According to the WHO study "Health Behavior in School-Aged Children" (2018), a balanced diet doesn't play a role any longer in the lives of many young people (age 10-17). In addition to an increasingly unhealthy diet, their living environment today is also characterized by material life orientation, unreflected media consumption and fast pace. The interaction of these factors mentioned in particular has negative impacts on activity, motivation, initiative and health. In addition, more and more learners are overweight, even obese. This is exactly what we can see in our everyday life in Tampere (Finland), Hamburg (Germany), Metkovic (Croatia) and Kastoria (Greece). With our project we want to react and counteract that by focusing on the aspect of "healthy and yummy food". In addition to theoretical and practical knowledge, we also want to make our students fit by strengthening key competencies, such as the ability to think independently, to take responsibility for their own learning and acting, to think and act reflectively, to take the initiative and be willing to perform for working life and the European labor market. We also include the improvement of foreign language learning and ICT skills in our project. We want to empower our learners from socio-economically difficult backgrounds, with immigrant backgrounds and our refugee learners through empowerment to prevent social exclusion. We want to share in the diverse experiences and insights of our European partners and use synergetic effects to come to common solutions. Our project group consists of 4 partner schools. STS Wilhelmsburg / Hamburg has been carrying out bi-national projects with its Danish + Czech partner schools on a regular basis since 2012 and is responsible for the project coordination. The Gimnazija Metkovic has great experiences in the field of eTwinning + twin-space. At the Kaarilan koulu / Tampere, nutrition has been an important topic for a long time due to the state's school meals. The Mousiko Gymnasio Kastoria was only founded in 2017 and is still under construction. German is taught as a foreign language at all schools, in Hamburg it is the second language for 80% of the learners due to their immigrant backgrounds. Many of our learners live in difficult socio-economic conditions (families are recipients of social benefits). The project work is integrated into the regular lessons and will be continued in free learning times. A total of 24 learners will travel, at home various fixed learning groups will take part in the project. The project includes 4 mobilities, each with its own thematic focus, typical for the region, and carried out in cooperation with extracurricular partners: a) Hamburg: spices (with: "Gewürzmuseum Hamburg") and flavors (with: "Deutsches Museum für Zusatzstoffe") + fruit, using the example of apples (with: fruit farmers from the region Altes Land); b) Kastoria: milk products (with: Dairy Farm Kastoria) + harvesting, processing, marketing of citrus fruits (with: Women's Cooperative Kastoria); c) Metkovic: Vegetables, using the example of tomatoes, peppers, corn (with: local family businesses) + ripening stages, cultivation and harvesting, processing and usage of vegetables (with: local businesses); d) Tampere: Sugar and sugar alternatives, using the example of xylitol (with: "neuvola" center for health advice) + school meals / drawing up a meal plan (with: Tampere municipality). Every mobility is planned according to the scheme: arrival, city / surroundings, special food, regional topic / food, Europe Day and departure. The mobilities are prepared with the learners in small steps, especially linguistically, documented on site with various media, intensively evaluated at home and the results saved. Research-based learning is promoted. The contents are interdisciplinary (natural sciences, health education, housekeeping, sustainability, ...). Digital media are used intensively for communication and learning, own tutorials and podcasts are created, a Bloq is written continuously. Between the mobilities, further contents (including the basics of healthy eating, eating habits, fast food - ready-made meals - self-cooked, etc.) are developed. With eTwinning + twin-space, all participants are constantly in an exchange. Digital pin walls and forums serve international cooperation. A nutritional value table and a glossary are continuously kept online. In addition to theoretical lessons, practical experiences are gained. The diverse approaches to the topic are intended to bring about a change in consciousness and thus a change in behavior. The project will be presented in different exhibitions in public spaces. The results will not only be made available to our school communities, but also through "School Education Gateway", the Bloq the tutorials online and in the long term to all interested parties.
With our three-year project “yummy & healthy” we worked on an approach to counteract the increasingly unhealthy diet of young people, here: our students. The participants developed an awareness of food and nutrition in general, reconsidered their eating habits and buying behaviour in particular, acquired a broad technical and factual knowledge and learned to make simple and healthy food and drinks themselves. The connection between poor nutrition and health consequences became clear to everyone. The project's concept and course were related to the topics “health and well-being” and “teaching and learning foreign languages” as defined in the application. In addition to those contents on healthy eating and language lessons, the focus was on overarching goals such as the “development and strengthening of key competences” and “social inclusion”. All project participants dealt with theoretical knowledge and practical tasks in the areas of: fruits, vegetables, milk, and dairy products as well as cow's milk alternatives, whole meal products and white flour, food and drinks, fast food as opposed to slow food, fat, and sugar as well as sugar substitutes, taste, spices and herbs, nutritional values, vitamins and fiber, calories and calorie consumption, artificial additives, shopping behaviour and eating habits, the food-traffic-light and alternatives, regional products and products from overseas, industrial processing of raw materials as opposed to organic products, cultivation, harvesting and marketing of food. They gained many new insights and learnt a lot. The outputs and outcomes are complex. In addition, the participants expanded their knowledge of foreign languages and/or German as a second language. Because of our international cooperation, not only during those 4 mobilities, they strengthened their intercultural skills because students from four countries, but with more than 15 different migration background countries, languages, and cultures took part in our project. IT skills were improved, presentation techniques were learnt, and new programs and platforms were tried out. The project's content was cross-curricular, repeatedly revised by the teachers and adapted to the needs of the learners. During the regular Zoom conferences, milestones were established for achieving our objectives, outcomes were presented, materials were exchanged, and novel planning steps were executed. There was a very close and successful cooperation between the 4 partner schools from Finland, Croatia, Greece and Germany. The Erasmus+ teams of all participating schools were supported by social and special education teachers, school counsellors and other teaching staff. That allowed students with special needs, refugees and newly arrived immigrants to participate in the project. The school authorities supported the project with the school's own resources, such as exemptions, specialist rooms and the use of the school's infrastructures were made available, The school community (staff, parents, and students) was continuously informed about the current situation. That led to the content being anchored in everyday school life and some changes have already been achieved (better food in the canteens, some project topics are part of the curricula now, ...). The learning successes in the field of key skills are significant: communicative skills have been significantly improved. During the course, the students worked measurably more cooperatively, proactively and in a more goal-orientated manner. In the field of individual skills, the participants developed strategies for self-organization and increasingly gained self-confidence. Being part of the team made them proud and confident. They stayed in contact with students from the partner schools even beyond the project work, and friendships developed. The sense of responsibility for the entire project increased. We did not achieve all project goals. On the one hand, Corona prevented various planned activities. Homeschooling and the different ways in which the pandemic was handled in the 4 countries made some implementations extremely difficult during the first 1.5 years. The costs also increased because of Corona. On the other hand, the sudden death of our colleague Thomas Bieser tore an unbridgeable gap. We grieved together and through that project, he will be in our hearts forever. By that project, we lived the European idea and Europe grew together closer. Due to binding structures, a European Day took place at every mobility. All participants were and are aware that we only could carry out our “yummy & healthy” project and mobilities with the help of the European Erasmus+ program. Thank you, EU! ...and: We carry on! The content is too important.