PROJECT DESCRIPTION

A naturalist David Polis once said:

“Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the mountains and the stars up above. Let them look at the beauty of the waters and the trees and flowers on earth. They will then begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education.”

This is what we aim to offer to all participants in our project. There are six partners in it from the very north to the very south of Europe: Iceland, Northern Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Croatia and Greece. The five days mobilities in each of this countries will show participants the similarities and differences of all participating countries by raising participant's key competencies through various activities.

In the last years, majority of researches, as well as partner school analysis, have shown that the motivation for learning is decreasing, especially if it is conducted in a traditional way. From the other hand, outdoor learning and benefits it has on pupils is not recognized enough, primarily because this topic is not taught at the universities and teachers do not have enough specific knowledge for providing outdoor lessons. This is what this project is about: it's aim is to enable teachers with knowledge of how to deliver lessons outdoor and use nearby surrounding, local institutions and environment as a template for learning.

From the other hand, by carrying out lessons outdoor, this project will enable pupils to acquire new learning styles based on "learning by doing" approach and personal experience and prepare them for the fast changing world they are living in by acquiring key competencies necessary for successful adoption in today's society.

There will be seven mobilities within this project, five of them will be focused od pupils, and two of them will have focus on strengthen teacher's skills and enabling them to upgrade their key competences for delivering lessons outdoor. Since every country has something specific to offer to participants, each pupil mobility will be focused od different aspects for learning outside the classroom: Iceland will become an open geography classroom with workshops about natural phenomena like volcano, geysers, glaciers. Germany will offer math and saving environment lessons. The Netherlands will focus on gaining practical skills in everyday life with workshops on the farm, art and scout activities. Croatia, with its underground caves and sea workshops, will focus on biology lessons while Greece, as a cradle of European civilization, will focus on outdoor history lessons. In addition to activities during the mobility weeks, experiments on various topics will be made. Cultural box of every country will be prepared by pupils and sent via post to other participating school a month before the mobility will be held in order to broaden knowledge of the visiting country. All this activities will have the main goal-upgrade key competences of all participants by developing language skills, using technology, learning about tradition and culture of other countries, upgrading abilities in the STEM field and practicing social and civic competences by organizing field trips, practice English, spending time with peers and learning from foreign partner countries.

During the project, each school will design five lesson plans for outdoor learning which will be implemented in curriculum of any country. All lesson plans for teaching Art, Math, Language, (Earth) Science and History will be gathered in a an brochure "Open the door to outdoor" and published online. After every mobility, a brochure on one outdoor and environmental topic (animal protection, nature protection, changing habits, plastic free tips topics.) will be made to teach pupils about importance of preserving nature. In that way we will enable teachers to take learning outside because traditional classrooms limit pupil's motivation and interest for learning.

Sustainability of the project will be ensured through online available designed materials in English and mother tongue of participating countries in order all teachers in partner countries could use it more easily. All the material gathered from cultural boxes of different countries will serve as a valuable teaching tool that will be used in teaching different subjects such as geography, science, history lessons as well as a rock collection in each school Geography classrooms.