The project “Leben und Arbeiten in einer nachhaltigen Welt” (“Living and working in a sustainable world”) helps students and apprentices to understand the importance of sustainability for the causes of protecting the environment and fighting climate change. By means of a variety of group activities the participants will be encouraged to actively work for positive changes. The project is going to strengthen the participants’ awareness for sustainability via local and international co-operation and communication. It will highlight possibilities to further a better management of resources and motivate its members and third parties. Three schools, RBZ Technik Kiel (Germany), Vamia in Vaasa (Finland), and Zespół Szkół Chłodniczych i Elektronicznych in Gdynia (Poland), are going to team up in order to plan and construct a modular digital electronic system able to perform measuring and automatization tasks in the context of IoT/SmartHome technology. Due to the frame concept of the system, it will explore possibilities for a more efficient use of natural resources, one of the main focal points of the ‘European Green Deal’ for sustainability in the EU. This and other aspects of the ‘European idea’ are to be promoted through the project in order to interest, inspire and recruit young people for its cause and future projects like it. All three schools will be involved in the evaluation of the product and the project’s various secondary goals and outputs. The young Europeans participating to meet the objectives of our task through long-term co-operation strengthen their individual professional expertise. They strengthen their abilities to study and learn. The same is true for their social skills, as they will enhance their competencies while working in an international and interdisciplinary team. The project sets out to strengthen the participants’ critical awareness and their professional and entrepreneurial imagination. Furthermore, the students’ will benefit from writing and speaking English in various vocational, professional and colloquial settings and situations. The project will create new relations between the countries, schools, and students. Our goal is to work together in order to secure a relationship of trust and respect that will outlive the boundaries of the project per se. To help the communication prior to and after the planned international meetings the three schools rely on the possibilities of eTwinning. The schools plan to evaluate best practises locally in order to discuss these internationally. Also, the schools, the organizers and participants set out to strengthen their international network of contacts and partnerships. The project builds upon a grown relationship between the schools that allows us to learn from past experiences and refine our best practices. The past is a motivation but we strive for new approaches and a broader impact in the years to come. The actual product, a modular, documented ICT system that contributes to sustainability and efficiency, will be presented on the eTwinning platform. The other objectives of the project are the competences, skills and best practices described above.
The project "Living and working in a sustainable world" helped the participants to understand the importance of sustainability for climate and environmental protection. Through various joint activities related to sustainability, they were encouraged to want to be part of building a sustainable world and to adapt their behavior to a sustainable way of life. At the beginning, the participants dealt with the Sustainable Development Goals. They learned about the concepts of how sustainability should be developed and achieved in the different partner cities through the city representatives. They used sustainable transportation such as electric buses and modern ferries and visited an energy-efficient gas-fired power plant. An SDG rally further deepened the participants' knowledge of sustainability. Together in the team of all three vocational partner schools, RBZ Technik Kiel (Germany), Vamia in Vaasa (Finland), and Zespół Szkół Chłodniczych i Elektronicznych in Gdynia (Poland), several small, different, functional modules and concepts for smart home systems were planned, developed and evaluated within the project time. By their design, the modules and concepts contribute to the efficient use of resources, one of the key measures of the European Green Deal for a sustainable EU economy. The European idea, especially the Sustainable Development Goals, will be passed on to future students through the project and its results. The young Europeans increased their own professional and learning competence through the long-term processing of the self-selected project. They learned to work in an interdisciplinary and international team, thereby increasing their self- and social competence. They strengthened their critical and entrepreneurial thinking. In addition, a central professionalizing effect resulted from the necessity to communicate in technical and everyday language, in writing and verbally in English. Through the multinational contacts and the concrete project work, the European idea is brought closer to the young people and strengthened in a sustainable way, so that the development towards a trusting and respectful international cooperation persists beyond the project period. In the project, the partner schools compared their practices on the topic of sustainability and derived the best methods that lead to the change of individual behavior, preferences of consumer behavior and lifestyle of the pupils:inside in the vocational education. The cooperation in the international project meant for the partner schools a strengthening of their network. The long-term cooperation enables projects to be carried out more and more professionally. The tangible results were various modules for smart home systems and concepts for sustainable water use and resource conservation through smart refrigerators. The intangible results are the competencies, skills and best practices mentioned above. The long-term benefit of the project for the participants is that they use the gained competences and skills in their everyday life and especially in their professional life to remain an agent of change. With their knowledge of sustainable living, they can be role models for others. The methodological approach on how to integrate the topic of sustainability in the classroom will remain with the partner schools in the future and will be further developed. The results were communicated and made available at each school. Project activities, such as the SDG rally in Kiel, met with great interest among the staff and also at other schools that are planning to implement them, e.g. as part of AGs. The European project has had a positive impact on the school community. It strengthened interdisciplinary contacts within and between the schools and deepened the transnational relationship of trust between the partners. A follow-up project, also with new partners, has been applied for. As a European school, the implementation of European projects is an important part of the school's development and promotes its external impact. Through the constant cooperation with representatives of the city and the state, a (supra-) regional effect of the project can also be assumed. Through the cooperation with the project "Educational exchange 4.0 - deepening and publication of existing networks project", the project serves to make the town twinning between Kiel, Vaasa and Gdynia more visible to the public and fill it with life. Projekt-Homepage: https://sites.google.com/view/lwsw20212023/home-page