"<< Background >>The NETCHER project (https://netcher.eu/), started in January 2019 and concluded in March 2021, was aimed at reinforcing the fight against cultural heritage looting and trafficking, by bringing together relevant international actors (security and research communities, public and private institutions, art market specialists, policy makers), to build a sustainable social online platform. With the objective of paving the way to further initiatives, NETCHER issued a set of recommendations, addressing all the different communities of stakeholders. They underline the importance to create reliable, comprehensive and accessible information, on which the efficiency of education and awareness processes relies.The Final Forum of NETCHER, organised on 1-2 March 2021, has also underlined the need to extend its activities to a wider audience, also involving the educational sector and the general public, since the dimension of the challenge requires a wider intervention, involving all the citizens from their early age. In the final round table, representatives of five Directorates-General of the European Commission - also including DG EAC for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture - were requested to comment the recommendations issued by the NETCHER project and highlighted the policy issues from different perspectives. They all agreed that a strong interaction among the educational sector and the key actors involved in looting and trafficking is necessary, with a strong focus on cultural institutions. Archaeological sites and museums are mostly concerned, but any kind of cultural institutions are touched by this severe issue.The present PITCHER project is the first action started to put into practice this strategy, trying to respond to the needs (often not clearly identified yet) of the educational sectors in front of this key problem. Its solution is not involving only a few numbers of police forces, researchers and cultural bodies, but needs the collaboration of all the citizens, starting from the youngsters. It is crucial to make them aware that cultural and archaeological heritage is essential to our understanding of mankind, our history, who we are and where we come from. Taking away the study of these objects from specialists is the same as irreversibly destroying a part of our past.<< Objectives >>The project intends to propose a new model for addressing young people about the problem of fighting the looting and illicit trafficking of cultural goods, focusing on school teachers, in order to raise their awareness and enhance their professional development in this field. This will be done by: - enhancing schools with new models for increasing the knowledge of students, as well as use educational scheme for acquiring the critical thinking necessary to play an effective role in tackling this problem, as a young citizen and as an adult; - creating prototypes of innovative tools based on STEAM Education (i.e. a combination of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) as an access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking; - using the educational potential present in the European cultural institutions (archeological sites, museums, libraries, etc.) to support teachers in the development of lessons and workshops aiming at demonstrating the intercultural dimension of the problem. It is a matter of fact that ""creativity"", for born digital youngsters, is strictly associated to the use of IT devices, that are their main tool for communicating and exchanging feelings, emotions and passions. This is why the presence of the ""makers"", the digital artists, can support this action, since they well know the potential of the use of technology and can support the development of educational resources to stimulate creativity. It is important to remember that the word ""poet"" comes from the Greek verb ""poieo - ποιέω"", that means ""to make"". This approach well justify the organization of training events where the partners are working together with creative artists and cultural institutions for jointly designing new educational tools based also on gamification and escape games, enhanced reality, and real-time interaction with the students. In this way, the project will enable all the students to express their culture and ideas, while providing opportunities for the acquisition of necessary skills and know-how to participate in wider cultural developments. The general objective of the proposal consists then of the design and test of a set of open educational resources, to be made available also online, focusing on improving the educators’ capacity in preparing new learning experiences to support the fight against looting and illicit trafficking of cultural goods, thanks to the rich repositories of digital cultural heritage accessible through the web.<< Implementation >>The activities are organised according to the following main phases: Phase 1: COMMON FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY (M1-12) During this phase partners will build a common framework and work methodology by analysing existing good practices and initiatives. This includes the identification of case studies and interviews with stakeholders and key actors. Focus group can be organised in the partner countries with relevant local stakeholders to share and validate the results of this phase. The existing potential available in European digital collections of cultural heritage will be analyzed, to identify and select the most effective materials to be made available to the European schools. Phase 2: DEVELOPMENT & TESTING (M13-M32) During this second phase, partners will develop the Open Educational Resources (OERs). The courses and the related educational materials will be prepared in English in the first version, and they will be translated (if necessary) and tested in the partner countries. Teachers and students, but also citizens, will be involved in the pilot action. Thanks to the feedback received from the participants to the pilot actions, the OERs will be revised and fine-tuned. Evaluation activities will be boosted in this phase to support the testing with the collection and analysis of adequate data. Phase 3: MODELING AND RECOMMENDATION (M29-M36) Based on the results of the test phase, the training materials will be revised and improved and enriched with additional materials. During this phase, partners will work together in order to create a model of intervention and a series of guidelines and recommendations for drafting a document paving the way to a mass use of the training model and resources at local, regional or even national level. Also, the project foresees 6 transnational partners meetings, and 6 multiplier events.<< Results >>PITCHER will develop scenarios that advance the concept of 'open schooling' by building clusters of stakeholders around a creative and critical engagement of youngsters in the fight against looting and trafficking of cultural goods, also involving – as a secondary target group – museum educators, memory institutions and other organisations involved in informal and non-formal educational places, such as community centers, services for youth, young offenders. Through its results: 1: Methods to include a creative and critical thinking approach in education, supporting the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural goods; 2: Design and test of the Open Educational Resources; 3: Guidelines and recommendations for mass use of the training model and resources,PITCHER will create a set of OERs able to help EU teachers in implementing creative ways to involve young generation in this dramatic problem with the help of the educational potential of European cultural institutions. Themes covered in the materials and tools will also include themes of intercultural reflection, values; and identity(ies); dialogue and dialogical relationships; EU values and critical thinking."