Sustainable European Citizenship

Fri, 26/06/2009 - 18:55
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We are a French high school working with Finnish, German and Spanish partners on the internet to collaborate on environmental issues and sustainability, educate our students as to green ethical living, compare our diverse problems and the local solutions implemented by the local authorities, so getting to know one another better, and, at the same time, improving our ICT skills. We use a collaborative platform : http://www.nibis.de/~gymhimmel/index.htm. Here in France I publish our school work on my school site : http://www.lyc-cordouan.ac-poitiers.fr/anglais/. My pupils get help on our forum : http://www.lyc-cordouan.ac-poitiers.fr/forumpeda/viewforum.php?f=3 and we all collaborate on a wiki to prepare an "ecoguide" that's to be published on recycled paper : http://www.lyc-cordouan.ac-poitiers.fr/eco-guide/doku.php?

1. Project summary
Summary: 

Sustainable European Citizenship ( SEC) is a partnership of four secondary schools in Germany, Finland, France and Spain, focussing on climate change and the young people’s ideas on the means of alleviating its present and future consequences.
After a calculation of the ecological footprint, each school will focus on the most crucial local issues: Spain on water availability, Germany on air pollution, France on the protection of  sea sites and Finland on sustainable forestry. All findings are to be published and exchanged on a common website. Eventually, a guide to « Sustainable European Citizenship » and a glossary will be published in the four languages involved and printed on recycled paper.

Gymnasium Himmelsthür, the coordinating school, will host the first exchange in autumn 2008.
The work at school will be done according to the respective curricula. Some 30 students per school are actively involved in the exchanges and all schools will share the procedures and results. The local communities are both bases for the practical work and actors for disseminating the ideas resulting from the programme.
Sustainable European Citizenship comprises a two year-round work , regular on line contacts and four exchange visits to each school and area with pupils.
"Together we can do more!" is our motto and our emblem is the greylag goose as it flies over our 4 countries along its migratory route.
I am at the origin of the project as I found our Finnish partner on e twinning, he had already worked with the German partner and later found the Spanish colleagues, we had the same idea of working on environmental education using digital tools. Here is a summary of our exchange visit as we hosted our partners last May,
http://www.lyc-cordouan.ac-poitiers.fr/anglais/spip.php?rubrique94
our project is to end in September 2010 with the publication of our multilingual brochure prepared on the wiki during these 2 years.

2. Country (City / Region)
State: 
France
City: 
Royan
3. Company/organization/institute presenting the project
Organization: 
High School
4. Type of organization
Select type: 
Public institution
5. Project coordinator
Name and Surname: 
J Roche
E-Mail: 
jgmmel@laposte.net
6. Website
The website of the project: 
http://www.lyc-cordouan.ac-poitiers.fr/anglais/spip.php?rubrique72
7. Please select the category in which you candidate your project
Youth Education Project. Select Project Users by age: 
Up to 18 years
Helping youth step in the job market: 
Helping youth step in the job market
Creativity and Social Innovation: 
Creativity and Social Innovation
8. How long has your project been running?
From: 
01/09/2008
9. Targets and Elements of Innovation
Please explain the targets and the background of your project: 

exchange in English, improve ICT skills, share about different European environments, raise awareness on environmental issues and imagine common solutions to similar issues, show the importance of acting locally in harmony to work for the environment on a global scale, and so experience a true feeling of European Citizenship

What does it try to achieve and how: 

describe our respective areas on our platform to get to learn from one another, work in English on economic, scientific topics while studying innovative technologies linked to green living and to learn about the interdependance of animal and vegetal species, linguistic work to add data in the 5 languages on our wiki. using these diverse tools enables us to educate our students in the information field : rights, privacy, the differents means of collaboration on the net...

Please explain what is unique or special in your project: 

our pupils and the staff particularly enjoy creating strong links of friendship with people we just didn't know a few months before

10. Results
Describe the results of your project as per today: 

two of the four exchange visits have been done and strong bonds have formed between the 4 partners
our brochure is well on its way as plenty of data is already stored on our wiki. more skilled pupils tutor the others as to the use of this platform and this really is an living example of harmony and positive work between peoples of various cultures but who share the same values.

How does it fulfill the users’ needs: 

the students of the 4 schools improve their knowledge in English, natural sciences and information, all subjects of their syllabus and key to their future work life

How many users interact with your project per month and what are the preferred forms of interaction: 

20 pupils and 4 teachers of each school

How has it improved the quality of educational and/or training services: 

great impact on the relations between teachers and students, working in English in collaboration with teachers of different disciplines within each school, so more collaboration between teachers, sharing teaching methods. the fact that the work done by the students is published online is rewarding for them, writing is not just an exercise, it is a production

How does it promote the use of ICT for the educational and cultural development by professionals, children and youth: 

explore the various tools to collaborate and exchange, the rules of digital communication, file management, using a network..

11. Sustainability
What is the full duration of your project: 
From 1 to 3 years
What is the approximate total budget for your project (in USD): 
From 10.001 to 30.000
What is the source of funding for your project: 
Grants
Is your project economically self sufficient now: 
Yes
Insert date: 
01/09/2008
12. Transferability
Has your project been replicated/adapted elsewhere: 
Yes
Specify: 

the documents we study for our research are also used by other classes as they are published online
http://www.lyc-cordouan.ac-poitiers.fr/anglais/spip.php?rubrique75

What lessons can others learn from your project: 

other teachers from the 4 schools get an example of the students' pleasure to collaborate with foreign students, we notice the wiki was very motivating and most students added data from home and so did a nice amount of homework on the vocabulary which they wouldn't have done normally

We are available to help others starting or working on similar projects: 
We are available to help others starting or working on similar projects.
13. Background information
Background: 

this is a two year long Comenius project

Barriers: 

some difficulties arose as our school systems are different (holiday periods and exams dates)

Solutions: 

we managed to harmonize our visits and the work even when it meant working during bankholidays

Future plans and wish list: 

we plan to distribute our brochure as largely as possible with the help of the local authorities and also to enforce changes in our schools to limit our ecological impact

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I do authorize the FMD to the treatment of my personal data