Ever since the demonstrations around the Fridays-For-Future movement even the students have realized that conservation and sustainability is the key to maintain the uniqueness of our planet Earth. Often these aspects are seen in a stark contrast to the growing globalisation. But globalisation can also be seen as a chance on the hand to learn from other to countries and on the other hand to even give help or ideas to other countries so that we can work together as a global family towards a sustainable life. How can we achieve that we live in greener cities? In the coming two years we want to have a closer look at this question. We will focus on public transport and e-mobility in Kassel as well as in Bergen. Students in Kassel heavily rely on public transport as part of their daily way to school. That's why they already know a lot about this topic themselves. But what about the local people, what do they think about their city and public transport? What about Bergen? How good or bad is public transport there? Where do they need to improve? What do people at university dealing with city planning say about the situation? What about e-mobility in Kassel? How does the production of e-cars have changed the VW-factory in nearby Baunatal? Are there more or less work spaces now? Why is e-mobility in Norway a lot more advanced and popular than in Germany? These and other questions will have to be researched by the participating students of both partners and the results will be presented together. In common video chats via eTwinning they will talk about the little projects they are working on throughout the whole project. There will be talks with prominent speakers from university, local government and industry of both cities to talk with students of both partners via video chat. With the help of the binational meeting students will be able to see what the situation is really like in the other city. The student number is limited to nine students per school so that a highly focused working atmosphere is given. We chose the group of 15 to 16-year-olds because they already have the necessary language capability to deal with all the research in English. Furthermore this group of students is usually very critical towards any subject they come across, they are able to ask questions and work independently. We believe that this highly practical approach to dealing with the question of sustainability will emphasize the importance of all the little steps that are already taken by everyone of us, by the industry and governments. Through individual finding of questions they want to work on, students will be willing to put a lot of work and extra time into this project to improve the question of sustainability and to make our cities greener.
The Christian belief to preserve God's cretaion and the fridays-for-future-movement have woken up the consciousness of our kids for sustainable life styles and concepts. naturally they start looking around them in their own little universe and try to have an impact and change things. Nonetheless it's highly important not to forget about global developments and tendencies. The big question we asked ourselves was how we can achieve a greener city. First of all, our students had a closer look at local public transport, many are fairly happy because of multiple connections. However, being in Bergen students realized that it is not the quantity but the quality that counts. Even if the net system in Bergen can be easily looked through, it is a masterpiece for punctuality and reliability. Maybe if city council would focus more on well-functioning public transport, people would tend to use more of this and keep their cars out of the city. Many of our students have changed their minds about the local public transport and ask for improvement. As a second big subtopic students looked at renewable energies such as e-mobility and hydroelectric energy. In lively discussions with politicians and people from university the students were wondering why it is still not normal to have an e-car in Germany, but why it is in Norway. Really impressed were the students in the hydroelectric facility Matre where the power of nature becomes visible. Norway might be advantaged to use these kinds of natural powers because of its geographical situation, however Germany should also make an effort and look out for new way to use the power of nature that is available in Germany. Students participating in this project have realized that there is still a long way to go for Germany, but there is potential to make our cities greener. They will take their experiences with them and use them wisely in discussions with their peers, as representatives of the school and even in conversation with their parents.