In October 2019 the teachers from our partner schools from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Cyprus took part in a contact seminar called “Building Partnerships for a Learner-Centred Approach“ in Bratislava. The teachers met there and decided to start a KA229 project concerning environmental education. Later we found another partner from Croatia on the eTwinning Partner forum platform. The school from Croatia has been a part of the Eco-schools programme for 10 years and this year they are going to receive a Gold Certificate for promoting education for environmental sustainability. Five countries will participate in this Erasmus+ project (three of them are newcomers: Poland, Cyprus and Slovakia). They will enhance the environmental education at their schools and incorporate it into all subjects as a cross cutting theme. Tasks and responsibilities will be divided among the partners as follows: CZECH REPUBLIC - transport and air pollution, POLAND – food and healthy lifestyle, SLOVAKIA – responsible consumption, CYPRUS – waste, sustainable cities and communities, CROATIA – clean energy. Each participant country will create presentations, quizzes, various games, sport activities and a dictionary containing vocabulary associated with a given topic. They will present their work at individual meetings which will be held according to the Timetable. The students will develop their positive attitudes towards the environment, they will do this with regard to the differences of the specific locality and country. All students will develop their talent, creativity and imagination while decorating cloth shopping bags, making a model of a wind turbine, preparing an e-magazine, videos, a scenario of an eco-play and crafts from recycled materials. They will organize expert talks, surveys, quizzes, workshops, visits to local recycling facilities, a “Ban the bag!” campaign, School Clean-up Day, Bike to School Day, Waste Free Snack Day, Swap me Toys and sports equipment fundraising day. They will participate in Earth Hour. They will map illegal dumping and look at the levels of air pollution in their area and research about different actions that they can take to keep the environment free of pollution. Students will have the opportunity to work with modern ICT tools like Kahoot, Padlet, TwinSpace, PowerPoint, Madmagz, Google Docs, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. The project aims at the acquisition of four key competences, communication in foreign languages, ICT, creative thinking and collaborative learning. It encourages schools to help teenagers study their environment, local recycling habits, sustainability development goals, valuable ecosystems and exchange this knowledge with others through multiple communication methods and new technologies. It will help us to fight against indifference and passivity regarding the environment. The project aligns with the UN Sustainable development goals. The teachers will develop and improve their language and ICT skills, multicultural thinking, European project creation, usage of new methods in teaching, especially the Learner-centred approach. The project will influence not only the teachers and the students (they will be more open to innovation, changes, eager to work in multinational groups), but also their parents, local educational institutions, local primary and secondary schools, regional, national and European environmental organizations that will be informed about the activities and results of our project. The students will gain new competences in the area of the environment protection and multiculturality. They will become more self-confident and responsible for their future. They will learn how important it is to refuse products that they do not need and things that they cannot recycle. They will learn how to reduce consumption and food packaging. They will be encouraged to think of sharing, renting or borrowing instead of buying. To reuse and extend the life of a product by repairing, refurbishing, and repurposing things. To recycle and recover things like metal, paper, plastic and to use renewable energy to decrease dependence on coal and other fossil fuels. Some project activities will continue even after the project is finished, because the learning and teaching materials created will be further used in teaching. The project will promote the continuous professional development of staff and the strategic development of the schools. The Green Hearts project will be an ideal way for schools to embark on a meaningful path towards improving the environment in both the school and the local community while at the same time having a life-long positive impact on the lives of young people, their families, school staff and local authorities.
The Green Hearts project was implemented between 2020 and 2023. The project involved five European partner countries: the Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, Cyprus and Slovakia. The aim of our project was to innovate the teaching process in the field of environmental education. To develop students' environmental literacy, we used a Learner-centred approach that exploits their natural curiosity. The target groups of the project were students aged 12 to 18 and lower secondary teachers. Students from partner schools tackled tasks in the core areas of environmental protection - Responsible Consumption, Waste and Sustainable Cities and communities, Renewable Energy, Transport and Air Pollution, Food and Healthy Lifestyles. Throughout the duration of the project, activities were undertaken for each topic as planned by the coordinators and head teachers. Methodologies, worksheets, quizzes, a consumer survey, models of wind power plants, alternative fuel cars, videos on illegal landfills, presentations on the environment of each partner country, transport and heating methods and their impact on air cleanliness were developed for each topic. We monitored the acidity of rainfall, organised a clothes swap and board game exchange, created carnival of masks made from recycled materials. We created a vocabulary booklet of environmental terms in the languages of the partners and scripted a short play on plastics and their impact on the environment. Exhibitions of products made from recycled materials were organised at the individual project meetings - bags made from old clothes, restored old chairs, a waterfall made from used plastic bottles andmodel cars. Other activities were also held on the occasion of various environmental holidays: World Ocean Day, Earth Hour, Earth Day, Mobility Week, World Water Monitoring Day, Car Free Day. Students were introduced in an experiential way to the different global sustainability goals in line with the UN initiative called Agenda 2030 through the implementation of educational and training activities, thus contributing jointly to the results and achievement of the project's goal. Students were active in environmental issues, dealing with topics such as recycling, reusing and repairing items, learning what they can do to make our air and water cleaner and how to reduce illegal dumping. They were involved in improving the environment in their neighbourhood- cleaning up around schools, mapping illegal dumps, sorting waste, using waste material to wrap presents, making beeswax candles. They developed their talents, creativity and imagination in the creation of different documents, improving their presentation, language, social and digital skills. They grew to know the beauties of their home country as well as their partner countries, made new friends, and had the opportunity to compare the culture and way of life in different European countries and their education systems. Teachers developed their personal and professional competences - linguistic, IT, multicultural, innovative thinking, creation of European projects, use of student-activating teaching methods. Didactic materials and teaching aids were created before the short-term exchanges of groups of pupils occurred. The developed didactic material, teaching aids and activities in the field of environmental education were also presented at Doors open days to teachers from other schools and professional members of the public. The Green Hearts project contributed to the internationalisation of the partner schools, to improving the classroom atmosphere, to using innovative and activating teaching methods and to improving the attitude of students, teachers and school communities to environmental issues and raising the awareness of their own responsibility for improving the quality of life on our planet. Despite the many constraints related to the COVID 19 pandemic, the partners in the project actively moved forward. Students, teachers and invited experts met in an online space. The Green Hearts project contributed to the development of the partners' schools in the fields of environment, climate change and civic engagement. The results and outputs of the project had an impact on the quality of the educational process and the professional development of the teaching staff. Learning and teaching activities were linked to the professional development plan of teaching staff in the partner schools. The project supported the strategic development of schools.