Water Equals Hundreds of Opportunities

The aim of the 'Water Equals Hundreds of Opportunities' project is to make students, partner institutions and their local communities more aware of the importance of water in everyday life. It will not only focus the participants’ attention on water-related issues (e.g. the importance of water in a healthy lifestyle, industry, technology and transportation, water protection) and enable them to broaden their knowledge on these subjects, but it will also help them develop their reading, mathematical, language and ICT skills through their work in the project. By carrying out the project, the project will attempt to reach the aims of Europe 2020 concerning raising the level of reading, science, ICT and math competencies. The project will involve more than two thousand participants, 442 of whom will participate in transnational teaching and learning activities.The theme of water is so broad and diversified that it will enable us to incorporate it into the main parts of the school curriculum. In each partner school there is a need to improve the school curriculum by making students more active in the learning process through more student autonomy and problem-solving tasks. The improved curriculums will include brain-friendly lessons and 'flipped' classroom. Using these methods, students will work on the theme of water in Mathematics, Sciences, ICT, English and other European languages, students will be encouraged to take a cross-curricular approach in noticing the problem, analyzing a possible solution and coming up with their own conclusions through innovations. This way, they will increase their level of competencies, be motivated to study, develop their interdisciplinary skills and raise their awareness of active participation in pursuing their education and future career. It will enable them to become competitive on the job market since there are more and more companies dealing with the issue of water in every European country. Also, teachers will be able to develop their teaching skills by incorporating innovative teaching approach (neurodidactics). They will also improve their language and ICT skills through working together and visiting partner schools, as well as sharing their experiences and good practices. This will encourage life-long learning. 'Water Equals Hundreds of Opportunities' project will also enable people from different European countries to realize what water-related problems other nations have, and how their local and national governments’ decisions concerning water can affect their own country or region. As a result, students’ and local communities’ awareness will be raised and the feeling of facing the same problems and necessity of cooperation among different European nations will be created. The end results, such as improved school curriculums, a brochure on water springs and spas, e-book containing teaching and studying material for English, Mathematics and Sciences, lesson plans of brain-friendly classes and activities, ‘flipped classroom’ activities, as well as instructions for carrying out experiments will ensure the widespread usage of the project ideas in other educational institutions across European community.