Energy- Efficiency- Empowerment - Erwerb von Schlüsselkompetenzen zur reflektierten Bewertung komplexer Zusammenhänge

On the BACKGROUND of the current topic ENERGY students aged 13-18 from three schools with different preconditions worked for two years on the project “EEE (Energy-Efficiency-Empowerment) – acquirement of KEY SKILLS for a reflective assessment of complex contexts”. The SILVERBERG-GYMNASIUM (Bedburg, Germany), the IES JOAQUIN RODRIGO (Madrid, Spain) and the ST.ST. KIRIL & METODIY” school (Velingrad, Bulgaria) enriched each other through their regional conditions (Bedburg: open brown coal field; Velingrad: mineral springs; Madrid: wind and solar energy) and their different need of OPTIMIZING students’ SKILLS. Students at Silverberg-Gymnasium increasingly show mental stress. Due to the high youth unemployment in Spain, the students in Madrid suffer from enormous fears of the future which put their school careers at risk and lead to school dropout. The students at St. St. Kiril & Metodiy miss practical connections to possible future professions in their school system. Thus, we started by identifying already available skills (social, media, practical skills&professional expertise) of the participants using self-assessment forms. In order to mutually benefit from each other, we worked with students who have deficits, as well as students who already have got profound skills. Teachers of different fields of expertise (e.g. foreign languages, social studies, natural sciences) and non-school related partners (e.g. the energy supplier RWE in the area of Bedburg, the ECO-Camp in Velingrad or the non-profit company ECOO in Madrid) also contributed to our project. Besides our MAIN GOAL to IMPROVE SKILLS to guarantee a successful school career, we aimed at raising the AWARENESS of being an ACTIVE EUROPEAN CITIZEN.In order to realize these goals, we organized different activities. In extracurricular activities (Bedburg &Velingrad) and during regular lessons respectively (Madrid) about 30 students of each school could assess, train & apply their skills in increasingly complex contexts. The following ACTIVITIES served our goals: development and update of questionnaires & feedback forms; measuring and documenting the energy consumption at schools; creating models of energy resources of the different countries; workshops on energy production & usage; field trips (e.g. RWE open coal pit, ECO Camp, EDO house); planning & implementing of DAYS OF ACTION (e.g. a project week with experiments in Germany); short FILMS (e.g. videos to introduce partner schools, instructional films about experiments, tutorial about applying for a job); investigating, testing&evaluating alternative energy resources; preparation, implementation&documentation of the four international MEETINGS. During the first interim period the schools created introductory films and transferred their results from the analysis of energy resources to a country-specific model. In the second period the energy consumption of the schools was calculated & visualised by charts. In Bedburg students explored where energy is produced and how it is used (block heat&power plant, electric cars, wind park). The product of the third phase was a country-specific film about energy-reduced schools. In the last period our focus was on applying for jobs in international contexts. The Bulgarian school composed an overview of all skills gained during the project, whereas the Spanish & German school had a close look at the actual procedure of applications, e.g. in Bedburg students created a tutorial giving advice on how to behave in job interviews.The project’s methods and topics helped students to strengthen their INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY by gaining/improving skills like: responsibility for their own learning and actions, finding alternatives to traditional learning at school and drawing consequences for their own learning process, increasing the frustration tolerance & the ability to respond positively to criticism, accepting challenges, transferring new skills to everyday and learning situations, strengthening their self-confidence, identifying with their own school and projects, intercultural exchange (esp. in host families).RESULTS and PRODUCTS will stay available for all people interested in them (project and school homepages, PEP). TRANSFERABILITY/SUSTAINABILITY: manual for creating an (energy) model, explanatory videos with worksheets, questionnaires and feedback forms, model (family) profiles, glossary on energy in four languages, travel journal, integrating aspects into curricula (e.g. Natural Sciences/Technics; experiments for Physics lessons and for a “research day”), contacts to non-school related partners & personal contacts to exchange students, contacts between teachers, project homepage with materials created. The students participating in our project EEE enhanced their expert knowledge and social skills as ACTIVE EUROPEAN CITIZENS so that they have become stronger personalities with better professional perspectives which they will be able to BENEFIT from in their FUTURE.