During the respective exchange visits in Groß-Gerau and Örebro, the main project "sustainability and climate protection" is subdivided into several subprojects. In Gross-Gerau, located in the Rhein-Main-area, the project "How to live sustainably in a densely populated conurbation" will deal with various guiding questions, particularly relevant for young people. By trying to find answers to questions such as "How can I personally live more sustainably?" or "How high is the willingness of people to live more sustainably"? our students are supposed to develop a greater awareness of the necessity of people's willingness to change their lifestyle and habits so that extreme consequences of climate change can be averted. In Sweden the focus will be on the topic "To which extent is Lake Vättern, an important source of drinking water in its area, threatened?". Students become aware of the fact that climate change has a vast influence on nature and the human being, due to the decrease of natural fresh water reserves. The participants are students attending higher secondary full-time education. Interested students showing a certain passion for the project's topic and contents as well as a necessary openness for the hosting culture are prioritized and can apply to take part in the project. Overall, the group size is supposed to not exceed the size of a common class (26 students maximum). The project is conducted as an exchange programme but based on a project work that lasts one week in each of the partner institutions in Groß-Gerau (Germany) and Örebro (Sweden) and intensively deals with the topic (sustainability and climate protection). The project's focus lies on ecological, economic and social sustainability. Knowledge acquired during excursions to companies, municipal institutions and through surveys should give the participants an adequate insight in the topics mentioned before. Consequently, mixed groups (Swedish and German students) consisting of no more than up to six people will work on creating a digital output, for instance podcasts, short documentaries or presentations. The students are expected to base their specific topic on the general theoretic knowledge they acquired beforehand and to work and reflect on the knowledge presented throughout the project week (excursions, talks, expertise). They are also required to deliver a global overview of their topic, supported by digital tools. Additionally, the results are supposed to be presented in an interesting and understandable way so that the audience can follow easily. Personal views must always be clearly indicated. These views, opinions and perceptions play an important role within the project as the formation of opinions regarding questions such "How can I live more sustainably?" or "To which extent is Lake Vättern threatened?" are definitely relevant when it comes to taking decisions how to align one's life in the context of sustainability. Enhancing one's intercultural competences as well as one's personal awareness are important goals our project is based on, apart from improving language skills by communicating in English as a lingua franca and expanding one's specific vocabulary in a certain domain. Gradually, students lose their inhibitions about speaking in a foreign language and become more self-confident in using English as a lingua franca. Finally, students will realize that they are able to use their competences in English acquired in class also in their private life. They will understand that they can easily use English to communicate with other young people in Europe and exchange about complex topics. On top of that, students will be given the chance to improve their ability to reflect as they learn to explore and analyse different perspectives. For more than six years now, the project sustainability and climate protection has played an important role within the exchange programmes of our school and is now scheduled in our annual programme . Due to the huge variety in topics, digitally produced outputs, participants (students vary continuously as well as those teachers teaching economy and/or environment), the project can be defined as utterly dynamic and varied which surely captivates students. Furthermore, the participants will given the chance to broaden their horizon in multiple disciplines. In conclusion, all the participants will be able to benefit enormously in personal as well as professional and educative means.
What are people willing to do for environmental protection and for a more sustainable lifestyle? Those were the project’s guiding questions which students could follow up on various occasions during their mobility in Sweden. The met several representatives of different organisms whom they interviewed, as well as other students, regarding their perspectives on sustainability. Consequently, the students could understand better why changing lifestyles and laws sometimes take a lot of time. On top of that, the participants did some valid research on the topic and included their results as well as presented positions by the interviewees in presentations and quizzes. This theoretically aquired knowledge was supported with various multisensoric experiences, such as i.e. a guided tour in a bisphere reservoir as well as a tour through Sweden’s capital Stockholm where the students were informed on sustainable life in urban areas. In Germany, the students took part in two different types of role plays. On the one hand, they actively participated in a play called “Earth sues humanity”, in which they took in different perspectives in order to also feel empathy for different positions and to become aware of the fact why sometimes change is a rather long process. Same goes for the role play in the European Parliament in Strasbourg which made obvious how processes in legislation work and which influences and obstacles European representatives may have to face. The students could also enjoyed some multisensoric experiences when taking a guided walk to a forest, learning about sustainable foresting and when visiting a sustainably working vinyard. The students expressed their concerns and wishes regarding sustainability writing letters to some EU parlamentarians. All in all, it became more than obvious that students on both sides enormously benefited from this project, especially after being neglected physical exchanges throughout two years of the Covid 19 pandemic. While actually using and improving communicative skills in English as a lingua franca, the students strengthened their personal and intercultural competences. Additionally, by actively participating in the role plays as well as exchanging with an actual EU parliamentarian, the participants deepened their understandig of democratic processes and the importance of democracy itself. They came to see that in a vivdly changing world it is also them that needs to actively participate to ensure democratic values.