The project has been written on the base of the previous experience of the Polish school gained while carrying out the project 'Code for Green'. The needs analysis carried out at the participating schools showed that students do appreciate school environment heavily supported by modern technologies. Such a technology-assisted approach to teaching should facilitate learning processes and also can endow students with the skills needed in the modern world - technology literacy and media literacy. These skills were pointed out to be the ones that need to be developed. Technology literacy is also seen as a crucial skill by many educators and entrepreneurs and may be found on a lot of lists enumerating the skills of the 21st century. It goes without saying that the urgent need of all countries all around the world is the protection of the environment and such education should start from the earliest age. The students and the teachers can experience climate change and see the hazardous impact of pollution on people's lives. They feel the necessity to do something about it. So does the project. It turns out that the project combines two things of crucial importance - environmental protection and digital skills - and assumes a lot of activities revolving around them. The objectives of the project are manifold and involve: fostering the quality improvement in the field of education and environment protection, improving key competences, especially the ones in the field of technology, increasing motivation behind language learning, complementing the world policy with respect to environmental care and enhancing the skills needed in the modern world - digital ones and soft skills and also introducing the innovative approach to teaching, the one which is student-centered and based on empathy (design thinking, ICT-based solutions, creative methods). The grant is to be spent primarily on equipping schools with technological inventions which can be used to protect the environment (tablets, arduino robots, 3d printers, weather stations, censors, etc) and on providing trainings so as to enhance ICT skills of both the teachers and the students. Mostly, the project will consists in working out ICT-solutions so as to protect the environment. These solutions will be driven by the needs of the school. Students, inspired by their peers, will come up with the ideas how to save the planet. They will share their experience internationally. Such activities will be supported by the ongoing project activities so as to raise environmental awareness and express care about the environment, as well as adopt innovative teaching and learning methods (The Crazy Science Day at the schools, The Day of the Earth, water, soil, air, happenings, cleaning up the local surrounding, events about wasteful consumption and getting to know local facilities which help protect the environment to name just a few). With its great scope of activities combing ICT and environmental protection, supported by international student mobilities, the project is going to have many repercussions. The expected impact on the participants involves better knowledge of ICT tools, raised awareness of environmental challenges, increased knowledge on how to combine ICT and environmental issues, increased motivation for language learning and boost in key competences. When it comes to the teachers, they are to attain the following: grasp of new, student-centered teaching approaches - design thinking, ICT tools-based methods, creativity-boosting approaches, better knowledge of ICT tools and focus on environmental issues, developed motivation for learning languages, strengthened professional profile of teachers and incentives for their professional development. The schools are going to improve the quality of education, get inspiration for constant development, raise awareness of environmental challenges, attain better results at languages and ICT and succeed in the implementation of activities combining ICT and environmental protection into school curricula, implementation of innovative approaches to teaching and learning - ICT-solutions, design thinking and creativity-boosting solutions. The whole idea of intensified efforts taken to develop ICT skills of people while working on environmental issues seems to be bound to bring many fruitful results and get interest of a great many people, not only the ones directly involved in the project.
The project aimed at some purposes: 1) increasing environmental care: to raise awareness about climate changes, to address the global needs and protect the environment 2) enhancing teaching and learning: to improve key competences, especially the ones in the field of technology, to increase motivation behind language learning, to implement the innovative approaches to teaching and learning (with the use of ICT-based methodologies, based on design thinking and student-centered approaches), to promote cross-curricular collaboration, to promote the development of STEM strategies 3) boosting soft skills of the participants, spread tolerance, indiscrimination, equality 4) creating a modern school environment: to increase cooperation between schools and other instututions, to develop and reinforce international networks of schools, to enhance the European dimension of teaching and learning, to increase international mobilities of both students and teachers, to produce a more modern, dynamic and focused on the development school environment in which it is easy to share and confront teaching ideas, methods and strategies 5) exchanging good practices and making it more widespread in the field of education
We applied for the project to make an impact, cooperate on an international level and make education more influential. Modern technologies, incredibly interesting for kids because of their entertaining value, are also supportive in teaching. They facilitate learning, shorten a lot of school processes, increase effectiveness of education. Such a conclusion was drawn based on the need analysis carried out at schools. It was also suggested by all the headteachers, pointed by many educators and entrepreneurs and may be found on a lot of lists enumerating the skills of the 21st century (https://www.aeseducation.com/blog/what-are-21st-century-skills). The second urgent need taken int consideration was the protection of the environment. Undoubtedly, such approach should start from the earliest age. These two issues (technology and climate) seemed thus as a perfect combination to be addressed by the project as they constituted the answer to the needs detected at schools, in the local surroundings and globally. The importance was given on an international level to contribute to the international standards of education and take great benefits from that, as well as develop project skills of all the participants.