- Goldberg-Gymnasium
Sindelfingen - Henry Fanshawe School
Dronfield - Lycée Gaston Monnerville
Kourou - E.S. La Rosaleda
Malaga - Deutsche Schule
Barcelona
„Back to Nature“ is a versatile and wide ranging Erasmus+ Project which will provide school students and teachers with a feel and appreciation for the natural environment, for the finite resources of nature and the significance of technology. This leads to a consideration of the process of sustainability, creativity in the area of STEM activities and internationally linked ideas. Five schools from Malaga (Spain), Barcelona (Spain), Dronfield (Great Britain), Kourou (French Guiana) and Sindelfingen (Germany) will take part in the project and each school will contribute a specific aspect of the project.
The project as a whole addresses these interconnected subjects (Art, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Technology, Geography, History and Languages) and includes the involvement of experts in these fields, museum visits and research and development institutions. Participation in this project will promote motivation and gives the students the opportunity to apply their own knowledge and to link this knowledge with new experiences. In this way both students and teachers can reach higher levels of the development of their knowledge.
Various goals will be achieved through this project: increased awareness of the themes of the project; improvements in competencies in content and methods of working; promotion of social and language abilities; increased proficiency in participants’ abilities to manipulate media; insights into various professional and career options; direct experience of European thought processes.
These goals will be achieved through two pathways. On the one hand, some themes will be addressed in the respective schools through normal regular classroom teaching. Among these activities will be the construction of insect hotels and the preparation of a butterfly zone in the school grounds of each of the participating schools. Through subsequent observations and evaluations we shall record our findings, and these findings will constitute one of the project outcomes that we shall report on. The students will learn about these techniques in lessons and by expert guidance.
In addition to these activities, there will be 4 project meetings involving students and teachers (Barcelona, Dronfield, Kourou, Sindelfingen) and 2 planning meetings (Malaga, Sindelfingen). The planning meetings for teachers will provide enhancement of the teachers’ knowledge through excursions related to the project themes, cooperative activities linked to the planning of the project and meetings that will promote the development of international organisation teams. Two colleagues from each school will take part in these collaborative meetings.
For the student meetings we shall invite students between ages 15-19 years old, accompanied by teachers from the respective partner schools. Accommodation for the students will be with host families which will further enhance the cultural and linguistic opportunities of the project experiences. Each partner school will be responsible for the planning and organisation of its hosting event, and the individual schools will thereby be able to offer a variety of experiences for the visiting participants.
The other partner schools will prepare in advance the presentations and workshops that they will offer during these project visits. The specialisms of the individual participating schools are: Barcelona (Art, Biology, recycling and restoration to nature in large cities), Dronfield (Physics, biodiversity on the school site), Kourou (Biology, Geography, History of the sociocultural development in French Guiana, space travel linked to the international space centre based at Kourou and visits to the rain forests), Sindelfingen (Art, Chemistry, links between nature and technology, renewable energies and sustainability) und Malaga (Biology, gastronomy und food). At each project meeting we shall plant a tree on the school site of the hosting school, as a symbol of the collaborative links between the partner schools. These trees will also be an indication of our commitment to the protection of the environment. Furthermore the project outcomes include the promotion of the principles for a way of life that includes sustainability, strategies for an increase in the biodiversity in each school site, (eg the construction of insect hotels), scientific investigations of the origins of heritage sites of the various countries (eg original inhabitants of French Guiana), manufacturing of products developed through a combination of nature and technology as well as displays of art objects (recycling, upcycling).
Additionally an internet based homepage for the project will be established as one of the outcomes of this project. On this homepage all the meetings will be documented with reports, pictures and videos and additional ideas for their implementation in teaching (project days, workshops etc) will be uploaded also.
It is important for us that we offer these experiences to as many students as possible via international exchanges and collaborative working. It is important for us that these opportunities for intercultural and linguistic development should enhance the regular learning of the students, all of whom come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. In this way we strengthen the awareness of our project theme and offer all participants the possibility to experience collectively a truly European way of thinking.