THE PROJECT

ENVSTORIES project is based on the thesis that every instructive activity aims at a better communication of human beings with their environment. Τhe experiential action, achieving successive goals, constructivism and interaction with the artificial and natural environment are teaching approaches essential to the evolution of the education process. ENVSTORIES will bring together “young changemakers” from four countries to brainstorm ideas for solutions to local, national and international environmental problems.

The project aims at strengthen teachers' profile to effectively coach pupils in working effectively in relation to the subjects:

Health & Environmental Effects on Society
Natural Environment
Geophysical Hazards
Natural Resource Depletion
Waste disposal and recycling

Through this material pupils will acquire practical, logistical and personal skills to lead environmental actions and spread the word about the need to live more sustainable lifestyles.

The project will offer comprehensive training material for the above subjects, a teachers guide with the pedagogical approach and an online collaboration platform to be used by the pupils for the co-creation of interactive stories(in the form of e-books), spreading to their social environment the need for more sustainable lifestyles. Teachers, acting as coaches, will be assisting pupils to develop these (env)stories triggered by the offered training material. Pupils will have to work collaboratively using the platform in order to produce stories that will communicate complex concepts to others structuring information and data in meaningful and useful ways (storytelling).

During the project, the pedagogical framework behind ENVSTORIES platform will be developed related to the specific goals while complex environmental missions will be created by teachers and environmental experts and will be given as challenges to groups of pupils in order to create their own stories tailoring their messages for the intended audiences (Other pupils and Parents). Blended mobility of school learners (age 10-12) will take place with pupils form Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Turkey will visit NKUA to learn about geology and nature from actual hands-on experiences.

The students with their teachers will use the platform during a full school year to learn and to create stories and will visit cultural heritage sites (natural history museums, geological parks) to gather material (photos, videos) for their stories. Feedback will be gathered and applied to the methodology and tools. The final platform with the training material, the pupils' stories in the form of interactive e-books and a teacher's guide will become publicly available for open for all use at the end of the project.

ENVSTORIES will focus on creating awareness, knowledge and experience to the teachers, pupils and the wider community on sustainable development, which is achieved through the actions of environmental education.

Objectives

Increase educators’ competences on advanced teaching methodologies and ICTs.
Provide educators and pupils with the necessary training material and digital tools to collaboratively create attractive stories tackling more complex tasks together than they could manage individually.
Develop a digital platform and interactive teacher guide to be used by all project partners and also other schools as a best practice.
Encourage and strengthen inter-cultural understanding and communication by school collaboration and pupils exchange.

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