Plants were living far before us, they surround us, they resist us,they are part of our exchanges, of our human history. Would their domestication have brought us into civilization? Ethnobotany or the use of plants among people is a topic that can attract the attention of a variety of classes of people, because there are many themes in its content such as the use of plants for medicinal purposes, their use as ornaments,their place in mythology and beliefs, their use as fuel, their use in the production of beverages and clothing, their use within leisure and hobbies and their use to dye yarns and to make dyes. Therefore, any of these issues may attract people's attention. The use of herbal materials is common in botany, agriculture, pharmacology, industry, art and in many other fields. So, our short field excursions and investigations will attract the attention of both students and people we will share our findings with. We have observed that the energy of our students is increased when meeting nature, so have their academic success and their interest in nature . In addition, young people, who are under the bondage of today's technology addiction, will enjoy meeting with nature and meeting local people. As a result of botanical research, both their social skills and their academic skills will start to develop. The natural and cultural ressources of the different countries will contribute to the dissemination of the project and increase the outputs without limiting our project to local studies. Our E twinning project will provide resources for this project in every respect, and with this project, while disadvantaged students’ having the opportunity of mobility, we will have the opportunity to make an impact assessment. Field studies, botanical garden trips and ethnobotanical practices, conferences with professionals or adults will be the most important methods of this project, and their realization with on-site and other national children will increase the impact value and enable the project to reach its socio-cultural goals. But the exchanges and work between students from different countries will also enable the students to meet or recognize different cultures as well as their own culture, to improve their language proficiency and to feel part of a European community having the same way of life, the same way of thinking and the same way of imagining a future closer to Nature than the one created by elder generations. The popularity of our topic will also guide us on how we can enrich and expand these local works. Our project will enable us to evaluate our position on an international platform and to share it with other schools interested by this subject.
This project, created from the study of plants and their diversity, brought a lot to all participants. He gave them bases both in botany with work in biology, culinary with the use of these same plants in dishes prepared with sometimes very different culinary, gastronomic and cooking traditions, material with their industrial uses (fabrics , insulation, construction, crop rotation, dyeing, rope manufacturing...), historical and artistic. During the first mobility meeting and development of the project with all the partners, Doctor Selani Selvi's PowerPoint, presented in English, served as a knowledge base and vocabulary acquisition for many teachers and then transmitted to the students. This work addressed a broad spectrum of knowledge: evolution, classification, histories of the evolution of plants in parallel with the evolution of humanity: It was essential to present it at the start of the project. Ethnobotany or the use of plants by humans is a subject that has attracted the attention of students and captivated them. Indeed its content includes many themes studied such as: - The use of plants in medicine and pharmacology; theme studied by the students in Kromeriz -Czech Republic- where they made observations on Petri dishes, with plants that they had previously selected in their country. - The use of plants in cooking and drinks in Denmark has shown that according to different cultures and gastronomies, the same plants, cooked by Northern or Southern Europeans, give varied flavors and tastes that each participant was able to enjoy. - In Turkey, they discovered or learned their artisanal or industrial uses for textiles, insulation, ropes, dyeing and the impact of their culture on the environment. - In Italy, during a visit to a Roman villa and the surroundings of Etna, they studied the use that our ancestors made of plants for food, clothing...2000 years ago and the symbolism that our ancestors gave them (fertility, strength, beauty, wealth, belief, etc.). Cultural differences showed that, from one country to another, the symbolic representation was not the same. The last meeting in France in Bergerac, allowed them, with the help of artists, to learn to express themselves without their smartphones by drawing in their "travel notebook" the plants or their decorative use in front of certain houses in the old center of Bergerac or in the gardens or castles of the Dordogne valley (Eyrignac garden, Beynac castle, Saint-Exupery castle in Tiregand for an escape game etc.). The idea of these “travel diaries” was excellent! Many have discovered that they can express themselves in a completely different way in the “all-digital” era! They also visited a large horticultural and ornamental and fruit nursery company in which their designs were exhibited for 6 weeks. The exchanges and work between the students of each partner increased intensively immediately after the first C3 meeting in Kromeriz. The work and exchanges in groups of students of different nationalities were a driving force. It was the same for the Turkish dance (Damat Hayla) that Hanifé (Turkish teacher) -C5-- taught and which was repeated and adapted to the following meetings in Italy and France. Communication was an essential element to the success of the project: In fact, each partner had formed national and inter-partner groups on their school's social networks or often by WhatsApp, Facebook or others. These networks thus made it possible to share the “experiences” with the students of previous mobilities and to anticipate the following mobilities. Only the Danish participants were often the same people, but the other partners changed students or classes for each mobility. However, thanks to these previous exchanges, during each mobility and upon arrival in the host country, the participants had the impression to know each other for a long time. English very quickly became the "vehicular" language, however many learned Czech, Turkish, Italian or French expressions. A real European melting pot! Erasmus is an important contribution to European citizenship. This project and its dynamics have had an impact on teachers, students, parents and their social, political and educational environment because, due to its content in history, botany, symbolism, cuisine and the arts... added to the variety of partner countries visited and their customs, everyone found something to suit them. In addition, a cultural identity and common values have been highlighted and enhanced thanks to ERASMUS.