"The project was based on intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, experience and knowledge. Studying water in its various aspects provided opportunities for complex researches including the meaning and importance of water to life, the environmental aspects of the problem, investigating the social and anthropological aspects of water (establishing settlements and the influence of water on their development) and searching for water connotations in arts. All the institutions involved in the project preparation are situated by a significant body of water – rivers, lakes, seas, the ocean.The teams hopefully managed to show the students the complexity of such an essential thing like Water hoping that continuous examining the aspects, and especially in an international context, reflected in more responsible attitudes of the young people as well as the adults to the environment and the cultures. Furthermore, using English language as a communication means raised the students´ interest in studying English and possibly other foreign languages. The work on the project and the partner meetings enabled the children to improve their foreign language skills gained at school as well as to acquire new ones in practice while working on the project (either on the outcomes delivery or directly during the partners´ meetings).The interdisciplinary study and intercultural exchange of ideas on a topic of a global meaning and importance provided opportunities for the implementation of a wide variety of activities – firstly, part of the project work was concentrated on activities held in order to elaborate project outcomes and results: 1) locally at the individual schools (including some pre-teaching and preparation work, conducting the researches themselves and the work on the products as well as dealing with their final completion and presentation to the other partners by means of ICT or directly on partners meetings), and 2) in transnational cooperation including comparative surveys based on the individual approaches from the local researches, complex issues involving works of all partners gathered at one (such as exhibitions of arts and crafts works of all the partners, studies comprised of the contributions of each of the partners, i.e. the presenting of the biodiversity in the regions represented by the institutions involved in the project, the various approaches in the presentation of a work of Arts with Water connotations etc.).Another important part were the short-term exchanges of groups of pupils and transnational project meetings which involved teachers and students where the representatives from each of the institutions worked on common outcomes during workshops and other activities, visited places in relation to the project issues in order to get acquainted with the specifics of the host partner´s country, region and school, exchanged ideas about the problems and issues addressed by the project, promoted different approaches and shared different experience.The partners released: Multilingual Dictionary – a cross-project outcome; presentations, a booklet, videos, performances, exhibitions.Profiles:Základní škola Fr. Křižíka Bechyně is a primary school situated in the south of the Czech Republic and is attended by about 200 pupils providing education into two levels: primary (pupils aged 6 to 11) and secondary (11-15) with about 20 teachers and other staff.IES”Albaida” is a comprehensive school located in Almería. It is attended by about 1,000 students and offers secondary education to students aged 11-18, secondary education for adults and intermediate and advanced vocational training in audiovisual studies, nursing, and health studies - clinic laboratory, dental hygiene, radiology and environmental health. ""Sandoros"" progimnazija is a catholic school in Siauliai. It has got 38 teachers and 556 students, aged 7-15; 200 of them are Lithuanian emigrant students who live abroad but study at the school via a distant learning. There are also some students with special needs. Agrupamento de Escolas José Sanches e São Vicente da Beira is in Alcains. It has 1270 students from kindergarden to secondary level. It has lots of projects for all the students, aiming to improve the students’ experiences, including sports, Europeans club, eco school, theatre etc.The project had a great impact on all participants such as perfecting the language and social skills, teambuilding, interdisciplinary approaches and gaining new knowledge, raising the intercultural awareness, enhancing civic competences. As long as the long-term benefits are concerned we hope the students are motivated to study languages and approach different cultures; after two years of studying water in its various aspects the students are more environmentally conscious and have implemented the ecological aspects into their daily lives. Thanks to the project realisation the children and the teachers are still in touch due to the social media and ICT."

Schools from Czech Republic, Lithuania, Portugal, Iceland cooperated in gaining knowledge and skills working on the topic of water and investigating it in four aspects:1) geographical location and its influence on the cultures and traditions;2) the role of water (bodies) in historical events, stages, movements;3) discoveries through water (waterways, new lands, inventions);4) sending messages in bottles-creative approach to the information/knowledge acquired within the work on the previous three project topics.First the partners established a project web after they had been schooled in the use of the platform Weebly. Later they produced and voted for a project logo. While working on the individual topics the participants produced a major outcomes each term: 1) 3D map of waterways depicting also how the countries are connected; 2) presentations; 3) visuals; 4) real exchange of messages in bottles along with maps, posters, albums, exhibitions, performances; they took part in workshops etc., met in person in short term students exchanges. Min. 6 students from each visiting school per a meeting were hosted by their fellows. 3 such meetings were organised and the partners took turns to host once and then visit all the others. The last learning activities could not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The partners did their best to substitute it by a meeting online and they sent the outcomes by post.The teachers were presented new teaching methods, techniques, broadened their awareness on different related topics and transformed the acquired knowledge and skills in meaningful support for their students helping them achieve the same: broaden their awareness, extend their knowledge, gain and develop skills and competence (language, personal, social, cultural etc.). Joint staff trainings were organised and attended by 2-3 participants from each school per a session. The 1st one dealt with the creation of a project web; The 2nd planned at the application stage was not approved and was organised just as a project meeting. The 3rd training was dedicated to conducting surveys and data processing; and the last one planned to present Adobe connect platform could not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic (substituted by 2 online meeting). The schools relied on further students and teachers who took part in local activities and events; some with fewer opportunities. All the meetings (trainings and with students) were designed so that all partners could always meet, regarding this as a method how to build a good partner team able to complete a good project-that intention was could not be fulfilled due to the cancelled meetings in relation to the COVID-19 restrictions.The schools provide general education and are non-profit public bodies; they included their secondary level students aged 11-16. The Czech school's size: 220 students+25 staff, located in Bechyně, a small town in the south. The Icelandic is from Reykjavík with 300 pupils+50 staff; the Lithuanian is from Siauliai and is profiled as catholic with 500 pupils+36 staff; the Portuguese has several education bodies with about 1000 students, located near Castelo Branco.The project objectives were: acquiring knowledge on the topic while elaborating the results and outcomes and in an international cooperation, including different learning and teaching methods; improving the language level of the students and staff; developing/improving the ICT skills of teachers and students; teachers’ and other staff professional development.Impact+long term benefits: the fulfilment of the objectives stated: acquisition of skills and competences together with acquiring new knowledge; along with impact on the organisations: strengthening the schools' positions in their regions, gaining prestige; profiting from the team building as a result of the experience from the team work on the project.Teachers shared personal experience and could adopt new ideas and methods of teaching while working across the curriculums, incl. team work and integrated learning including broadening the awareness about the subjects and countries involved. They could strengthen their individual organizational skills and became more motivated to work in teams.Pupils learnt more about the importance of water following the project topics scheme. Exploring different cultures lead to promoting a higher level of tolerance and understanding of the differences and similarities throughout the EU. It was a motivation to work in teams with individual contribution to the issues and accepting the opinions of the others in order to reach the aims of the project. It helped develop a sensible competitiveness among students as they contributed in the outcome releases which were further evaluated if they could become parts of outcomes. All this made learning beyond the traditional curriculum, participating in school activities, attracting and engaging students who would want to be included in future projects possible.