“My city: from the past to the future, for a better life” is a project which concerns the cities from five different schools and which will convey two ideas: the wealth and the protection of its cultural heritage and the preservation and improvement of citizens’ quality of life as far as environment is concerned. I feel good in my city thanks to its architectural wealth. However, if I want to keep this architectural wealth, I have to take care of it, protect my city for the future generations. So we have to understand that environment matters. Sustainable development was considered for the former generations as a burden, however nowadays, young people take it very seriously. Sustainable environment is a way of life but also an emergency and a vital problem. We live in different countries but we are preoccupied by the same environmental issues. Helping each other will enable us to better understand these issues and find solutions. Our team is made up of 5 different schools from Poland, Spain, France, Germany and Portugal.They all represent the different faces of a city and its various issues related to the protection of cultural heritage and of sustainable environment. There is a European metropolis with strong and attractive densities (Cracow in Poland), a city with peri-urban areas (La Zubia 4km from Grenada in Spain); a middle city (Toul in France); two urban zones in the heart of country areas (Bernkastel-kues in Germany and Carregal do Sal in Portugal). The diversity will encourage multilingualism since the languages spoken are English, French, German and Spanish. Each school will send around 20/30 pupils aged from 13 to 16 years old. All the pupils are learning English and their second language is either French, German or Spanish. One of our main purpose is inclusion, thus students with disabilities (cognitive functions) will be part of our project. However the research work and virtual contacts will be shared by many other students in these schools, even if they cannot go on mobility. Each school will present the wealth of its cultural heritage and we will work together on the various tools and methods we can use to preserve it. How does my city exploit its cultural heritage along by respecting the environment? Our objective is also to put in common our researches and ideas in order to make our students aware of the sustainable development issues. We also want them to be conscious of the necessity to develop a better life for the future generations. To reach these aims, we will work around several thematic areas: how can we provide sustainable energy?How can urban space and country space develop together? How can we handle water inside the city? How can we put ecotourism into place? How can we use eco-friendly transports? This is our working plan: - the protection of our cultural heritage is one of the two keys of our project. Our project will last the next two years. Thus, we will have virtual and real exchanges and collaborations on the protection of our cultural heritage. We will compare the different means established in the different cities. - The other key is working around the best possible environment for my city. It will last two years with several steps. The first step, we will engage our researches around three axes: the first will be a look at the negative effects of the energies used in the past, non sustainable energies, and we will then study the necessity of handling sustainable ressources focusing on true examples used in France. The second axis will be the observation of the cohabitation between the urban space and the country space, and we will observe a successful cohabitation in Germany. The last works (during the second year) will bring us to think of the best modalities to welcome the tourists as far as environmental impact is concerned. And to encourage our cities to limit the pollution of transports. These two themes will be studied in Portugal and in Poland. Finally, we will make an overview of all the actions realized during the project, actions focusing on the protection of our cultural heritage, sustainable environment to allow us to live a better urban life. This synthesis will be promoted to other students, teachers, parents, local communities, municipalities and will be disseminated to a wide audience. Through this project, we hope to encourage our students to struggle to preserve their cultural heritage, to protect the environment and to understand environmental issues in order to have a better life. We also want to give them the will to work alongside their European neighbors, understanding that we are all citizens of the same planet.
"My city: from the past to the future, for a better life", was an Erasmus+ KA229 project (2020-2023) involving 5 schools from Germany (Bernkastel-Kues), Spain (La Zubia), France (Toul), Poland (Krakow) and Portugal (Carregal do Sal). This project concerned the cities of the schools involved in the following themes: - the diversity and protection of their cultural heritage - the preservation and improvement of their quality of life in terms of environment. The working languages were English, French, German and Spanish. Each school sent between 17 and 33 students on a mobility trip, aged between 10 and 17. These were students who are learning English and have a second language among French, German or Spanish. With the goal of an inclusive school, students with cognitive disabilities participated in this project. Many activities were shared with other students from these schools. Each school presented the richness of its cultural heritage and created a leaflet in French, English, German and Spanish about the heritage of its city, which was offered to the students and teachers during the mobilities. The visits introduced the students to important heritage sites and made them aware of the importance of protecting it. The planned sustainable development themes were worked on in the following way: The benefits of renewable energies during the mobility in France, the water cycle and the preciousness of water during the physical mobility in Spain and during virtual activities on World Water Day, the rural space close to the city and the vineyards in the city during the mobility in Germany, the problem of pollution and the interest of sustainable transport during the mobility in Poland and finally ecotourism during the mobility in Portugal with eco-responsible workshops Our working plan took place over three years. Before the mobilities, the students worked on the heritage of their city and on sustainable development in class activities or in the Erasmus+ club and during events such as the Erasmus Days, the Franco-German Friendship Day, the World Air Quality Day, the World Water Day, the World Environment Day. Foreign languages have been very present during these three years : through the e-twinning activities carried out during the year 2020-2021 and then through group work in teams of several nationalities during the mobilities from 2021 to 2023. The European dimension has been studied throughout the project and more specifically during the Erasmus Days, the Europe month and during dedicated activities during the mobilities (quiz, kahoo!, visits of exhibitions about Europe). The work and visits carried out were promoted as widely as possible: the websites of the schools concerned, social networks, articles in the press, and dissemination in the sector schools. Pupils' work carried out before and during the mobilities is exhibited in the five schools. Erasmus+ Corners, illustrating the project, are installed in the schools. At the end of these activities, a summary sheet was completed, gathering the ideas of the pupils on all the actions in terms of heritage protection and sustainable development, to allow an urban life of the best possible quality. This summary was promoted as widely as possible on the project websites of the different schools and exhibited. Thanks to this project, the students discovered remarkable European heritage sites and listed by Unesco and understood the importance of protecting them. We showed them the challenges of sustainable development for the best possible urban life. They have developed an appetite for Europe. They understood the interest and the stakes of understanding the future as European citizens.