ICARE is a new strategy to motivate our students, families, neighbors and authorities in the fight against climate change: to talk about the social and economic benefits that a society with less pollution will have in the future and at the same time to sensitize those social groups of our community reluctant to recognize the existence of climate change. This ERASMUS+ project has been designed by teachers coming from Spain,Macedonia, Finland, Estonia,Czech Republic and Poland in order to address the needs of primary and secondary school students, taking into account the SWOT analysis carried out in each school. It has been noted that these needs comply with the main axes which are predefined for Erasmus+ projects: 1. Environmental and climate goals Building environmental responsibility by promoting ecological activities Awareness of the consequences of climate change and implementation of actions to counteract this effect. 2. Social inclusion To promote social inclusion, tolerance and understanding between cultures To confront xenophobic attitudes To create and strengthen European spirit and cooperation networks 3. Social and educational value of European cultural heritage Understanding the natural environment and local ways of caring for it to develop ecological awareness To maintain, value and share cultural heritage 4. Strengthening the development of key competences of students across activities. 5. Pedagogy and didactics To share innovative activities and methods for promote the teachers’ professional development. The protagonists in the project are students 9-14 years old, out of whom the participants of mobilities will be chosen; their task will be to attend mobilities and host their peers. Nevertheless all the students of the schools will be involved and will participate in activities appropriate for their age.The project will also include students facing various obstacles(economic, social, health, educational) All the teachers will support project work, some of them directly and some indirectly through incorporating project themes into their subjects' curricula and in the individual classroom program Parents will organise the accommodation of the visiting students, various events and will participate in certain project activities We will cooperate with NGO´s, municipalities, environmental associations, etc During the project we will implement six sub-projects, one every trimester. The activities will take place in each of the partner schools prior to the meetings and the presentation of their effects will be the main point of each meeting. Throughout the project we will use student activating methodologies: The students will work in transnational teams with students of different ages, knowledge and ones of fewer opportunities. The students will be working actively producing results and discussing in groups to encourage peer-to peer learning. Modern methods that enhance ICT skills will also be a vital part of the project, resulting in mutual sharing of ideas and experiences in this area.The activities will include CLIL, ACL and Creative and Critical Thinking methodologies in order to encourage students to fight agains climate change through playful activities, according to their skills and needs using etwinning as main tool of communication and common work. For students and their families, the project will broaden their horizons towards people from EU countries with particular emphasis on introducing the cultural features of partner countries Teachers will develop their professional skills, other school staff will improve their management skills with the tasks and establish a constant co-operation with the local community that promotes and links important pillars of society: school-parents-local community institutions - european institutions. The results will grow slowly, according to the planned modules, and will be used during the project, but after its completion as well.A number of results are planned: eTwinning project, ebooks, project website, hymn, dictionary, Live Library and many more. Our diffusion strategy involves making our experience accessible to everyone interested, either online or by local seminars , conferences, debates and informative events. We expect the continuation of the internationalization of schools by new EU projects and project activities that create significant links to schools at home and abroad, also motivating others to join us. We plan to continue with project activities in the future too.One of them is a Debate Club which will be established in each school as a new extracurricular activity. Teaching will be updated with the new methods, teachers will be encouraged to continue developing communication and ICT skills, and project results will be promoted in S.E.G , Etwinning etc. All these activities will ensure the sustainability of the project and its achievements, as they will be ascertained by the evaluation carried out during and after the end of the project.
From the outset, the main goal of our project was to raise students"; awareness of contemporary environmental and climate goals, precisely climate changes. We believe that we have firmly met this project aim through a variety of means. The world is far more aware of global environmental and climate issues now compared to when we applied for this project over two years ago. Even during various turbulences we met in this period, we were able to adapt our project to include learning about environmental issues and climate changes at home. There were far more participants involved in the project than we expected at the outset of the project. We have worked out that over 500 people, both students and teachers, as well as their families, have benefitted from this project. Teachers have collaborated to create new lesson plans and activities which have helped the children learn more about the environmental problems they face today. At the start of the project, we had a series of objectives that we wanted to achieve. They were: • To enhance students’ awareness about environmental issues. • To motivate students in thinking critically and globally. • To determine students to be actively implicated in ecological activities. • To encourage students in using foreign languages in conversation with emphasis on English. • To promote social inclusion, tolerance and understanding between cultures • To confront xenophobic attitudes • To create and strengthen European spirit and cooperation networks • Social and educational value of European cultural heritage • To improve the level of ITC competences and skills . • To develop tolerance, mutual understanding, critical thinking, cultural and linguistic comprehension. • To provide a European dimension to their schools. • To improving teachers’ scientific experience and the knowledge the new methodologies. I can say with confidence, that these objectives have all been met. Children have learnt a lot about a range of environmental issues including pollution, recycling, endangered animals. They have improved their ability to think critically about these issues and to think on a global scale and improve their ICT skills. In addition to this, in preparation for each mobility, children learnt all about each visiting country. They created presentations, posters, panel and oxford debates . Children had the opportunity to speak different languages during welcome assemblies, school tours and when participating in environmental lessons during the mobility. Teachers learnt a huge amount during the two years of this project. We worked collaboratively to design and implement new schemes of work tackling several environmental and climate issues. New ecological activities were created in schools such as litter picks in the local area, recycled art projects and fashion shows. Teachers improved their teaching of ICT through website and app training. Staff who participated in the mobilities shared their experiences with staff and children, often leading assemblies showing photos of other European countries, further adding a European dimension to their schools. Teachers also learnt more about a range of teaching strategies such as personalized and adaptive learning; digital story telling; video-based learning and project-based learning. Teachers have applied these strategies to other areas of the curriculum, making lessons more engaging for their pupils. There have been many benefits from this project and we really believe that it has had a big effect on local school communities. Students, parents and school staff have been actively involved in creating and learning about ecological and climate change activities. When asked, all teachers involved with the project said that they will carry on teaching about the environmental issues our world is facing long after the project has ended and they now have the tools in place to do so. This is the legacy of our project.