Act like a PRO, preserved H2O
Description
Please describe the motivation for your project and explain why it should be funded.
Water is a fundamental element of our existence on earth and despite this fact, we sometimes tend to take it too much for granted. Absence of water makes it impossible for living organism to survive. However, statistics show that over one billion people worldwide have limited or no access to fresh water supplies. Less than 3% of world water reserve is fresh, while 2.5 % is deposited in solid state in cold continents. As a result, humanity has direct access to just 0.5% of the fresh water in the world to satisfy its needs.
Considering the figures above, lack of responsibility in the consumption of fresh water resources can generate a crisis that is likely to affect billions of people hereafter. The project emerges from a genuine need, so we have partnered up in order to educate the young generation on this issue and contribute to their development into responsible future adults. Throughout the project, they will have multiple opportunities to learn about water management and consumption, look into the water issue from their ancestors’ perception, adapt the consumption habits to the needs of the current situation and the effects on the future of mankind. Participants will develop into active defenders and advocates of rational water usage, initiate community campaign, investigate on their local members’ behaviour towards water consumption and share the results within the partnership. Moreover, we wish to draw up a long term plan to grow into water-friendly schools, even convince the local authorities to pilot the plan and implement it on some local institutions, so that the impact of the project results will reach more people and generate concrete differences.
All 5 partner schools have fresh water sources located at convenient distances. This will make it easier for students and teacher working on the project to relate to something that they are familiar with or easy to reach for further field investigations. Nowadays, people are giving more and more consideration to environmental problems and through the project, we will approach the issue locally and internationally, compare our findings and establish common measures and solutions, exchange ideas and learn in a multicultural setting.
Each LTTA will focus on a topic, as follows:
C1 Water reflected in literature and art
C2 Water and science
C3 Water and health
C4 The future of water
C5 Sustainable water consumption plan in partner schools and wider community
C1-C4 are short-term student exchanges and C5 is a joint-staff training event. C1-C4 are structured to go through 4 topics related to water where students and teachers will organize joint activities, exchange ideas and concrete practices, acquire knowledge, practice and develop skills. During C5 the teachers will devise their own plan and suggest strategies to develop their schools into water-friendly organisations; identify strategies for other schools and institutions to implement it , thus result in wider impact to reach masses.
What are the objectives you would like to achieve and concrete results you would like to produce? How are these objectives linked to the priorities you have selected?
The main aim of the partnership is to create an international cooperation setting for participants to increase the level of awareness amongst direct and indirect participants in regard to importance of water in our life, issues generated by irresponsible water management.
We have agreed on the following objectives:
O1. to raise knowledge about water from various perspectives for minimum 60% of target group of students
O2. to support students identify water shortage problems and tackle the issue locally
O3. to encourage students’ active engagement in environmental community problems and strengthen the role of the schools
O4. to enhance students’ soft skills, English language communication, creativity, awareness of European culturaln diversity
O5. to initiate a European network of environment-oriented schools to further expand with support from local authorities.
The set objectives are linked with the horizontal priorities selected, as the project will both increase the awareness level of a current environmental problem and also encourage students to actively address the problem, by conducting in community awareness-raising campaigns which will impact the members in their school community and also larger masses in the local community.
To reach project goals, the teams will be involved in local activities and international planned exchanges. They are to use their resources to project materials such as create posters in digital and handwritten format, design their own maps of water facilities in the area, conduct surveys and questionnaires so as to investigate on and measure the water consumption and analyse the impact. With the support of the teachers, they will organize community campaigns to inform citizens about effects of irresponsible water management, design visibility and informative materials such as make flyers, gather people to attend a flash mob. Moreover, they will start with investigations in their school community and advance solutions to make their schools a water-friendly environment.
During LTTAS, they will attend lessons on project topic, take part in activities and workshops prepared by their partners, work collaboratively in multicultural groups, go on field trips and to cultural sights.
The highlight of the project will consist of a sustainable plan created by the team with the aim to implement long- term water-friendly strategies and policies in their organisations.
The concrete project results will be: themed presentations, surveys, reports, campaigns (including plan and materials) ,workshops, flash mob, sustainable water consumption plan, stories, poems, quizzes, leaflets, posters, experiments, hydro-maps, 3D models, water pollution models, project website and twin space, newsletters.
Intangible results produced will be: knowledge, skills, attitudes, increased environmental and cultural awareness, enhanced active engagement and citizenship, good practice exchange.
How are the planned activities going to lead to achievement of the project`s objectives?
We created a list of local and international activities to reach project set aims. Project partners will select the target groups of students and teachers to implement project activities; they will all play an active role throughout the whole duration of the project. At the start of the project, there will be a questionnaire for students in the schools to answer; the answers will provide information regarding their level of pre-existing knowledge on project topic. Each school will prepare an initial report of the results in the questionnaire.
For the first project topic we will work on water reflected in literature and art. Students will conduct research activities and select representative pieces of literature (folk tales, poems, stories) in which the element water is invested with a symbolic value. Also, they make suggestive paintings which illustrate water during art workshops.
During C1 they will take part in lesson observations which deal with water management from a past perspective; use creativity and write poems and stories about water.
For the topic in C2 students will focus on subjects such as geography, science and their relation to water. During geography lessons they will discuss about different water sources and design hydro-maps. During science lessons they will do and observe experiments with water, do drinking water tests, go on field trip. They will use their mathematical skills during Maths lessons and calculate the total amount of water that is consumed throughout a year in their homes and at school, share the results with their partners.
To address the topic in C3, students will evaluate their water drinking habits, discuss the benefits of water for health, attend biology lessons on the importance of water for the body, go on field trips. This activity will take place in partnership with specialized local institutions. The results will be include in a report. They are to create posters in digital and handwritten format to encourage people drink water, visit drinkable water storage systems and attend PE lessons.
For the topic in C4, students will reflect on the effects of human activity upon water sources and advance solutions to minimize the negative effects or eliminate them. They will attend interactive lessons, watch films which illustrate facts and future scenarios on threats for world water sources, provide possible measures to be taken in order to stop the phenomenon. They will also become familiar with the steps to organize a community campaign from an experienced NGO representative. All schools will organize a campaign on the occasion of world water day in March 2022.
The final version of the sustainable plan will be decided during C5, when teachers will work closely with local authorities representatives and try to make it suitable to other institutions as well and thus create benefits for the wider community.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/379234203524896