The main aim of the project, in which about 120 students between 12 and 16 and 60 teachers will have active roles and join the mobilities, is allowing students to become more active and inclusive citizens via challenges that will help them to deepen their knowledge of the historical and cultural background of their own cities and those of their partners and to investigate the problems all of these cities are currently facing and their possible consequences in the future. It has been fully recognized that cultural heritage plays a central role in our society, creating a feeling of togetherness within and across national borders and promoting mutual understanding and shared values. Through the planned activities they will also develop such skills as face-to-face communication, collaboration, working as a team, creativity which will be fundamental in their future working life. After a questionnaire to check what the students already know about their own cities and the big threat represented by the climate changes, we planned pre-, while- and post-mobility activities to make them know their cities better from a historical and cultural point of view, and have more accurate information about the causes and effects of climate changes on their daily life while strengthening their multilingual, digital, cultural awareness and expression, personal and social competences. Each mobility deals with different aspects: the cultural and natural heritage in the partners’ cities, the problems they face in terms of health, transportation, crime, education, the local ancient civilations and legends, the minorities living in the partners’ cities and their cultural identities (festivals, songs, folk dances), the enviromental problems and their cause and effects and so on. Before each mobility students will have online exams about the topic which will be repeated after mobility. They will prepare presentations or reports about the topic to share during mobilities. Furthermore they will make a search to find out the connections with their countries and the host city according to the topic. During the mobilities each student will be an active learner through different tasks (the host students will act as tour guides for the guest students, for example), will carry out various activities working as a team (interviewing people, visiting places and monuments, making presentations, discussing problems and solutions,…) and at the end they will create a final product like a video, a book on local legends, a documentary about people who are living cultural heritage in the partners’ cities. Our project will also be a chance for the involved teachers to update their professional skills thanks to workshops or seminars they will attend during each mobility, especially about eLearning. The local activities, which will be carried out under our eTwinning project named "My city", aim at making our students to know their cities better according to the following topics: city squares, poems on our cities, city symbols, endemic plants and animals in our cities, legends about our cities. Students working as a team (the groups will be created applying some criteria such as motivation, foreign language and technological skills, academic results, involvement in class and school life) will create some products (books, photo albums, a small garden and videos) using ICT tools, then collect and share them in the Twinspace of the eTwinning project which will be started as soon as this ERASMUS+ project will be granted. In order to evaluate the students' progress we planned pre and post-mobility exams and 3 checklists to follow the activities. Our main target people will be students and teachers at our schools who won't join the project mobilities, reached via competitions, project corners, videos, quiz shows, mini congress days. Students with social, economic or family problems will be given priority in being involved in the project activities. Younger students and the participating students’ brothers and sisters will join the project too through a creative activity. To reach more people who are interested in our topic we will also have a website and a youtube channel. Moreover, all the products will be shared on social media. All the partners will collaborate with local organizations (municipalities, universities and museums) to share the project and its results as much as possible. During all mobilities local municipalities and people in charge will be visited and the local press will be invited to all activities. Through our project students will learn more about their cities and their historical and cultural backgrounds, developing their language and ICT skills, increasing their self-esteem and creative vision so that they more likely will get a job in the future. While our schools will get a better collaboration and communication between teachers and students, a stronger sinergy with local authorities and a larger international collaboration.
DISCOVER MY CITY was an Erasmus Project, coordinated by Italy whose partners were schools from Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Germany, in which 118 students between 11 and 17 and 26 teachers had active roles and joined the mobilities. It has been fully recognized that cultural heritage plays a central role in our society, creating a feeling of togetherness within and across national borders and promoting mutual understanding and shared values. The project mainly aimed at allowing students to become more active and inclusive citizens through activities and tasks that helped them to deepen their knowledge of the historical and cultural background of their own cities and those of the school partners and to investigate the problems these cities are currently facing and their possible consequences in the future. Through the planned activities they also could develop such skills as face-to-face communication, collaboration, working as a team, creativity which are fundamental in their future working life. After an initial questionnaire to check what they already knew about the natural and cultural values in their cities and if they were aware of the problems there and the big threat for their lives represented by the climate change, we proposed pre-, while- and post-mobility activities to let them know their cities better from a historical and cultural point of view and get more accurate information about the causes and effects of climate change on their daily life, thus strengthening their multilingual, digital, cultural awareness and expression together with their personal and social competences. Each mobility dealt with different aspects: the cultural and natural heritage in the partners’ cities, the problems they face in terms of health, transportation, crime, education, the local ancient civilizations and legends, the minorities living in the partners’ cities and their cultural identities (festivals, songs, folk dances), the environmental problems and their causes and effects, important people who are living heritage in the partners’ cities. Before each mobility students had online exams about the topic which were repeated after the mobility. They prepared presentations or reports about the topic to share during mobilities. Furthermore they made a search to find out the connections between their country and the host city according to the topic. During the mobilities each student had an active role through different tasks: the host students acted as tour guides for the guest students while visiting the cities, the participating students carried out various activities working as a team (interviewing people, visiting places and monuments, making searches and presentations, discussing problems and solutions, creating and learning together, comparing). At the end of each mobility they created a final product like a video, a book on local legends, a documentary about people who are living cultural heritage in the partners’ cities. Our project was also a chance for the involved teachers to update their professional skills thanks to workshops or seminars they attended during each mobility, especially about eLearning. The local activities, which were carried out under our eTwinning project named "My city", aimed at allowing our students to know their cities better according to the following topics: city squares, poems on our cities, city symbols, endemic plants and animals in our cities, legends about our cities. Students working as a team (the groups were created applying some criteria such as motivation, foreign language and technological skills, academic results, involvement in class and school life) created some products (books, photo albums, presentations and videos) using ICT tools, then collected and shared them in the Twinspace of the eTwinning project which was started as soon as this ERASMUS+ project was granted. In order to evaluate the students' progress we planned pre and post-mobility exams and 3 checklists to follow the activities. Our main target people were students and teachers at our schools who didn’t join the project mobilities, reached via competitions, project corners, videos, quiz shows, mini congress days. Students with social, economic or family problems were given priority in being involved in the project activities. Younger students and the participating students’ brothers and sisters joined the project too through a creative activity. To reach more people interested in our topic we also had a website , a YouTube channel and we also created pages on social media to share and disseminate results, events, activities. All the partners collaborated with local organizations (municipalities, universities and museums) to share the project and its results as much as possible. During all mobilities local municipalities and people in charge were visited and the local press was invited to all activities.