Biodiversity – the extraordinary variety of ecosystems, species and genes that surround us – is not only important in its own right, it also provides our society with a wide range of ecosystem services upon which we depend, such as food, freshwater, pollination, protection against floods, etc... However, biodiversity is in crisis. In Europe, almost a quarter of wild species are now threatened with extinction and the majority of ecosystems are degraded to the point where they are no longer able to deliver their valuable services. This degradation represents enormous social and economic losses for the EU. Key drivers of biodiversity loss, such as habitat change, overexploitation of natural resources, the introduction and spread of invasive alien species and climate change, have increased, offsetting the positive effects of actions to stem biodiversity loss.The aim of the project is to raise and develop students‘ awareness of plant biodiversity and activities focused on preventing or reducing its loss through a combination of virtual events and practical outdoor research activities with the use of Pl@ntNET mobile application. The project will employ methods of exploratory pedagogy based on virtual events and practical research activities suitable for students aged 16-19 with graphical interfaces that help to overcome language barriers and hide potential basic computational complexity. This educational approach combines classroom learning, virtual demonstrations, nature visits and online cooperation, which enable students to build on mutual experience through teacher mediation and in the context of European school network. Teaching activities will be carried out by experts in the field of environment and teaching. Students with a lack of opportunities (disabled) aged 16-19 will also be involved in the project under the guidance of special needs teachers. The approaches aimed at problem-solving will encourage students to find solutions to prevent or reduce biodiversity loss, which can also find application in students’ everyday lives including nature protection. Students will get to know methods used in their own countries, compare individual approaches and find out about methods of the future. The aim of the Pl@ntNET project is not intended to compete with existing environmental education curricula. Instead, it aims to provide extra-value online tools which complement existing approaches and encourage the cooperation between European schools while developing ICT skills in students. In order to maximize the impact of the project objectives, ICT-based learning activities are designed to be delivered through existing school curriculum channels, such as field education or extra-value methods which enhance learning process, and not as separate learning modules. The use of existing school curricula facilitates the adoption of proposed educational methods even after the completion of the project. The proposed activities will be verified through the implementation of the project by involving teachers and pupils in experiential learning activities, enabling students to use the tools developed in practical research meetings and to work with students in other countries through a network of schools that exchange experiences and build awareness of the international character of environmental sustainability issues. Finally, Pl@ntNET aims to support the learning process by providing recommendations on best practices aimed at both teachers and students with a focus on teaching, teacher associations and policy makers with a regard to the smooth integration of the proposed solutions into the instructional processes and their dissemination through on-line portal services. This comprehensive, vertical implementation approach, which addresses all interested parties in education, will further facilitate the adoption of the proposed methods after the completion of the work plan.

The project summary has been written in English.

The project starts from the current environmental pollution global warming focusing its attention on the impacts of human activity on the river basin. Furthermore, it provides the necessity to introduce skills and knowledge about this issue at school speaking also about the environment, pollution, and climate change. They represent worldwide issues, and many students leave school without extensive knowledge about these problems. Moreover, Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development calls on us to develop holistic and integrated responses to the many social, economic and environmental challenges (ED/GEMR/MRT/2019/C/2), and the challenge on river basin pollution is very important. Several reports (EEA Report 2019) show critical situations; 62% of river districts are contaminated because they pass where places have high population density. This situation needs new management models by GIS system, and “RIVERS” represents within this scenario the solution to debate into the school and its community these problems. The survey made within the work-group gave us the possibility to structure this project, and the results stressed the importance to take a position on the matter (61,4%) recognising the negative impacts of industries on natural contexts (70% -90%). Moreover, all participants have not used GIS at school (85,9%) and for them, GIS represents an implementation of their ICT skills (100%).OBJECTIVES: In order to sustain these needs, the project aims to the implementation of students/teachers’ competences developing multicriterial-interdisciplinary skills and active citizenship oriented to protect and manage from the bottom our natural resources, designing new policies applying ICT/GIS systems. Our target group includes 400 students (aged 15-18 years) and 50 teachers who have low skills on these matters. Our project will learn how to design bottom-up strategies to mitigate these impacts in line with Agenda 2030 and thanks to the collaboration of private/public actors. The basin will be studied taking into consideration 6 values: HISTORICAL/INSTITUTIONAL, HYDROGEOLOGICAL, LANDSCAPE, RECREATIONAL, FLORA and FAUNISTIC values. The main result will be a research/dossier made on real basin where students and teachers will apply their ideas to mitigate these impacts. It is an exercise which gives us an active role in the territory servicing the public utility. Other aims are: 1) the implementation of external partnerships; 2) the implementation of collaborative learning and critical thinking; 3) the development of communication skills in a foreign language; 4) the development of active European citizenship.METHODOLOGIES AND MANAGEMENT: the experience will be developed by Cooperative Learning and Learning by doing methodology. Moreover, the project will be carried out using teamwork, workshops, roleplay, visits, and case studies. The management of the project consists in monitoring, evaluating, reporting and archiving, financial and accounting activities, as well as informative, promotional and advertising activities for its dissemination. The partnership will be employed in TPMs for teachers and project work for students.ACTIVITIES WE PLAN: A) a GIS laboratory in each school partner, where students, teachers, and experts develop the dossier; B) Online meetings by Twin Space; C) eBook, Logo, 6 Dossier, Movie and 2 RIVERS’ Fairs; D) Online Magazines to promote the project; E) Tours/Trails, Posters, eTwinning/Twin-Space, Website, Social (FB-Instagram-Youtube), and participation to UN World-International Days; F) Submission of dossiers to the local municipality.RESULTS AND IMPACT FOR STUDENTS: we have the development of their capacities-increased sense of initiative towards the natural resources; to improve their language and digital skills; the development students’ personality through engaging the soft skills into project activities; for more favourable attitude in taking initiative and risks; a better understanding and recognition of European competences and qualifications.RESULTS AND IMPACT FOR TEACHERS/SCHOOL STAFF: the increase of the professional development opportunities, motivation and satisfaction in daily jobs; the development of pedagogical, planning and project management competences; the improvement of the image through the promotion of the school at European level; the diminishing of the students’ school failure and the increment of their motivation and relationships.RESULT AND IMPACT FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY: the contribute study bottom-up strategies to reduce the river pollution rate, to increase the quality of education at the local level, and more interaction between the community and school programmes. As concerns the benefit in the long term we have effects between school offer and demands of job thanks to the implementation of skills and competence. The last aspect regards the importance of the school considering the education of students as agents of the change for the society of tomorrow.