The project "Energy for Europe" is dedicated to the topics of energy production and consumption and is realised in cooperation of four schools (special schools and secondary schools) from Greece, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Germany (as the coordinating school). The idea developed from the topicality and social relevance of the respective topics, which is demonstrated by worldwide activities such as "Fridays for Future" or numerous climate conferences. Despite the urgency of change, actual changes are establishing themselves only slowly. The project aims to educate, sensitize and empower people to act responsibly. The participating students are 13-17 years old and are thus at an age when they are increasingly able to make decisions on their own initiative and take responsibility for society. They form and shape the generations that are even more significantly affected by the effects of our actions on the environment and climate. The project also empowers people to participate in public discourse through intensive debate. It enables self-efficacy experiences, an intercultural exchange on global issues and the experience of cultural and social diversity in Europe. The central themes are developed in workshops. The workshop contents as well as the overarching tasks are developed in the schools in fixed working groups. The planned European meetings will be attended by two representatives students from each of the schools' working groups. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the students of the Carl-Ruß-Schule all have a special need for emotional and social development and can therefore contribute more easily in small groups in a secure and profitable way. The manageable group size also allows for intensive work and a high degree of interaction. The workshop contents are dedicated to the following topics: 1. Energy passport of the countries: Energy production and consumption today 2. In the course of time: Energy production and consumption yesterday - in the time of my grandparents 3. Rethinking energy: The need and possibility of renewable energies 4. Your own footprint: What/how do I consume energy? What can I change? The workshop contents will be presented in digital form and published on the internet via eTwinning. During the individual mobilities, the students get to know the respective school, jointly develop a logo for the "Energy for Europe" project, visit different sites of energy production as well as local and cultural sights. They work out possibilities for action for a more responsible use of energy. As a joint project, a calendar will be created in which each school will design three calendar sheets on which old and new ways of generating energy as well as energy-saving tips will be presented. We expect the realisation of the project "Energy for Europe" to reduce prejudices in the long term through positive international and intercultural encounters and to make a small contribution to European international understanding, to strengthen the self-esteem of the schools and to have a positive effect on their language skills. The topic-specific increase in knowledge raises awareness of the responsible use of energy and opens up opportunities for action from which both students and the schools as a whole will benefit.
The project "Energy for Europe" was dedicated to the topics of energy production and consumption and was realized in cooperation of four schools (special schools and secondary schools) from Greece, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Germany (as coordinating school). The project was able to educate, raise awareness and make the pupils act more responsibly. The participating students were 13-17 years old. The project also empowered participation in public discourse through intensive engagement. It enabled self-efficacy experiences, an intercultural exchange about global issues and the experience of cultural and social diversity in Europe. The central themes were developed in workshops. The workshop contents as well as the overarching tasks were developed in the schools in fixed working groups. Two students from each of the fixed working groups of the schools participated in the planned European meetings. This was due to the fact that the students of the Carl-Ruß-Schule all have a special need for emotional and social development and can therefore contribute much more easily and profitably in small groups. In the course of the project, we noticed that this also helped all the other students to fit into the groups and to mix with each other. The exchange between the students was extremely intensive and sustainable. Friendships were formed beyond the actual project period. The manageable group size also enabled intensive work and a high degree of interaction. Due to the strong interferences caused by the existing Corona regulations, we were not able to carry out the mobilities as we had planned. Therefore we decided to make another, additional virtual mobility. The planned 4 meetings turned into 5. For each meeting, the students created digital presentations on the respective topics and presented and explained them in the workshops. The workshop contents were dedicated to the following topics: 1. energy passport of the countries: energy production and consumption today. 2. changing times: energy production and consumption yesterday - in the times of my grandparents 3. rethinking energy: necessity and possibility of renewable energies 4. own footprint: what/how do I consume energy? What can I change? 5. what is the CO2 footprint of our project? How big is the CO2 footprint of my school? During the individual mobilities, the students got to know the respective school, jointly developed a logo for the "Energy for Europe" project, visited different energy production sites as well as local and cultural sights. They worked out possible actions for a more responsible use of energy. As a joint project, a calendar was created in which each school took photos on the theme "Places of energy production: the day before yesterday, yesterday, today and tomorrow". From these photos, calendar pages were created and assembled into a common calendar. The positive impact of the project "Energy for Europe" on the reduction of prejudices and the contribution to the European understanding among nations through international and intercultural encounters was more than fulfilled. This project has strengthened the self-esteem of the students and had a positive impact on their language skills.