use, information about the 17 SDG in Dokk 1, scientific lectures on marine and alpine biotopes, Mols Laboratoriet, Digital Kima Protection Conference (Germany), lectures on important scientists from the participating countries, seminars on Global warming and its consequences, reuse of used books, visit to a marine aquarium (Nausicaa). Furthermore, the project participants gained extensive knowledge through the training of digital forms of presentation (Canva, Trello, Padlet, Kahoot), through the design of posters and the design and execution of presentations on environmental topics, to be able to present the environmental problem to a wide audience and to give an insight into the topic of "Our sustainable world". The activities listed above served to achieve the main goal of this project to create a citizen who knows about the biophysical environment and the associated problems, is aware of how to help and solve these problems and is motivated to work towards their solutions. Activities for the accessibility of the main objectives were: -Give students an insight into the term "Our sustainable world", which covers it in all aspects: social, economic, ecological (lectures, seminars), - Raise society's awareness of issues of global pollution and reduction, reuse, recycling, upcycling and downcycling, unnecessary mass production, mass consumption and mass disposal (article in the local press), - Improve problem-solving skills with integrated learning, practical discovery and adaptations (workshops) -A better understanding of concepts to enable the application of knowledge (Dokk 1), -Teamwork, collaboration, communication to teach how to research, plan, collect data, design, draw conclusions (creation of presentations, conduct of community workshops), -Prepare children for global problems, the skills of the 21st Century (scientifically accompanied excursions), - Contribute to the achievement of educational goals in the EU (teaching of computers and information skills), -To support the creation of flexible learning paths (use of different learning methods of a practical and theoretical nature), -To enable students to realize themselves and use their maximum potential and find partners within the EU (mobility activities). The participants who have good human relationships and cooperative behavior will be the main characters of this project. We selected students as a priority who had to learn in different ways and could never have visited the partner countries without the project. The project will involve experienced, willing teachers from different branches (art, sports, natural sciences, languages), who will be responsible for the development of the activities. Host families and their cooperation is crucial to further reduce social, economic and cultural inequalities and promote broader inclusion. The accommodation and implementation of the before the aforementioned goal were carried out with their help.