heARTs connected through ARTs for a sustainable future!

"<< Background >>The project was a response to the needs of partner schools students’ from Poland, Italy and Turkey in the field of working together in order to change the teenagers’ attitude towards a sustainable development. A lot of teenagers were constantly getting lost, left alone in a competitive digital world, losing their connection to the rest of the society and becoming blind to the social and environmental problems. All the partners decided to write a project to protect teenagers from being indifferent to these problems and to show them how to be active people and productive citizens, aware of their society and able to find solutions as well as express their ideas freely. Attention was paid to collaborative work and sharing values, equality of the ethnic origins, positive feelings that add a lot to the humanism, intercultural communication and the diversity of ideas.This project aimed to integrate different cultures, avoid social differences, evoke an awareness for the protection of nature and various environmental issues, help students become more experimental, innovative, creative, and more comprehensive in English language. The improvement of their critical thinking methods, self-confidence, technology knowledge were also crucial.<< Objectives >>By implementing the project we wanted to give a consciousness for environmental issues, inclusion and diversity, the importance of a sustainable society, the need for virtual cooperation, experimentation and critical thinking to the teenagers. By getting help from the artists and their works, we wanted to reach and inspire more people for these aims, help teenagers think critically and express themselves more freely. Through art, we connected more people to one another and made them discover themselves. Our first priority was ""Common values, civic engagement and participation"". It was linked with our aims of integrating with different cultures, being a bridge between them, uniting differences, and respecting origins. Our second priority was “Environment and fight against climate change”. Attention was paid to nature, pollution, carbon footprints and finding solutions about these problems by getting help from art works. We linked this priority with our aim in which students were able to evoke public acknowledgment on environmental problems. Our third priority was “Promoting a comprehensive approach in teaching and learning"" through interactive group works. Students practiced discussing, writing, observing, reading and comparing.<< Implementation >>During the project 4 mobilities took place. Every mobility was dedicated to different topic: environmental issues, inclusion and diversity, sustainable society, virtual cooperation and experimentation. The activities had preparatory and follow-up activities, according to the implementation plan, agreed by the partners. Students prepared a brochure, digital newspapers, presentations, resources about sustainable development, environmental and social issues, logos and posters, broadcasts, read poems, did role-playings, attended surveys, class meetings, word clouds, maps. We shared our studies, products and reports on our the project website, schools’ webpages, blog and Facebook pages.The added value was that the participants took part in a lecture on ""Carbon Footprint and recovery of volcanic ash"" at The Faculty of the Environmental Engineering of the University of Catania. We had a guided study at ""Water Knowledge Centre–Hydropolis” and at The Water Purification Centre. Participants visited the modern farm where healthy food was produced and talked to the owners. We were also able to observe directly and discuss the power of nature in Turkey after the earthquake, and the influence of climate change on weather in Italy.<< Results >>The project had a positive influence on better understanding of environmental issues, inclusion and diversity, sustainable society and virtual cooperation for youngsters. The difference was made on our students' awareness about their communities and they became inclusive by recommending solutions to the problems on these topics. They became active citizens but also internationalized teenagers.The use of English language and modern digital technology during lectures, experiments, workshops and ""eye"" observation led to the improvement of these skills.The outputs were: the project informative brochure on 10 sustainability tips, digital newspapers, presentations connected with the topics of mobilities, digital relations from our mobilities, short videos, broadcasts, role- playings, materials from workshops, exhibition of the works in schools. The European dimension of the project made the results we achieved reach a large number of beneficiaries. Through the dissemination activities we ensured their sustainability. Besides, a lot pictures and other documents from our meetings, certificates of participation logos, posters, surveys, project webpage, blog, Facebook page and You Tube account. The results were published on ERP."