La scuola in campo

"<< Background >>The challenge of climate change and the need to preserve the quality and the environmental sustainability of agri-food products, is at the heart of the policies of many European municipalities. A crucial aspect of this challenge is educating future generations, who will need to apply the principles of circular economy and environmental, social, and economic sustainability in agri-food production. Vocational education institutes in agriculture play a key role in addressing these challenges, including the conservation of natural resources and the reduction of harmful emissions. In response to these needs, the project was created to ensure that schools, with the support of expert trainers, implement targeted training programs on sustainability and the circular economy within their curricula.The project involves the development of a pilot educational course on environmental sustainability, combining formal and informal teaching practices to raise awareness among new generations about the Green Deal and climate change. Each school has appointed a teacher responsible for the course who, with the support of experts, has developed both practical and theoretical learning paths tailored to local areas, directly involving students.<< Objectives >>The project aims to introduce an educational program in schools that prepares young people for responsible and sustainable resource management, an educational course that seeks to bring the Green Deal into high school classrooms, continuing the fight against climate change by promoting innovative learning methods and new teaching practices. The course is designed to establish a new role within secondary education: an environmental sustainability officer capable of supporting and fostering green initiatives in schools and promoting social responsibility in formal education. The project ensures that at least one teacher per school is designated as the course coordinator, while two teachers have participated in the training program. The trained teachers, supported by external experts who provided educational materials, have developed technical competencies tailored to the specific needs of their local areas (agriculture, forestry, reforestation, etc.), combining practical and theoretical lessons in which students were actively involved.<< Implementation >>Besides management, coordination, monitoring, evaluation, and dissemination activities, carried out through both in-person partner meetings and local activities, as well as online working sessions, the partners first implemented a Trainer for Trainers program. This initiative involved two trainers from the partner IAgrocert and four teachers from the partner schools, aiming to develop new tools and educational methods to promote environmental sustainability education in schools.(25-29/09/23). Following this, a manual containing the Guidelines for implementing the Environmental Sustainability course was drafted, based on insights gathered during the debriefing activities and the training mobility itself. The manual was later revised and completed with feedback collected during and after the pilot courses conducted in the two participating schools. (1/10/23-01/7/24). Thanks to the coordination of the Greek partner and the involvement of trainers, the Italian and Slovenian schools developed an environmental sustainability course, which was implemented during the school year. (1/10/23-1/6/24). During the Final Conference (14-15/09/24), the partners presented the project's results, which were also disseminated at the local and EU leve<< Results >>The ultimate goal of the project, beyond its direct experimental application in the local areas and its alignment with the needs of the proposing entities, is to create a ""model"" that can be exported to other contexts and adapted based on their specific requirements.A manual containing the Guidelines for implementing the Environmental Sustainability course was drafted and disseminated through the organized conferences. It was then sent to high schools in the involved regions and published on the project’s website in English, Italian, Greek, and Slovenian.This document is intended for all secondary schools and provides the necessary guidelines and actions to plan and implement the Environmental Sustainability course."