Motivation
Climate change is one of the biggest problems in the modern world and it will get worse if the necessary precautions are not taken. There are two ways to take action: 1.Climate Change Mitigation- fighting for climate change- and 2.Climate Change Adaptation- preparing for the current and future impacts of it-. In both senses necessary measures can be taken and people can be aware of the problems with some actions.
EU Green Deal mainly focuses on the emissions and resources of the planet. Our purpose is connecting the concrete aims of most international agreements and protocols and the psychological aspect of the climate change on humans.
Apart from these two types, there is psychological aspect of climate change, which is called “eco-anxiety”. The American Psychology Association (APA) describes eco-anxiety as “the chronic fear of environmental cataclysm that comes from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change and the associated concern for one’s future and that of next generations”. The APA, therefore, considers that the internalization of the great environmental problems that affect our planet can have psychological consequences of varying seriousness in some people.
Climate change has many side effects on human health, animals, plantation, air, soil, water etc. With this project we would like to focus on the psychological aspect of the change. People who have excessive fear for the climate change have intense anxiety and panic and behave too sensitive to the point of fear and phobia. On the other hand there are people who are not aware of this change, lack of interest or do not care, which is the other edge of the scale of anxiety level. For both types of people, it is necessary to come to the average level of anxiety for ecology/ climate.
In order to reach the acceptable level of the anxiety in climate change, we want to do some interdisciplinary workshops encouraging and using soft skills which the participant groups will practice and apply at their schools and disseminate the good practices at national and international levels.
The three schools- the Estonian, the Turkish and the Romanian- established an eTwinning Project named “SCHOOL COMMUNITY AT CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION” between December 2021-April 2022,which were awarded with Quality Labels ( Project ID:341780). The Project theme was about the mitigation and adaptation of the climate change. At the end of the Project, we formed a “ Climate Change Action Plan” for schools.
As we had a research on the other- and less known- aspect of the climate change on Erasmus+ Results Platform, academic articles and researches on the web, we came to the idea that there is a psychological area of climate change that was not widely known, which is called “ecological anxiety”.
We, three schools, decided to go with ecological anxiety, adding a new concept to our ongoing climate change action plans. An NGO will join the project to share experiences of non-formal education.
Priorities
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Environment and fight against climate change
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Common values, civic engagement and participation
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Development of key competences
Topics
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Environment and climate change
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Soft skills
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Digital skills and competences
Description
The three schools which are partners in the Project have already created an “Action plans on climate change” at school and local levels on eTwinning platform in 2022.
Our aims to achieve are:
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defining ecological anxiety (eco-anxiety) and the other concepts related to climate change;
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raising up awareness and disseminate the good practices on the new concept (eco-anxiety);
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improving the soft skills of the participants in workshops;
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encouraging eco-intrepreneurship;
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improving digital skills using ecology-based games;
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raising awareness on organic agriculture and organic seeds, which come from our past;
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raising awareness of waste management for those who underestimate climate change;
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disseminating the good practices at school and local levels with practicing in workshops
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The objectives are linked to our priorities. We will raise awareness for a balanced ecological anxiety for those who overestimate or underestimate climate change in interpersonally. Fighting with and adapting to climate are common problem for all Europe and the world, so the participants will be aware of their responsibilities of this problem and know that this is a civic engagement. During the implementation of the Project, we will give extra importance to inclusive approaches and the participants will be selected equally according to gender, different social and socio-economical backgrounds. During the workshops the soft skills- cooperative, creative, communicative, critizising etc- will be encouraged and used.
Entrepreneurship skills will be encouraged through mobility courses and raising awareness on digital literacy will be focused on to attract young generation’s attract attention. Organic agriculture for a non-toxic world will be the main target for the protection of soil, air and water. The Project will encourage and be a good start with NGOs, with which we will work together in the Project.
The NGO from Italy is a good opportunity to introduce the students how to be social entrepreneurs. It will add extra value both for the student behavior and school institutions.
The activities and the outcomes will be directly related to ecology and coping with the negative results of climate change.
Digital activities and skills will be added to some mobility workshops in order to encourage digital literacy. Meditation via art will contribute another dimension to coping with anxiety for all types. Mixed group works will be used for all activities. Nonformal educational activities and interdisciplinary methods will be used in all mobilities and workshops. Using of soft skills of the participants will be widely used to achieve the main target of the project.
Target Groups
The target group is mainly students and educators.
Students: The Project is mainly student-based, so the direct target group is students aged between 14 and 18. The selection of the students for the project will be done equally according to the gender. The students who are coming from different socio-economic backgrounds, whose parents are divorced, who are shy and introvert etc will be focused on. In short inclusion will be encouraged. They will use their soft skills- communication, leadership, cooperation, creativity, etc. Because the new generation has more responsibility of protection and sustainability of ecology and climate change, they will directly present and lead the practice of the workshop at their schools and local places. We are planning to work with volunteer students as many as possible, but for the mobilities, the number of students will be at least 9.
Teachers: They are the Leaders and facilitators of the Project activities. The more they know about the implementation and outputs of the Project, the better and wider dissemination and follow-up we will achieve. The teachers who will work in the project will have special interest in climate change. They will be mostly the ones who are the members of NGOs that work on the field of nature and climate. The teachers who have works- like eTwinning projects, academic studies on nature and climate/ climate change- will be included to the project implementation and dissemination.
Parents: They are one of the core elements of practice and dissemination of the outcomes. Host parents will be engaged during the mobilities for intercultural intercourse and they will be invited to the workshops. So it will be another element for awareness and dissemination.
School community: The students who do not directly participate in the project and the school staff will be informed via project corner, website of the institution, posters and flyers etc.
Other institutions and groups: The stakeholders are other schools, NGOs, municipalities of region, directorates of education, universities, institutions/ groups directly related to nature, environment and climate change will be invited to the events and workshops as much as possible.
Media: It is the other type of stakeholder which has the most important element of dissemination. Local media will be invited to the activities and social media tools and platforms will also be encouraged.
Benefits of cooperating with transnational partners
For the organizational level, this project will:
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strenghten the cooperation among schools;
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raise awareness and gain practice/ workshop ideas on climate change;
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give chance to the participants to be able to exchange good practices and ideas face-to-face in the completed eTwinning project, which is a reference to this project;
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emphasize the inclusive ways of activities in order to get the people involved in social areas with more people;
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lead the organizations strengthen the capacity to find solutions to climate change;
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lead the organizations to host job-shadowing partners for KA1 projects, which will enable capacity building;
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lead promoting another KA220 project with innovative and intellectual outputs.
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And for individual level, this project will:
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raise awareness and sensitivity in the meanings of mitigation, adaptation and the psychological level of climate change;
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promote taking personal actions for any type of climate change;
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help find an anxiety balance- neither high nor low- for climate change;
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help get to know other cultures in internationally mixed student groups and improve foreign languages;
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help the involvement of inclusive ways for the participants;
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help be aware of European culture, values and civic responsibilities.
Activities/Mobilities:
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