Due to the changes of actual society, people is expected to move more frequently from their birth places to different places. To adapt in this new situation well, it is crucial to know how to communicate with each other in a multicultural context, with different languages, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. And the first step in this direction is to be aware of what defines the identity of people, at individual and community level; what defines our own identity. We need to take action and to be aware of the importance of Nature and Cultural heritage. In this project we intend to valorize all those natural and cultural, tangible and non material resources at local level that, not being milestones of civilization, also makes us explain who we are, what our history is and our character. The project is aimed at: - highlightening interest on natural and cultural heritage in Europe. - showing the importance of nature as an essential element in our daily lives. - putting into practice new methodological tools based on outdoor activities on local natural and cultural resources with a multidisciplinary approach. - enhancing creativity and entrepreneurship towards the promotion and valuation of environment and tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The project partners are six schools from Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Turkey (2), Romania, all of them are general secondary schools. Schools are willing to working on transnational projects and with a different and spectacular heritage in their places. The project is addressed to students 12 to 15 years old. The project activities are planned to search about the local natural and cultural heritage, their influence on people’s identity and their potential as a tool to communicate and to work together as well as to promote the development of the local areas where they are located, at both social and economic level. The working schema is to learn and investigate about the local heritage resources and share that knowledge in transnational meetings; to learn about the entrepreneurial project linked to those heritage resources and to raise appreciation and consideration towards it with the development of promotional material at local and transnational level. A teacher staff mobility and five student mobility is planned for 2 years. It is widely agreed that the prosperity of our world’s future is closely connected to well-educated children. In our project we will make it clear that each student’s voice is heard, because in a milieu of cultural diversity different views act as a catalyst for progress at each level of social life. Student exchanges and other activities in the project will also enhance an understanding toward diverse perspectives on European citizenship and help our students to develop an appreciation of the European cultural diversity and an empathy for different cultures. In the first short-term staff training meeting, in Latvia, teachers will learn about the common ICT tools and skills needed to successfully deal with the task in the project. The next five short-term exchange of students, partners and students will devote time to learn about the heritage of the host countries ( Italy, Romania, Portugal, Turkey ( 2 schools ) reflecting on the influence of heritage on people’s identity ( Italy ), Similitude and difference in every partner heritage ( Portugal ) learning about the opportunities and threats of Natural and Cultural heritage ( Trabzon, Turkey ), creating promotional material based on their own gathered material (pictures, videos, leaflets, brochures etc.). In the short-term student training, teachers will learn basic concepts of how to promote entrepreneurial skills in their pupils ( Romania ) will explore the possibilities to use heritage to promote growth and development ( Portugal )will get and an idea how to preserve the natural resources (Antalya, Turkey ) and will pick up local entrepreneurs on heritage to present case studies to their colleagues ( Romania ). With a multidisciplinary approach all the project activity will be relied on a project based learning organized around outdoor activities and peer-learning sessions. We intend with this project to raise awareness in our students and the educational community towards local heritage and its importance, providing other schools with the guidance and examples needed to replicate the initiative in future projects at local or transnational level with great success.
The Project considered the activation of a strategic partnership for innovation and the exchange of good practices lasting two years with the involvement of six School Institutes from the following countries: the Istituto Comprensivo ad Indirizzo Musicale "Giuseppe Vasi" of Corleone (Italy) in the role of Lead School (Coordinator), the Secondary School "Raina" of Riga (Latvia), the Agrupamento de Escolas "António Alves Amorim" of Lourosa (Portugal), the Scoala Gimnaziala of Lenauheim (Romania), the Secondary School "Sinan-ı Ummi İmam Hatipurchia" of Elmali (Turkey) and the "Yomra Merkez Ortaokulu" of Trabzon (Turkey). The Project was supposed to last two years but, given the continuation of the Covid19 pandemic, the European Commission, in order to allow the projects to continue in an emergency situation, introduced flexibility mechanisms in the management of activities, such as virtual and blended mobility, and, in particular, the extension of the deadline by one year in order to be able to complete the planned mobilities in the application phase. Due to the restrictions of stringent security measures, each mobility required even more careful rescheduling and planning due to the pandemic-related security measures that were taken from time to time by national institutions to cope with the emergency. Many online meetings were held to ensure that every aspect was planned in detail before, during and at the end of the Project. The Project carried out all the planned mobilities; the only variation was that of favouring hospitality in a hotel over hospitality in a family, as this was considered by the participants' own families to be the most suitable in that phase of health emergency (only 4 female students from the Latvian school preferred to be hosted by their families during the mobility in Italy). The project, through visits to schools in partner countries, outdoors visits (national parks, nature reserves, cities of art, UNESCO heritage sites), workshops, and moments of sharing such as the Erasmus dinner/lunch, achieved all its goals, which can be summarised as follows to strengthen the European dimension and the quality of teaching, through professional development; to improve and enhance foreign language learning. (in this case the vehicular language was English); sharing new teaching practices; supporting the educational, professional and personal development of individuals in the field of education, thus contributing to sustainable growth, the promotion of innovation and the strengthening of European identity and active citizenship; highlighting the interest in natural and cultural heritage in Europe as an essential element of everyday life and, above all, overcoming cultural divisions and creating multicultural societies. Each mobility developed different themes related to the valorisation of Europe's natural and cultural heritage: "Natural heritage as an educational resource for a successful educational process" (Latvia), "Nature and identity" (Italy), "Living heritage" (Romania), "Heritage as an instrument of coexistence" (Portugal), "Nature and the future" (Elmali-Turkey), "Natural and cultural heritage" (Trabzon-Turkey). The mobilities, six in total, concerned school staff (not all participants were teachers) and pupils, with the exception of the first one which concerned only teachers from the partner countries which took place in Latvia and was preparatory to the subsequent ones. The five LTTA student mobilities were planned to learn about the local natural and cultural heritage, its influence on people's identity and its potential as a tool for communicating and working together, as well as to promote the development of the local areas in which they are located, both socially and economically. Student exchanges and other project activities improved understanding of different perspectives on European citizenship and helped students develop an appreciation of European cultural diversity and empathy for different cultures. In the first short-term staff training meeting in Latvia, teachers learnt about the new technologies needed to successfully tackle the project tasks; the five short-term exchanges in the partner countries of the Project also involved students (an average of 4 for each partner school) and gave them the opportunity to get to know the heritage of the partner countries both from the historical, artistic, naturalistic and cultural point of view (customs, food, music literary production) and gave them the opportunity to reflect on its influence on people's identity, on the similarity and difference of each partner country's heritage, to learn about the opportunities that the heritage of each country involved may have at a business level and to raise awareness of the importance of its valorisation and protection. All the educational activities were carried out in a transversal manner; the methodological framework was developed taking into account the design phase, favouring the experiential approach, direct observation and on-site experimentation. At the end of each Mobility, promotional material made up of images, videos, multimedia creations was collected to be shared in one's own school and local community. The results achieved were shared by the partner countries within their own school and with the local community and will serve as an example to be replicated in future projects at local and/or transnational level. By promoting debate, research and the exchange of good practices, the development of skills is supported and the management and transfer of knowledge is improved. The proposed activities (e.g. the workshops in Lourosa and Trabzon) improved students' self-esteem and self-confidence, raising awareness of how music, arts and tradition in general can become a means of increasing autonomy, developing critical thinking, building stronger ties with others, and actively participating in educational activities in situations of cooperative learning, peer to peer, and problem solving. The outdoor visits to Corleone, Timișoara, Lourosa, Elmali and Trabzon raised awareness of the importance of European cultural heritage, encouraged sharing and appreciation of European cultural heritage as a shared resource, increased awareness of common history and values, and strengthened the sense of belonging to a common European space. The project was implemented by valorising cultural differences and multiculturalism in Europe, not forgetting inclusion.