Project Summary

Water is one of the most essential elements of any kind of life on earth, and in both quality and quantity we are facing a difficult period in the coming decades. Clean water bases are diminishing while the demand for water is increasing. This led to serious and strict commitments at the Paris Climate Change Conference last December. The climate agenda clearly states that climate change threatens to undermine the ability of countries to achieve sustainable development. Similarly, water is a cross-cutting issue that affects all aspects of development, including health, food security, economic development, ecosystem services and biodiversity. The particular focus on water, climate and resilience during the Paris Climate Conference aims to encourage cooperation and initiatives in the area, both between countries and between different civil society actors. The latest objective of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6 is about “clean, accessible water for all”.

The teaching and training activities and their outcomes are to set a standard for this very important goal, and we wish to reach the HighLevel Panel. We wish to show how educational institutions and the local communities behind them across Europe can promote Goal 6. As teachers we cannot sit back and watch the future of water, we have to be proactive in its preservation for the upcoming generations. The most influential way we can act is to create a meaningful educational program/project that educates students about its strategic role in life. However, the educational methods and approaches should be varied and be as modern as possible as we feel the traditional classroom methods may not be sufficient for such a wide topic. Thus we aim to create a multidisciplinary and hands-on approach to teaching that can only be achieved when discovering the various fields of area that our partners can offer based on their special skills/expertise.

The basic priority behind the project is to lay the methodological foundation of ‘good practices’ together with the teachers involved in the project. We aim to create a methodological model, which enables us to make an interdisciplinary educational program for the ages of 15-18 at secondary level as this age group will be the main focus range of our project activities. With the help of the program students will understand the importance of water, and how much it intertwines all fields of life. It is also essential for students to comprehend the vulnerability of water bases and the diminishing quantity of resources as well as the need to find ways of sustainable water management. Furthermore, students will also realize how important it is to work in a multinational project, as the very same rivers and water bases are often handled by other countries as well, as they pass through borders. However, water does not recognize borders or political treaties, and by approaching this vital element of life from various perspectives the school subjects  focused on in this project hopefully become a real, tangible experience which might help with a better understanding of sciences that otherwise may look too abstract for students.

The international work is called into life with a clear intention of seeing the participating teachers become better educators, as they share the knowledge from their own expert area with others. The educational areas, subjects that we aim to develop are language skills, language teaching, history, geography, biology, chemistry, economics, environmental studies, water management studies and maths.