The project “Protect Earth, Save Life” offers a way to teach students to live responsibly regarding the future of the next generations in times of climate change. The participating schools are from different parts of Europe – Istituto Omnicomprensivo San Marcello Pistoiese in Italy, Ies Maria Sarmiento in Spain, Zakladni skola a Materska skola, Uherske Hradiste in the Czech Republic, Escola Básica dos 2.º e 3.º Ciclos do Estreito de Câmara de Lobos in Portugal and Základná škola, ČSA 22, Prešov in Slovakia. This project is aimed at everyday life and its impact on our planet. It wants to show young people what they personally can do to protect and save the life on the Earth. Students have to know the real danger right now and only this generation can make a reversible change. One of the main goals is to show our students how everyday human activities influence natural resources that we cannot live without (water, forests, soil). Our main goal is to help our pupils to find the best way to decrease consumption, frequent waste and at the same time to increase their own responsibility. Through this international cooperation students can understand that also their peers in other European countries are aware of their own contribution to ecological footprint. Staying in the host families can help them to compare their habits with other European families. It will be important to search and discover the reasons why certain places look differently and what we can do. The motto is “I am responsible” with the goal of transforming the "I" in “We” can. It is planned to involve students but also their parents, families, teachers and all participating communities. During two years, the project will target at least 1000 students from 12 to 16 years and about 100 teachers. Teaching staff from different departments (Science, ICT, English, Ethics, Civics) will be selected to participate in the project to ensure that all students will benefit from it. Pupils and teachers will be the main groups that will take part in mobilities. Teachers will work with students on various tasks connected with the project. The teachers will set good examples of eco-friendly behaviour. After sharing good practices from mobilities, altogether with the headteachers of our schools, all the teachers will cooperate in the process of implementation of new knowledge and experiences in our schools. Municipalities have had their own activities to support "green" politics. We will present our common projects (school and municipality) and introduce the main points of local "green policy". During our Erasmus project we are going to cooperate in two eTwinning projects. We have already started our project "We Eat Responsibly". The second eTwinning project “Protect Earth, Save Life” will be started, and plans to explore five main topics of our Erasmus+ project: Food, Water, Recycling, Waste and Transport. The host country will prepare various activities to support one concrete theme of mobility. All the knowledge and our tips will be summarized. The final summary will be an eBook "Live Ecologically" (in English and our 5 national languages) with knowledge and practical tips for our everyday life. The eBook will be uploaded in the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform. During every mobility students will organize in international teams promoting cooperative strategies that require every student to be a piece of the whole. Students will work together to discover and improve their own specificity, capabilities and talents. During all activities we will use different learning outcomes: Learning by doing, Cooperative learning, Debate, and other inclusive methods to reduce early drop out and educational poverty. All the project results (ebooks, quizzes, videos, photos) will be visible online on our project website and school websites and through social media (school facebooks, blogs). In every school we will have a permanent display presenting project results. After every mobility, each school will organize a seminar for students of the school to spread experiences and knowledge from mobility. At the end of the project, each participating school will organize a conference inviting representatives of local schools, local environmental organizations, municipality and press. Some articles presented the project and its aims, benefits and results will be also published in the local press. All the project results will be a permanent part of the educational process in our schools. We also want to enrich and motivate other teachers and students, so the materials will be offered to methodical centers and other schools for the future process of education in schools. It will be a project of the schools as a whole. It will help all the communities to find proper ways of being eco-responsible. Through our students, we will influence their families and wider communities for a better world for everyone's future.
The project "Protect the Earth, Save Life" offers a way to teach students to live responsibly with regard to the future of next generations in times of climate change. Participating schools are from different parts of Europe – Istituto Omnicomprensivo San Marcello Pistoiese in Italy, Ies Maria Sarmiento in Spain, Zakladni skola and Materska skola, Uherské Hradiště in the Czech Republic, Escola Básica dos 2.º e 3.º Ciclos do Estreito de Câmara de Lobos in Portugal and Primary School, ČSA 22, Prešov in Slovakia. This project is focused on everyday life and its impact on our planet. It aims to show young people what they personally can do to protect and save life on the Earth. One of the main goals was to show our students how everyday human activities affect the natural resources we cannot live without. Together with the students, we were looking for an effective way to reduce consumption, and waste and at the same time increase the personal responsibility of all of us. Through international cooperation, students could discover that their peers in other European countries are also aware of their own contribution to the ecological footprint. Staying with host families helped them to perceive and compare their habits with other families. By visiting different places in Europe, we looked for the causes and reasons why some places look different than a few years ago and what we can do to avoid the destruction of life around us. The motto of the project emphasises each individual: "I am responsible", with the aim of turning "I" into "we" can achieve the change. We involved not only pupils but also parents, families, teachers and various local environmental communities. During its duration, the project reached at least 1000 students from 12 to 16 years old and about 100 teachers. Teachers of various subjects (biology, ICT, English, geography, ethics, civics) were selected for the project to reach the widest possible sharing within our schools. The main groups that participated in the mobilities were students and teachers. The teachers collaborated with the students on various tasks related to the project and were an example of ecological behaviour. After sharing good practices from mobilities, many teachers collaborated on the process of implementing new knowledge and practical experience in our schools. We also engaged local governments that shared their activities in support of "green" policy and we presented our project activities for mutual inspiration. During our Erasmus project, we collaborated on two eTwinning projects. The "We eat responsibly" project was focused on local and seasonal food, limiting food waste and using food leftovers. The project "Protect Earth, Save Life" was devoted to five main topics, which we went through in detail during mobilities: Food, Water, Recycling, Waste and Transport. We included all the knowledge and practical experience in our ebook. The freely available ebook in English and 5 national languages of the participating countries offers practical guidance for our everyday life. During each mobility, students worked in international teams, which naturally supported cooperative strategies. Students in multicultural environments discovered the specifics of other nationalities and improved their own skills and talents. All mobility participants actively communicated in English, thus gaining self-confidence. During the project activities, we used various methods: learning by practice, cooperative learning, discussion and other methods supporting peer learning. The results of the project (ebooks, quizzes, videos, photos) are available online on the project website and the websites of partner schools. We have a permanent exhibition set up in each school, together with the project logo created from recycled materials. After each mobility, the partner schools organized a seminar for their students to share their experiences and knowledge. During these seminars, the mobility participants tried to inspire other students to behave more ecologically. We published several articles in the press to present the project and its results. At the end of the project, each participating school organized a conference where we invited representatives of local schools, local environmental organizations, local government and the press. All project results in the form of practical ebooks will be a permanent part of the educational process in our schools. In order to inspire and motivate other teachers and students, we offered the materials to methodological centers and other schools to enrich the educational process. However, the project does not end only at the school gates, it tries to reach public and inspire them for the future as well. Through our students and their determination, we hope to motivate their families, friends and wider communities for a better and greener world. The idea of the project will continue to spread through its participants and the schools will work and develop the themes.