This European educational project makes an important contribution to maintain the inner unity of Europe at a time when the cohesion of Europe has been called into question by media and politics while racism and populism are increasing. Therefore, the overarching goal of this project is to counter tendencies towards radicalisation and promote the integration of minorities into society. This goal was linked to an awareness campaign about minorities. With “We in Europe – Shaping the future” we concerned ourselves with developing sustainable integration projects (idea pool for integration) and counteracting barriers between cultures and social levels, enabling understanding and emphasizing diversity as an asset.The different starting positions concerning the composition of the pupil groups in the partner schools in Gran Canaria (50% migrants/disadvantaged), Hungary (70% Roma) and Germany (refugee work in cooperation with a Hauptschule and different organisations) have made multi-faceted access to the individual components possible. The implementation of the main project activities rests on four pillars:1) Treatment of the topic “integration of minorities and the disadvantaged” (1st project year):In accordance with the resources and possibilities of the partner institutions, the pupils have concerned themselves with and publicised topics such as the reasons for emigration, integration policies, living situations of the Roma, diversity as an asset, or successful integration in units embedded in the curriculum in an interdisciplinary way and across the age groups, in clubs, classes and courses in a variety of ways. (i.e. in workshops, presentations, podium discussions, competitions, creation of videos, etc:).2) Project work – development of sustainable projects about integration, implementation and assessment (idea portal – 2nd and 3rd year):Originating from the above-named project topics and in cooperation with pupils from minority groups, we developed a collection of ca. 15 project proposals from several different areas, some usable in lessons as teaching materials for the work with migrants and refugees in schools and others which could be used as suggestions for project work outside of school. 3) The awareness campaign about minorities took place inside and outside of school and functioned as an announcement and publication of the project. Activities and events such as the traveling exhibition, campaigns against racism (100 coloured balloons, postcards for tolerance, hymn against racism, flash mobs for acceptance, info mobile diversity, logo competition), solidarity activities (walk, speed dating, give me a smile, culinary activities), information campaigns (open house day, remembrance days). The city of Kerpen, the project homepage, eTwinning, Facebook and Instagram helped to spread our message and create an awareness of the contents of the project, so that others could become interested and motivated to follow the good example.4) Performance of evaluations (in the course of 3 years)The transnational project work was evaluated using self-developed evaluation forms. The emphasis was on the quality of activities, the internalisation of the topics and goals, the effect of the project.Moreover, a number of original projects for integration were assessed (i.e. schools, youth centres, projects in refugee homes, integration festivals), forming the basis for the development of further ideas.The following products constitute the main results and effects:-digital collections of sustainable integration projects-project homepage in four languages-traveling exhibition “We are Europe, too” (exhibition inside and outside the countries)-digital intercultural box according to Dr Howard Gardner’s intelligences theory (one’s abilities consist of 8-10 kinds of intelligence) – in three languages + English-Facebook page, Instagram account-establishment of an intercultural day in the Europe Week (DE), on Europe Day (HU), in the culture week (ES)-implementation of a workshop (permanent cooperation on the topic of integration, annual Day of Integration-Roma Integration Day (HU)-long-term project activities through eTwinning-improvement of linguistic and social competences-permanent cooperation with the “Comité de Solidaridad (Solidarity Committee), publication of our activities (project “Escuelas solidarias“ (ES)-establishment of a greeting committee to accompany and advise students abroad (refugees, the disadvantaged) -permanent campaigns in the schools, i.e. Peace Day, Women’s Day, solidarity run, solidarity meals, Migrants’ Day (ES)

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT:Our project “Books can build bridges” opened up opportunities for students to deal with European history and European literature in creating a history book and a literary history of the five participating nations. It was the teachers’ objective was to encourage a European competence among their students that includes a critical view of today’s Europe as well as a sense of tradition.Teachers of five schools, who share educational aims and a strongly pro-European view came together via e-twinning and started a project whose subject contributed considerably to an intellectual advancement of the students and spread the European idea both within the schools and also in the public that was involved in our project.OBJECTIVESOur paramount aim was to enable our students to become active and responsible citizens and to engage with the idea of European unity while maintaining cultural variety in the different parts of Europe. This aim was reached in particular by creating a European history book that dealt with the history of the EU.In order to achieve that aim a number of competences were required.Therefore our project promoted:- German language skills (writing a novel, reading texts and working with them). English was often used in the communication between the students;- Skills in reading and learning (reading texts, writing texts, interpreting scenes from films etc.);- Cultural awareness, historical and political awareness and the ability to use cultural terminology;- General and vocational education and training (preparation for university studies);- Mathematical and scientific competence (collecting and evaluating statistical data)- Digital competence (digital presentation of project results; use of computers to communicate with partners);- Social competence (cooperation of students of the different partner schools).NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTSSchools from five different countries were involved in our project: apart from the German coordinating school there were schools from Italy, Poland, Hungary and Turkey. All school took part in Comenius projects before.DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIESThe student activities demanded intellectual, creative, technological and social skills: Pupils read and worked with European literary and historical texts; they made their own films and wrote their own texts, thus creating new works of art; they used a variety of modern media to gather information and to communicate. In their work and communication with students from the partner schools they learned to work together in a product-oriented way in mixed-nationality groups.CARRYING OUT THE PROJECTIn the months between the working meetings in the different countries the students worked in groups specifically formed for the different project activities. E-twinning and e-mails were used to plan and coordinate the different steps and to record the results of their work that were presented and finished during the next meeting. Moreover, the students mostly stayed in families during their visits to the other countries, they also spend some days together in at a boarding school. Thus they found out about everyday life in different countries, and they also took part at lessons at school.RESULTS AND IMPACT Our results are books in both digital form and print:1.A literary history of the participating countries by young people for young people2. Creative products dealing with literature: booktrailers, Comics made of fairy tales and legends, modernized fairy tales, a calender that encourages reading3. Project novel “Journey through Europe”4. European history book5. Historical tours of the towns6. Texts of the poetry slam7. Video film of the poetry slam8. Artwork: “Angel of three cultures” 9. Creative artworks made with books10. Presentation: A short philosophy of language, reading and writing: “Looking at limits”.POTENTIAL LONG-TERM BENEFITS- Implementation of project results into school curricula (History, Language and Literature, Philosophy, Religion)- Books in schools and public libraries; digital books on our project homepage, products on the European project results platform

"Journey through Europe with Suitcase of Culture Gist (of the project : The notion is to procure the students to a volunteer act of visiting museums, exhibition halls, or art galleries as centers and institutions of cultural activities both within their countries and in their overseas journeys. We have noted that our students do not take much interest in their own local culture and that they hardly visit such centers of their own accord. Journey through Europe with Suitcase of Culture Context/background of the project; In our project we aimed for our students to gain a different and self-directed perspective of the cultural assets and institutions such as museums and art galleries both in their own countries and in their journeys to other countries as we had observed that most youngsters including our students did not take much interest in cultural matters and that they did not enjoy visiting such places. Objectives; The objective of our project for the youngsters was to arouse interest and awareness towards cultural activities and to motivate them to learn and get familiar to their own cultures. The students/youngsters were to determine the way of displaying the exhibits in a more attractive way for the peer foreign visitors themselves by means of onsite observation and studying. Number and profile of participating organizations; We have participated this project as 5 countries including Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Greece (Crete) and Turkey. Except for Estonia and Hungary, the other participant countries hadn't conducted a project before. We all had many students from lower socio-economic circles. We aimed to make these students acquire a new insight of the multilateral European culture and thus make them feel as part of the European Union and appreciate the collective values. Another important objective for the long term was to motivate the youngsters / students to feel and take the responsibility for the future of the European Union and act together.Description of undertaken main activities; In the course of our project, first of all the essential information about the cultural activities of the cities involved in the project were explored and collected. The centers such as museums, art galleries, or exhibition halls were visited and then the digital frame of the project work such as film slides, commercial films, motion/audio videos were produced. The participant students of partner schools voted online for the cultural activity to be done in the respective country. The participant students of the host country accompanied their visitors in their visits and prepared workshops for their foreign peers. At other times, the social activities such as school visits, ice-breaker activities, dining out, or sightseeing tours were organized by the participant school. Finally the completed works were shared on a common digital platform and combined in an “Open Education Resource” via web as an e-book in the form of an interactive suitcase form. In this way, sustainability of the project is ensured. The content of the activities were all about Culture and Art. In this way, not only the hosts but also the visitors had the chance to relive and introduce their own culture, to explore foreign ones and compare with one another's. The students always concluded that ""despite all differences, we are the same"".Results and impact attained; All the planned and stated objectives have been fully accomplished. The meaning and importance of culture and art has been emphasized not only by the students, but also by the public institutions like schools and municipalities. Students have overcome their biases. The project belongs to the participant school, so it has helped a sustainable change in cultural attitudes. We have also succeeded in arousing public interest on protecting our cultural values and handing them down to the next generations"

Thanks to this project, we have raised awareness among the students of different European educational institutes, their families and the whole of the school community of the need to become more familiar with the river or the stream in their area, in order to understand the issues related to the use of water and change their attitude as far as the consumption of water is concerned.That’s why we have carried out various activities in each partnercountry. The students have cooperated closely and kept in constant touch through a blog which was enriched regularly. This work was divided into two parts: a technical, technological and practical part on the one hand and a more theoretical and creative component on the other. All the activities have been carried out in collaboration with local partners whose participation and skills in various areas are related to our thematic units. To be more specific our activities have resulted in the :- use and modification of drones equiped to do research on the river- study of the riversides and the ecological system of the stream/river- creation of a pack of playing cards having for subject the river and its environment- study of narratives about the river- creation and managing of a collaborative weblog, creation of a publicity, a song containing paragraphs in the different languages of the countries involved in the project.- creation of a photo album with images of the relief, the flora and the fauna caracteristique for each river, creation of a fictitious business related to the river- analysis of greco-roman remains near the river- realisation of an exposition : reminescence and creation of a catalogue of bridges- creation of a booklet with literary texts existing within the culture of each of the partner countries or created by the students- statistic analysis of variables of a bidimensionnel river- photo album with explanation about manufactural activities-geografical and historical studies of rivers' usage from the 7 countries Our aim was to share experiences, learn from each other and therefore make the European citizens ecologically responsible and focused on the protection of their environment.We have been able to exchange different practical approaches concerning teaching to understand the educational diversity of the other countries. This project has promoted a stronger European collaboration by reinforcing the bonds among the students, the teachers and the families of the partner countries. It allowed the creation of collaboration for future projects. The dissemination of this European experience has inspired more students to develop other projects or/and to open up their horizons. It encouraged people to be members of a community with a common aim and special features as well. This project had an impact on the school communities by its interdisciplinary approach, it also had an impact on a local level by changing the way the students and the inhabitants look at their river and their culture and by initiating good practices on an environmental level.We are continuing the discussions with the Dareic and the local education authority in order to make the exchange durable thanks to an optional course about European issues. We haven't come to an agreement yet.On the other hand, we are starting a student exchange programme for the new school year with 2 partner countries in a sort of prolongation and as a positive consequence of the project.