Currently our planet is facing various environmental challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity reduction, species extinction, deforestation, air and ocean pollution, drinking water scarcity, overpopulation, waste disposal and natural resource depletion among other local and global problems. In the past few decades the human exploitation of the planet and degradation of the environment have reached a critical point. Many of these big issues make youngsters feel overwhelmed. With every decade young people become “grownups” faster. It is clearly demonstrated with global school protests against governments and climate change. Youngsters want to participate, want to voice their concerns, want to be heard and respected, but in addition they feel a lot of pressure from their societal burdens such as school, future career, etc. These passionate young people frequently feel upset, scared and even lost under the weight of this confusing world and its pressures. They frequently ask such questions as: “How can I not be afraid of the future”, “What can I do as a tiny individual?” Unfortunately, young people often cannot find the right community, tools, specific ways, opportunities and education to take action and voice their concerns. We aim to provide a space for pupils to be able to feel free and communicate their concerns and worries, to dive deeper into understanding environmental issues, to gain confidence and to work towards solutions together as a group that supports each other. Project motivation is to prove that through communication young adults can not only come up with ideas and opinions about the environmental problems they identify but also move towards real action to tackle the issues. It is important to give an opportunity and assurance to young people that a shift in the environmental downfall is possible and real action is possible through their hands and minds. Through meeting, discussing, researching and understanding peer opinions, youngsters develop a fresh and innovative outlook to the global environmental issues, gain confidence and acquire unique ways towards solving them. Throughout the project youngsters will obtain a new, specialised vocabulary in English so they can engage in discussions, solution finding and problem solving freely. In turn, this will help youngsters to become more competent and thorough in their future communications rather than just using general phrases that may not properly convey their opinions. During this 15-month long project classes 11 from Hungary and Latvia (15 pupils from Hungary and 25 pupils from Latvia) will determine what are the most prominent environmental issues to them, they will immerse in nature to connect with it fully, they will discuss topics and conduct research in various settings (outdoor classrooms, nature explorations, museum and research centre visits, workshops and lectures etc.), they will meet experts and local authorities to deepen their understanding, youngsters will create social awareness campaigns, they will come up with solutions that can work in their local communities and post sessions they will spread the message further through their social circles and social media. This project will serve as an inspiration and steppingstone for youngsters to become more aware, knowledgeable, confident and responsible citizens of the Planet Earth. The project will take 15 months and will combine virtual and live exchanges amongst teachers and pupils. The aim is to look at this question from the point of view of the youngsters, as they are the future. The two participating schools want to listen to their voices and plan to embed projects on sustainability into their curricula with the help of the pupils. As the two schools have been cooperating on several levels for several years this is the next logical step towards continuous collaboration. The project’s disseminational activities will help other schools to realise the potential of revitalising curricula by the help of their pupils, and of the importance of cooperation with schools throughout Europe which is made possible by EU funding through Erasmus+.
Currently our planet is facing various environmental challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity reduction, species extinction, deforestation, air and ocean pollution, drinking water scarcity, overpopulation, waste disposal and natural resource depletion among other local and global problems. In the past few decades the human exploitation of the planet and degradation of the environment have reached a critical point. Many of these big issues make youngsters feel overwhelmed. With every decade young people become “grownups” faster. It is clearly demonstrated with global school protests against governments and climate change. Youngsters want to participate, want to voice their concerns, want to be heard and respected, but in addition they feel a lot of pressure from their societal burdens such as school, future career, etc. These passionate young people frequently feel upset, scared and even lost under the weight of this confusing world and its pressures. They frequently ask such questions as: “How can I not be afraid of the future”, “What can I do as a tiny individual?” Unfortunately, young people often cannot find the right community, tools, specific ways, opportunities and education to take action and voice their concerns. We aimed to provide a space for pupils to be able to feel free and communicate their concerns and worries, to dive deeper into understanding environmental issues, to gain confidence and to work towards solutions together as a group that supports each other. Project motivation was to prove that through communication young adults can not only come up with ideas and opinions about the environmental problems they identify but also move towards real action to tackle the issues. It was important to give an opportunity and assurance to young people that a shift in the environmental downfall is possible and real action is possible through their hands and minds. We planned the project so that through meeting, discussing, researching and understanding peer opinions, youngsters will be able develop a fresh and innovative outlook to the global environmental issues, gain confidence and acquire unique ways towards solving them. During the project students had the opportunity to obtain a new, specialised vocabulary in English so they can engage in discussions, solution finding and problem solving more and more freely. This helped them to become more competent and thorough in their communications rather than just using general phrases that may not properly convey their opinions. During this project classes 11 from Hungary and Latvia (15 hungarian and 25 latvian pupils) determined what are the most prominent environmental issues to them, they immersed in nature to connect with it fully, they discussed topics and conducted research in various settings (outdoor classrooms, nature explorations, museum and research centre visits, workshops and lectures etc.), they met experts and local people to deepen their understanding. Youngsters created social awareness campaign, they came up with solutions that can work in their local communities. This project served also as an inspiration and steppingstone for youngsters to become more aware, knowledgeable, confident and responsible citizens of the Planet Earth. The project combined virtual and live exchanges amongst teachers and pupils. The aim was to look at this question from the point of view of the youngsters, as they are the future. As the two schools have been cooperating on several levels for several years this was the next logical step towards continuous collaboration. The project’s disseminational activities aimed to help other schools to realise the potential of revitalising curricula by the help of their pupils, and of the importance of cooperation with schools throughout Europe which is made possible by EU funding through Erasmus+.