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In Europe you can see a variety of different geographical conditions such as mountains, volcanos, national parks and waters. In our project “We are where we live?!“ we found out that these locational factors have an impact on our identities, our lives and our personalities. Our students experienced opportunities to travel and to learn more about foreign languages and cultures. The motives to start this project had been to overcome financial barriers on part of the students as well as to get them out of their personal comfort zones – which we successfully achieved. We inspired our students for new things in life. We strengthened their belief in a united European Union by making the European cultural heritage visible and tangible. Moreover, we increased tolerance for heterogeneity. With the help of this project we were able to stimulate the students to critically think about themselves, their surroundings and about Europe and strengthen their intercultural competences. They holistically increased their language skills, as well as their skills to work in teams – which was successfully measured in their performance at school. In addition, the project work increased their independency. In the interests of young people, we used a high percentage of digital media in order to strengthen their competence in this field. We worked with a 3D-printer and we learnt how to develop a mobile app, different videos or websites, for example. Four European schools have been involved in the project. Each of these partners offers a different geographical factor: Spain (Colmenar Viejo) with its National Park Cuenca Alta del Manzanares, Italy (Sicily, Mascalucia) located at the foot of the volcano Etna, Slovakia (Košice) in the Tatras mountains and Germany (Hamburg) surrounded by many different waters. Each school put together a group of 18 students between the ages of 14-18 years. This was carried out according to a number of certain criteria which applied to every school. These groups were supervised by its main responsible teachers. Other professionals and external partners such as a psychologist or IT-experts supported the project. The host families, in which the students had been accommodated during their travels, also contribute to the success of this project. The activities had been divided into two parts: On the one hand there had been the activities during the exchange meetings and on the other hand there had been the activities at home. The latter served as an introduction to the main topic of the project, the scientific examination of the notion of identity, the preparation and execution of surveys and the preparation and wrap up of the travels. The activities during the exchange meetings served to explore the geographical location factors, to participate in digital workshops and enabled the establishment of personal contacts. With regard to the methodological and didactic approach, the procedure at the different partner schools was as uniform as possible. In terms of contents, these had been adapted to the respective focus and selected to fit into the methodological-didactic guideline. Throughout the project, action-oriented learning was used to promote the students' motivation and to arouse interest for new things. Further emphasis was placed on discovering new things and on holistic learning as well as on the application of cooperative forms of learning. The expected results are of both an intangible and tangible nature: the students learnt to work both independently and in a team. They open up to new things and made contact. Through holistic learning, they used all their senses. Furthermore, their language skills improved. They expanded their know-how about geographical conditions, the culture and the people in the participating countries. Thanks to many digital workshops, they also expanded their digital competence successfully. During the project, a padlet and some websites had been created to record written contributions, photos and short videos. The survey and other work results were shared and published via Twin Space. During our workshops we produced a 3D print, an interactive poster, a drawing animation and several websites and interactive padlets. The project has a high potential for long-term benefits, as the students and the teachers involved serve as multipliers in their schools now: they disseminate the applied methods and pass on the experience and know-how. This arouses interest and increases motivation on the students’ and the teachers’ sides. Possible prejudices will be reduced, cooperation and contacts will be established. The schools continue staying in contact even though the project has already ended. Furthermore, partner schools are interested in new Erasmus+ projects.The digitization of schools was driven by the knowledge of new digital opportunities and the purchase of tablets. Furthermore, aspects of the project had been integrated into the school program. Among other things, the European Day of Languages is firmly anchored in language classes.Even though Covid-19 did not allow us to do our last mobility to Hamburg, we still can confirm that this project was a success for all partner schools. All schools benefitted from this project.
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