In an ever-changing world and an European feeling that is sometimes called into question, it seems to us that education is the best means for promoting European citizenship. Through the KA229 Biodivercity school exchange project, we wish to show that despite the diversity of human beings, their cultures and especially their habitat, there is a biological unity and that Europeans come from different backgrounds but have a common history and destiny. Thus this idea of interdisciplinary work linking languages (French and English) to biology and history-geography emerged, which in our opinion constitutes an educational lever as a medium of knowledge in order to improve tolerance and living together. The Biodivercity project is supported by 2 high schools; the Lycée Montesquieu in Le Mans (France) and the Heilig Haartinstituut in Leuven (Belgium). It involves a team of about ten French and Belgian teachers who will supervise 2 groups of about twenty 2nd year high school students from each school for 2 school years (2020-2022). Our schools, having identified their needs through their contracts of objectives, want to reinforce the European dimension by developing a cooperation network through this pupils’ project. We identified the following needs: the reinforcement of the cultural, linguistic practices and learning process of the pupils, the enrichment of the class activities and the reinforcement of the preparation of the pupils for higher education. The objectives for the pupils are the improvement of their language skills (in English for French pupils and in French for Belgian pupils), their scientific and digital skills, but also an enrichment of their European culture. The international cooperation in the framework of this project will enable us to show the pupils what the French and Belgian cultures have in common (e.g. biology, living conditions) but also how different they are (history, culture and today’s society). The school exchange also aims at developing their social skills. The objectives for the teachers are to strengthen their interdisciplinary cooperation (in their school and with the other European school), to develop their linguistic, intercultural and digital skills. At the school level, the aim is to establish lasting cooperation and to enrich the teaching practices. The project is focused on 2 weeks of school exchanges per project year. These two weeks will be prepared, reinforced and extended by an eTwinning project in the long term, allowing for the publication and sharing of preparatory work and final productions. Teacher training activities are planned to achieve strong teamwork so as to prepare, adapt, share and evaluate the progress and quality of the project. During the exchange weeks in France and Belgium, the students will be hosted by their correspondents. They will also be able to visit the partner school, attend classes, participate in educational activities (museum visits, scientific workshops, meetings and exchange sessions, sharing of their work and findings). This mobility revolves around cultural exchanges for the first year (culture, history, food, town planning). In the second year, the emphasis on science will provide a better understanding of migration patterns, population composition and how our cultures influence each other on more societal aspects. These activities, for students, will contribute to intercultural knowledge and exchanges, as well as improving language skills. Indeed, a good command of a foreign language (French for Belgians, English for French) gives pupils greater integration and market potential. We will share intermediate productions in the form of photos, videos, and scientific reports on eTwinning. The final productions for the first year of the project will be an exhibition of maps of the cities of Le Mans, Leuven and Brussels in secondary schools and, for the second year, the publication on eTwinning of logbooks on scientific work and migration stories. Through the innovative approach of the project on a difficult subject such as migration, the intended long-term benefits for pupils are to develop a critical mind towards our own culture and to encourage an open-mindedness towards other societies, in order to develop their tolerance and European citizenship. Finally, the Biodivercity project on the scale of the 2 European high schools will strengthen intercultural, linguistic practices and learning process. It will provide the students with extra training and knowledge in keeping with the school’s objectives which are success, cooperation and integration.
In an ever-changing world, and a European feeling that is sometimes called into question, it seemed to us that education is the best means for promoting European citizenship. Through the KA229 Biodivercity school exchange project, we have shown that despite the diversity of human beings, their cultures and especially their habitat, there is a biological unity and that Europeans come from different backgrounds but have a common history and destiny. Thus this idea of interdisciplinary work linking languages (French and English) to biology and history-geography emerged, which in our opinion constitutes an educational lever as a medium of knowledge in order to improve tolerance and living together (social skills). The Biodivercity project was supported by 2 high schools; the Lycée Montesquieu in Le Mans (France) and the Heilig Haartinstituut in Leuven (Belgium). It involved a team of about ten French and Belgian teachers who worked with and supervised 2 groups of about twenty 2nd year high school students from each school for 3 school years (2020-2023). Our schools, having identified their needs through their contracts of objectives, wanted to reinforce the European dimension by developing a cooperation network through this pupils’ project. We identified the following needs: the reinforcement of the cultural, linguistic practices and learning process of the pupils, the enrichment of the class activities and the reinforcement of the preparation of the pupils for higher education. The objectives for the pupils were the improvement of their language skills (in English for French pupils and in French for Belgian pupils), their scientific and digital skills, but also an enrichment of their European culture. The international cooperation within the framework of this project has enabled us to show the pupils what the French and Belgian cultures have in common (e.g. biology, living conditions) but also how different they are (history, culture and today’s society). The school exchange also aimed at developing their social skills. The objectives for the teachers were to strengthen their interdisciplinary cooperation (in their school and with the other European school), to develop their linguistic, intercultural and digital skills. At the school level, the aim was to establish lasting cooperation and to enrich the teaching practices. The project was initially focused on 2 weeks of school exchanges per project year. In 2020, the covid-19 crisis led us to interact remotely only. In October 2021 the first exchange took place over a two-week span (the French team of teachers and students went to Leuven the first week, the weekend was spent in Paris with both the Belgians and the French, and the Belgians spent the second week in Le Mans). For the second exchange, the French went to Leuven in October 2022 and the Belgians came to France in March 2023. Those two weeks were prepared, reinforced and extended by an eTwinning project spanning over three years, allowing for the publication and sharing of preparatory work and final productions. Teacher training activities have achieved strong teamwork so as to prepare, adapt, share and evaluate the progress and quality of the project. A jobshadowing project at the Heilig Haartinstituut involving 4 French teachers took place in October 2019. Then the Belgian colleagues came to France in February 2020. Those jobshadowing sessions encouraged two more French teachers (who teach English) to do a jobshadowing project in Belgium in October 2022, and ultimately to apply for a new K210 project.