ClimA: Be the Change! (ABC)

Description of the Project

In recent years, climate changes have been registered all over the world, affecting people in various ways. These changes come as a consequence of people's daily actions, e.g. pollution, deforestation, decrease in oxygen levels, irrational consumption of energy, etc. In most cases, these actions are a result of a precarious education regarding the protection of the environment with an impact on life and the decisions made for the future, leading to major damages and harmful effects in the long run.

Motivation of partners involved in this project:

1. Romania (coord.): We are facing several problems regarding climate change. They are a direct consequence of the individuals' daily activities, such as air pollution caused by an increasing number of cars being used daily, e.g. to go to work or take children to school, instead of carpooling or using public transport. Also, the massive illegal deforestation leads to landslides and lower quantities of oxygen needed to improve air quality. The seasons no longer follow the calendar, reflected in modified temperatures with a direct impact on crops, trees, and, consequently, people's health.

2. Portugal: Changes in surface air temperature extremes over mainland Port. since the early 1940s were investigated on the basis of daily max and min temperatures available from 23 weather stations. Two periods have been discriminated:

-1941-1975: The max & min temp decreased by 0.17°C /decade & 0.19°C /dec;

-1976-2006: The max & min temp increased by 0.49°C /dec & 0.54°C /dec.

In Port. and Spain, the Aug 2018 heat wave was the warmest since that of 2003. Recent climate change has exacerbated this event making it at least 1°C warmer than similar events since 1950.

3. Cyprus: We have a lot of changes in our climate and as a school we have a lot of experience in environmental programs something that we want to give with activities to all the other schools that participate in our program.

4. Greece: According to the data from Regional Climate Model simulations results from extreme precipitation, extreme flow, meteorological and hydrological drought, frequency analysis over Crete show that the impact of climate change on the magnitude of 100 years return period extreme events will also increase, along with the magnitude of extreme precipitation and flow events.

5. Bulgaria: Our area is a mountain resort and used to have beautiful woods which, unfortunately, are being cut down methodically. Deforestation leads to flooding, air pollution (also due to burning wood for heating), rise of temperatures and gusts of winds.

6. Italy: The climate changing in Italy affected the cycle of seasons. This changed the vegetation of our area and the way of living by the sea.

These issues affect all the population from the partner countries on different levels. All the Ss are thus affected, regardless of age, school results or social background. More importantly, the Ss today are the ones that will make a change for a better tomorrow.

Aims of the Program

Given the current Coronavirus pandemic, it was easy to notice that humans were the ones significantly affected by it, whereas the pause in human activity was a welcome respite for the nature. However, all the people, regardless of their age, need to realize that the environment can be helped, supported and taken care of WITHOUT such an extreme context, i.e. a global health crisis. Thus, the MAIN GOAL of this project is to make our students realize the impact of their daily actions on the climate, insignificant though they may seem, and persuade them to make a change for the better. Another essential goal is to blend sciences and humanistic subjects (art, music, history, etc.) so as to include learners and teachers with various skills. The overall objective is to make use of schools as a privileged means of communication and education, making the school community aware of ways to prevent the effects of climate change.

Therefore, the objectives of our project are:

1. using non-formal education methods throughout the 2 years of project to raise awareness among Ss from the 6 partner schools about the importance of climate change and how it directly impacts people's everyday lives;

2. during each mobility, to encourage 20 Ss from the 5 partner countries, as well as Ss from the host school, to take action and come up with creative and innovative ideas that will help protect the nature and reduce the causes of climate change for future generations;

3. during monthly local and international activities spread from Sept 2020 to Feb 2022, to determine approx. 5,000 Ss to realise that every one of them can contribute to the well-being of the planet, even if it is on a small scale;

4. throughout the 2 years of project, to involve approx. 100 Ss with fewer opportunities in a wide variety of activities to reduce early school leaving by approx. 30%.

The expected results are:

- observing a change in daily habits for 50% of Ss regarding recycling, reducing waste and overall protection of the environment around them;

- motivating all Ss to express their opinions and ideas freely related to environmental issues;

- improving Ss' linguistic, digital, communication and social skills;

- creating a collection of Ss' artistic work in an attempt to fight climate change (drawings, posters, presentations, etc.);

- turning Ss who participate in the project into ambassadors who transmit the knowledge gained in the project to other Ss from their schools and other schools in the communities;

- boosting Ss' self-confidence in their skills and creativity;

- creating a reliable project team in each partner school;

- acquiring experience and insight regarding the implementation of a successful Erasmus+ project;

- developing a European dimension within each partner school;

- fostering tolerance and acceptance of other cultures, views and mentalities;

- creating partnerships that will likely resume in future international projects.