About the Project

Knowing a country's cultural and natural heritage is a way to know who we are as a country and as a people. Sharing this singularities with others is a route to promote understanding, tolerance and acceptance among the different peoples within the borders of the European Union and beyond its borders. That is why a group of 6 European countries have decided to come together and study, prepare and reveal these different forms of heritage as a way to promote the importance of culture and nature in our daily lives. It is also our intention to look at cultural and natural heritage as an added value when we consider its contibution to job creation, economic growth and social cohesion. That is why all the activities focus on these horizontal priority or at least, lead to it. At the same time, we want to promote an open education and innovative practices in the digital era, by making use of available apps (free of charge) with which students will work under the supervision of ICT teachers. All this combined with the chance of teaching in partner schools and comparing different ways of teaching common subjects like history, geography, English or maths, is also a way to promote and strenghten the teaching profession. Sharing different teaching experiences is the best way to perfect teaching and learning.

The project focus mainly on Cultural and Natural Heritage and its contribution to the social and economic development of the different regions that are taking part in it. We also want to encourage our students to develop dynamic activities, take leadership roles in school, learning how to be future active participating adults in their communities. The international groups of teachers and students will be formed according to the dynamics of each school; still, we will consider the importance of giving equal opportunities to boys and girls, and to integrate less fortunate students as far as their social and economic situation is concerned, thus allowing underfavoured students to broaden their vision of what the European continent really is. All schools, except the German, are located in remote and/or underpriviledged areas. It is the case of the Portuguese and the French partners, both located in Outermost European Regions (The Azores Archipelago and Martinique), whereas the other 4 partner schools are located far from the capitals of their countries, even the German.

Each school will have a group on no less than 20 students and 4 teachers directly involved in the project, although the activities are aimed at a larger group of students of each school. During the partnership, students and teachers will develop several local activities that will be really important for the success of the Learning Teaching and Training Activities. All the products that will be created will then be uploaded into the eTwinning platform as well as into a webpage probably under the webpage of the coordinating partner. The local activities will consist of field trips to collect data, treatment of data, registration and preparation of products to be presented within the partnership both during the LTTAs and locally during school celebration and during meetings with parents and local stakeholders. We want to make films, PowerPoint or Prezi presentations, prepare an international recipes book, touristic circuits using apps, among other products. Critical thinking and project-based learning are also important assets to this project. We want our students to do research on their own under teachers and parents' supervision and we would like to have them thinking critically whem comparing their work with their partners' work.

The Portuguese partner has taken the responsibility of coordinating the partnership due to its experience with Erasmus + projects. The Spanish, Polish, German, French and Romanian partners have shown a lot of enthusiasm in taking part in this partnership and are willing to take very active roles in the project, not only during the LTTAs, but also in all the activities that we commit ourselves to accomplish during this two-year project. As committed partners, we also consider that it is really important to share responsibilites as far as management tasks are considered, that is why coordinators meetings during the LTTAs are so important.

Regarding the results, we expect to increase motivation in our students, make them curious about their cultural and natural, thus making them aware of the importance of preserving through knowledge and use. That is why we would like to plant the seed of entrepreneurship regarding tourism and how relevant this activity can be when it comes to the promotion of small-scale economies. We hope the project plays a significant impact in our communities and that this project can be the starting point of something bigger. That is why we expect our partnership to go far beyond the end of the project, discussing and debating and even adding more schools to the project.