24-months "Change Begins With You and Me!" project was built in cooperation with Italy (coordinator), Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Portugal.The effects of climate change are not limited to hurricanes, droughts, floods.There is a danger of encountering new diseases, insect species, thirst, desertification or serious climatic events in the future.People's actions leave permanent traces, such as footprints on the planet, and bring life to dangerous dimensions.Climate change is a problem not only for politicians but also for all of us as citizens of the world.Most importantly, schools need to cover this issue more broadly, both inside and outside the curriculum.Because changing the usual behavior begins at an early age and continues throughout life. Lessons learned early in life can prompt a lifetime of smart habits.For this reason, our aim is to raise awareness of climate change, to provide students with sustainable behavior change throughout the life, to draw attention to environmental problems at the global and national level, to make students much more knowledgeable about the risks that the next generation might face, to learn effective and innovative practices by collaborating with our European partners in order to incorporate climate change issues into citizenship, science, ICT, geography, mathematics and art, and to integrate into our curriculum. Our objectives are; -To develop open access resources and training packages for raising awareness. -To encourage changes in the attitudes and behaviors needed to make our world more sustainable, and building new generations that are sensitive to climate change. -To increase “climate literacy” on students, encouraging students to take action to prevent further climate change. -Strengthening teachers' capacities and curricula, promoting climate change education. Teachers who will provide added value, and students aged 9-12 will participate in mobilities.At the end of the two years, the total number of participants will be 60 students and 40 teachers. Planned the main project activities within the LTTA are; preparing a Global Objective Country map using an interactive map, determining global goals and preparing jigsaw that includes actions to achieve global goals, carbon footprint activities, preparing storyboards, preparing models of preparing greenhouse effects, playing green selection game, drawing e-cartoons, workshops on getting energy from water, building a solar oven and a wind farm, producing bio-diesel fuel, making bags by turning old t-shirts into strings, designing a city for sustainable living, designing wearable technologies and clothing; visiting the METU Institute of Marine Sciences in Turkey, product exhibitions, a conference about zoonotic diseases, finding solutions for 2050, “my water footprint” activity, creating an action plan, creating sustainable food menu, global warming through pantomime, designing global warming cliparts images, developing an utopia on the subject of "my country in 100 years", drawing a sketch of their mind map, outdoor math activities, making a terrarium, creating a seed bank, designing a butterfly garden, presentation of the endangered species, building an insect hotel, interactive workshops, climate-friendly lifestyle quiz using Kahoot app, the Green Brain of the Year Contest and opening/closing gala. Regular contact between partners will be through Facebook, Google drive, whatsapp, eTwinning online meetings and face-to-face progress and evaluation meetings every LTTA twice a year.Each school will meet in the 1st week of each month, review the work plan and provide information to the coordinator by completing his duties and responsibilities on time. The results are:We will integrate innovative practices about climate change into the curriculum of citizenship, science, geography, mathematics and physics.We'll develop supplementary educational materials and open access resources for teachers and students.Teachers will strengthen their capacity by developing cooperation and collaboration with European partner schools.Students will try to make lifelong sustainable behavior changes and change their lifestyle as responsible world citizens to reduce the effects of global climate change.We'll draw attention to climate change and environmental problems at local, national and international level, create awareness, and spread the results in wide networks. The partner schools will use all experiences for many years, especially in Science, Math, Art, ICT, Geograpy and citizenship lessons, and will develop new practices in the future with their transnational LTTA experience.Since our common outputs will take place electronically and as open access sources, partner schools and wider environments can always use these outputs without permission, colleagues can adapt or develop their own classes. The participants will gain new knowledge and skills, gain awareness of global warming and climate change at European level.
The “Change Begins With you and me” project was a very complex but also very satisfying project. Complex since born before the Covid Sars 2019 pandemic, it had to deal with it and with all the difficulties connected to it. The first year of the project was practically carried out (from September to May 2020) entirely remotely, which required a considerable effort from all the participants. For this reason, an extension was unanimously requested and for 24 months the project has lasted 36 months. Another difficulty, brilliantly overcome, was the fact that all the teachers who actually created and carried out the "Change begins with you and me" project, except the Bulgarian contact person, were "heirs" teachers of teachers who changed school. Personally as a contact person, it was not easy to take charge of a dossier that I have not experienced since its genesis. Together with the other partners we had to carefully study it and also adapt it to the new pandemic reality in which we found ourselves despite ourselves. It should also be noted that the Turkish partner school which had the following name in the application form: Osmaniye Ortaokulu, underwent a change of name to Hüseyin Merzeci Özer Secondary School, with the project already in place. The driving forces behind this project were: • The strong motivation of all members of the international group • The strong competence of the legal manager of the coordinating school who was able to foresee and find solutions to situations of maximum emergency and/or crisis. • The strong cohesion of the partners who, like in a large family, supported each other with continuous discussions, making each other's experience and expertise gained within Erasmus+ projects available to the other • The support of families who, despite the fear of the pandemic, have relied on schools by hosting/receiving with the same warmth that distinguishes Erasmus+ projects and which, thanks to which, make them indelible growth experiences for students and teachers. • The support of local administrations which increasingly show us that they believe in the Erasmus+ formula and which ask us to create a "network". As a lower secondary school we are one of the few in the North Naples area with a vast and varied experience in Erasmus+ projects and with a network of ambassadors including staff, students and families that is spreading like wildfire. Among the difficulties that have arisen in these 36 months, not least the very serious earthquake that has involved the southern part of Turkey is that it has really upset both humanly and practically a project that was on the line of arrival. But it is precisely on this difficulty that we want to emphasize. Beyond the educational objectives set by this dossier, mobility in Turkey has allowed a population (especially children) to shake off a significant shock. In our opinion, seeing people from 4 European countries at their home left a sign of great serenity and a return to normality in their hearts because they did not perceive fear in others. And this is the point that we think is the most beautiful of all. The 36 months of the project can be summarized as follows: 1st year 2020-2021 - In the first school year all the pedagogical outcomes were carried out remotely via the platforms Google meet, E-Twinning, Zoom and others. Interested pupils have joined an email exchange and the creation of group chats also with means such as Whatsapp and Telegram, to get to know their travel companions effectively. There were frequent online meetings and webinars. Each school worked "at home" (from September 2020 to November 2020) on the issues of environmental protection, on the issue of good recycling practices, respect for the surrounding greenery and on increasing it. Given the Covid situation, we have also included good hygiene practices among the pedagogical objectives. The Istituto Comprensivo Carducci King has planted more than 50 trees (typical of the Mediterranean maquis) in its courtyard since the beginning of the project. During each mobility, flower and plant seeds were offered to the host country from each incoming country and the "planting" ceremony was created as a symbol of a seed of life that each of us can and must plant.