The project „Faces of the past: Re-imagining the European history of Gdansk and Hamburg“ wanted to instruct students from two schools in Hamburg and Gdansk to deal with questions of a cultural, philosophical and economic European Heritage. From 9/2018 until 11/2019 students of the secondary school levels at the 5th Lyzeum in Gdansk and at the Otto-Hahn-Schule in Hamburg have worked on this topic in cooperation with archives, scientists and artists of both cities. The students did research, found and (re)arranged historical sources, invited contemporary witnesses and interviewed them in order to plan and install a modern multimedia exhibition, which displays common trends and connections in 500 years of European regional history. There were two workshops in both cities, in which the students from both cities came together to seek for scientific assistance, to search for common research strategies and to identify common goals.The project ended with the opening and public display of the exhibition for a young audience in schools first in Gdansk and then in Hamburg.The research topics the students dealt with, as planned, included Medieval trade in the Baltic Sea, migration during the Industrialisation and forms of liberal and democratic protest of workers’ unions and social movements in both cities since the 1970s. The project centre around the inhabitants of the two European metropoles and focussed on their history(s). It therefore was a postnational project and also dealt with the question of how to teach history in multicultural societies, since many students in the project have family histories that start somewhere far away from Hamburg or Gdansk. This is why main topics, key aspects or guidelines were to be kept open at the beginning of the project, because it was up to the students into which direction(s) they will move during their work and their debates. Possible problems about different interpretations and controversies among the young people were an important part of the project and was also part of the exhibition. The narration of European history, this is the guiding aspect of the project, needed to be kept open for new perspectives, new questions and new pathways of a young and European generation and in our opinion this planning was successful.

The project

For two years students, 15-19 years old from Finland, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Spain have worked in a project called „plastics and prejudice?-sense and sustainability!“ and have become active. The frame of their work were the 17 sustainable development goals to be achieved in 2030, given by the UN . So goals like „Responsible consumption“ or „climate action“ were not just words for the students but they faced the challenges of these goals and made their communities think about a more sustainable future and act for a more sustainable future.In the following we concentrated on topics like: less paper use at school, anti-plastics solutions for water and snacks, fight against food waste in the canteen, growing own vegetables in the school garden, making our own jam and soups and upcycling for a more responsible consumption.On four international meeting we exchanged experiences and worked together on solutions. This is why we were able to establish sustainable structures and products at our schools during these two years. We started by analysing how many ressources are used in everyday day life and in our school community (for example food waste, paper and plastic waste, consumption in the breaks)Our biggest success was the action day on the 6th February in Hamburg! We called it the „Day of sustainability“ (the DOS) and by working together with the whole school community of Otto-Hahn-School in workshops like „swap party for accessories“, „Do your own cosmetics“, „climate cinema“, „Dance workshop for women’s rights“, (just to name a few) we were all little activists! This day will be carried out now every year in our schools!We also tried to get more people involved by creating a blog to give tips for a more sustainable lifestyle: https://gogreengoeplus.wordpress.comWhen you have a closer look at the logo (a tree with a trunk which ressembles a human being and coloured in the colours of the flags of our countries) we have chosen for our project, it becomes clear that these young people tried to find a balance again for the planet earth.

The OHS as coordinating institution has carried out an international, tri-lingual foreign languages project together with the Howard School in Gillingham (UK) and the IES (Slain).Content of the project was to write and produce a multi-lingual musical. This took place in lessons as well as in working groups The thus created musical has primarily a historical and political focus: the resistance of the youth against the regime of the National Socialists in the 1930s. The planning and realization of the project was in the hands of the participating pupils with the teachers taking on a supportive role.The regular exchange between the participating schools and works groups in between the project meetings was very innovative. With the help of modern media, the participants were able to communicate constantly in virtual classrooms and exchanged data and documents. In this process E-twinning and Twin space were as useful as smartphones and digital text messages via SMS, WhatsApp or email. On a meta level the participating teachers have compiled a guideline, which lists the most important points, so that it can serve as an inspiration and basis for similar projects. A continual evaluation regarding the content-related learning objectives (historical facts and language improvement) as well as the methodological competences (use of digital media) and also - last but not least - the motivation of the pupils has shown, that an increase in all the areas mentioned above can be seen.

"The project ""How I met my city - Future stories about today's cities"" has equipped student (aged 16-19) from Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy and Spain s to tackle recent questions of urban planning and city development and to come up with ideas of how to change their urban neighbourhoods for the better. External partners of various professions helped our students to turn these ideas into reality. In order to guarantee a high quality level during our work we managed to create strategic partnerships with local and regional organisations in the fields of city planning and democratic pedagogy. The main organisation we have worked with is JAS e.V. (Kaiser Friedrich Ufer 9, 20253 Hamburg) namely Jenny Ohlenschlager.Therefore, city planners accompanied the students during their process of working in our schools and cities. Their aim was to teach our students scientific methods they can make use of in dealing with the vast field of urban development and city planning. The students' work in the cities was framed and guidelined by specific topics: The Italian students have chosen the polluted river Sacco as their work of interest. The Bulgarian and German students have chosen ""vandalism"" as a main topic for their work. The French students enabled blind people to participate in Metz' art life and the Spanish students are interested in improving their way to come to school for cyclists and pedestrians. The Danish students planned more social events for young people in their hometown.At the same time our students worked in multi-national, heterogenous group and this is how they improved their basic hard skillls as well as soft skills. Another integral part of our project was the development possibilities of how to present the results of their work (e.g. internet tutorials or presentations) and how to negotiate with local and regional decision-makers in our cities. Our students took part in municipality council meetings (Germany, Denmark), in expert conferences (Italy and France) and had enounters with majors in their hometown and abroad. Our students created in accordance with our project title ""future stories"" about their cities and the ""how"" is put into pictures and words in internet tutorials for young people who would like to act the same."