"<< Objectives >>Schools are very important promoters in cultivating respect, tolerance and understanding among students. Our project will bring a global image of implementing these values and social inclusion.Our Objectives are social and cultural dialogue, reducing aggressive behavior and emotional disturbances of students, strengthen cooperation between schools and local communities and develop participants and interpersonal empathy, contextual understanding and social responsibility.<< Implementation >>Activities are intended to mirror schools as a positive and productive place where we have friends who share the same fears, needs and aspirations. We designed three LTTA activities that will gradually connect the exterior world with the interior world. The activities find correspondences in the everlasting values of humanity and the values of human beings.<< Results >>Students will create projects such as school presentations, ""A world without empathy"" theatre show, 3D InterNational Heritage book exhibition, travel guides, collage for feelings, Friendship’s wall, that will develop social empathy, social responsibility. The activities organized by each partner on the occasion of the Toleration’s Day, anti-harassment workshop and International Friendship Day will expand the cultural knowledge of the participants and will help reduce aggressive behaviour."

The effects of environmental issues constitute a global legacy that future generations must contend with regardless of where they live. International community governments have committed to increasing awareness about environmental issues largely through their national educational systems, focusing on sustainability. Such education, however, tends to be limited to the classroom. Only by involving pupils as valid stakeholders in shared environmental issues, through activities that extend beyond classrooms, can we truly lay the foundations for a sustainable future. Developing partnerships between schools across Europe widens the scope of global awareness and responsibility. Transnational exchange of experiences is essential to develop pupils’ experience beyond their local environment, leading to a broader worldview and increased tolerance of the situation of others. To cultivate a sense of empathy and social justice, pupils need to be aware of the situation of peers elsewhere.The 2-year GEAR project seeks ways to increase the voice and agency of pupils in environmental matters by developing methodologies that, using existing environmental education as a point of departure, involve pupils more actively in their local environment. The purpose is to bring schools together, under the umbrella of environmental responsibility, to devise collective tools to break out of the classroom. (1)Bottom-up Pedagogical Approaches to actively engage pupils(2)Basic Skills and Competences are a means to an end rather than the end itself(3)ICT skills central to activities and dissemination(4)Local Communities of Practice to connect pupils with their environments(5)Nature Discourses: vocabulary and concepts to understand the environment(6)A Transnational Community of Practice: shared experiences and values internationallyThe project unfolds around a 4-element framework (Wind, Water, Earth, Sun). Activities will be geared for pupils at each school, covering a collective age range of 2 - 15 years (pre-primary to secondary). They are designed to promote interdisciplinary co-operation diversely in science, ICT, technology, arts and maths (STEAM) fields, and are approached in different ways by each partner, based on their pedagogical strengths. Pupils should develop a personal connection with the environment, increase their nature discourses, and feel more empowered in environmental matters. Each school will develop a community of practice; a social system concerned with the social nature of learning and involving our common undertaking, leading to identification with the community. The transnational aspect extends this, whereby, pupils and teachers create and become part of a transnational community of practice that shares responsible environmental awareness and values that cross borders.The countries of the 6 project partner schools extend from the north of Europe to the south, representing a range of different climates and contexts (urban/rural):(1)Rajala School, public primary, Finland (Co-ordinating Partner)(2)GBS De Kreke, primary, Belgium(3)Private School Themistoklis, S.A., primary and secondary, Greece(4)Dumlupinar Ortaokulu, public secondary, Turkey(5)Istituto Comprensivo Pablo Neruda, public nursery, primary, and secondary, Italy(6)Goizeko Izarra Ikastola, primary, Basque Country, SpainThe project also has connections with universities (University of Eastern Finland and PANTEION University), thus novel partnerships between schools and scientists can be explored. The 8 joint staff training events are for teacher training and developing collective tools. Teachers can share their experiences and good practice with partners. Participant teachers must disseminate material upon return. The International Classroom pupil mobility allows some pupils from all partner countries to come together in real time, and work together under the project for a week.The GEAR Toolkit will comprise tools in the form of didactical rationales, methods and methodologies from the project activities and qualitative measurement tools to be disseminated electronically. In addition, the results and impact of this project are closely linked to the enrichment of the pupils, teachers, and other adults involved. The greatest expected impact will be on the pupils in terms of enhanced environmental awareness and responsibility, better working skills to tackle activities, closer connection to their local environment, and inclusion in a broader transnational community of practice. These impacts will be measured qualitatively by developing project-specific tools.Climate change is the most serious problem faced by the world today, so the project covers a current topic and an area of education that will only increase in importance and significance. Environmental awareness and responsibility can only develop through active participation and inclusion, so GEAR is only a beginning towards developing environmental education pedagogy.

<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is related to the ecological education of the participants and the promotion of respect towards nature not only at school, but also among local community. Through the implementation of particular actions of the project and the exchange of experience and opinions among international participants, we would like to develop social awareness of being responsible for the environmental status and particularly, of protecting biodiversity of species in cities.<< Implementation >>The regular cooperation between the teachers and the students is planned. We are going to use the online platforms (Erasmus+). Additionally, there are going to be three partner visits ( the exchange of experiences and opinions, workshops taking place at universities and local institutions engaged in nature conservation). We also plan to set up blooming school gardens, develop educational paths on school grounds and cooperate on creating the atlases of local environmental biodiversity of schools.<< Results >>The outcome of the project will be related to the development of innovative educational methods concerning nature and biodiversity,fostering a sense of responsibility for the state of natural environment among students, as well as the development of their key competences and soft skills,such as cooperation in the international environment. Additionally, the result of the project will be connected with the creation of the atlas of local biodiversity of each partner school and the educational pa

The project “Find Yourself in the Heart of Nature” is coordinated by an Italian school and its partners are schools in Poland, Portugal, Greece, Turkey. The duration of the project is 24 months. A total number of 120 students aged 12 – 15, accompanied by 40 teachers, will participate in transnational learning activities.Our natural world is not only a source of beauty and admiration, but it also provides unique opportunities to teach students the fascinating world of STEAM and other twenty-first century skills. The natural environment motivates students not only to learn and to pay attention, but it also awakens their imagination while developing their Math, Science, Technology, Engineering and Art skills by employing their five senses. This strategic partnership among schools will boost excellence in education and get students ready for global competitiveness while teaching them efficient strategies to relate STEAM to nature. It will also encourage our students to relate to nature as a guide which helps them to observe, question and research, while offering them new skills and knowledge on an international, European level.The objectives of the project are: to encourage students to integrate knowledge from several school subjects, to give students opportunities to become twenty-first century creative, innovative, solution-generating critical thinkers who are interested in science while cooperating with others, to increase the students’ interest in STEAM education and careers, to create new content and to encourage the integration of STEAM skills in the school curricula, while enabling teachers to teach STEAM subjects in a different and more appealing manner.The activities of the project include: making an insect hotel, making figurines out of natural materials, making solar cells by studying plant leaves, designing a terrarium, making sundials to tell the time, designing bird feeders, designing simple bridges and machines, designing ecological and natural houses made with natural materials, designing solar ovens, designing aircraft models inspired by birds, poetry-writing inspired by nature, pottery design workshop, sun prints, creating musical instruments from natural objects and playing them, nature collages, painting with flower petals, redesigning/ restoring the school’s grounds, creating a maths center, discovering fractals in nature, revealing mathematical structures through origami, making 3D shapes with natural materials, designing a weather station, using the stop motion technique, the design competition, the STEAM Fair, the eTwinning seminar, the entrepreneur pitch, the speaker events, or using apps such as Audubon Bird Guide and iNaturalist.Contact persons in partner schools, coordinator in the whole project are responsible for the project management. All schools meet once a month, fulfill the duties and responsibilities according to the 24-months work schedule and inform the coordinator from the result.The results of the project are: students will acquire STEAM skills inspired by nature, they will understand how subjects like mathematics, sciences, technology, engineering and arts work together, they will learn to improve critical thinking and problem-solving skills, they will become more aware of STEAM and its applicability, while they will improve their ability to apply an interdisciplinary integration. At the same time, resources on teaching STEAM will be much improved, teachers will improve their skills of teaching STEAM, the educational process will be improved, while the new curriculum will ensure the integration of knowledge and skills in the everyday lessons. At the same time, cooperation among partner schools and other key stakeholders will be strengthened. The European dimension of teaching will increase greatly, improving the students’ chances to be much better prepared to pursue a scientific career. The exchange of best practices in nature will be included in the curriculum of all partner schools. Therefore, every school will make use of the new knowledge and skills which result from the project and continue to develop them after the project ends. Students will make use of the newly-acquired twenty-first century knowledge and skills in the following educational stages and be even more successful due to them. Key staff in the schools involved in the project will share the project outputs and results with other teachers in local schools. The latter will be encouraged to use the output materials and to take advantage of the shared experience.

Project Reconnect is a project coordinated by San Gorg Preca Middle School in Malta together with ULUÇINAR ORTAOKULU secondary school in Turkey, Prisms NGO from Malta and STICHTING DUTCH FOUNDATION OF INNOVATION WELFARE 2 WORK NGO from The Netherlands. Social Media and young people are intrinsically linked to each other. As innovators, young people are the ones who get absorbed into new technological trends which makes them also heavyweight users of social media. Young people from an early age are being exposed to social media and online tools for leisure, socialization and education. This makes the young generation, also referred to as Millennials, very savvy and skillful when it comes to using online tools and social media. On the other hand, this generation is criticized for the lack of social skills when it comes to face-to-face communication. This generation is perceived as disconnected from the ‘offline’ aspect of life, due to their immersion into the online aspect. There is this generational gap, struggle and tension between generations.The primary challenge for educators and students is to find common ground which will benefit both generations. The educators need to learn how to use the characteristics of the Internet and use them to be relevant to the young generations. The students need to learn more about how to socialise offline and be equipped with the skills to navigate safely and efficiently in the online world.This project is linked to EU’s Digital Education Action Plan which speaks about three main objectives: 1.Making better use of digital technology for teaching and learning2.Developing relevant digital competencies and skills for the digital transformation3. Increase students' media literacyThis project will have the following phases and methodologies to reach its objectives: Phase 1 - Focus Groups and Questionnaires to Students and Teachers Phase 2 - Analysis of the data and Mapping of contextual needs Phase 3 - Training to Teachers and Learners Phase 4 - Development of the new Pedagogy approachPhase 5 - Implementation of the pedagogy in the classroom environment and the implementation of the project in schools by the students.Phase 6 - Focus Groups and Questionnaires to Students and Teachers (to measure the impact) Phase 7 - Creation of online tools and dissemination of Results within the schools and networks on a local and European LevelThe project will target 30 teachers and 40 students in a direct way due to their participation in the training/exchange. These will act as multipliers to the rest of the school, therefore the project will reach 150 teachers and 1200 Students. In an indirect way through the dissemination process planned for this project, all the results will be freely accessible for all to download and implement the pedagogy/activity themselves. The impact on the organizations would be that the schools will have a new pedagogical approach to utilise. The teachers who will participate in the training course will act as multipliers to the other teachers in the school. The teachers will also carry out presentations of the learning outcomes which took place at the training with the other teachers in the schools (150 teachers). The schools will be in a better position to respond to a crisis (as identified by educators) in which students seem not interested in the way the traditional way of teaching is implemented. The schools will have guides which will give all the instructions needed for all the teachers to implement this Reconnect method of teaching in their lessons. The schools will also have a programme which they can implement every year to increase the media literacy of the students which is very important in this digital age through the initiative of the students. Ultimately the teachers will offer a learning experience to students which is relevant, engaging and interactive to students. This will result in more students being active in their own learning.