The role of schools in supporting the European Green Deal is important, as these are responsible of young people’s education and their ability to act as responsible citizens who fully participate in civic and social life. On the other hand the issue of our choices that burden the environment is always a topical issue and our food choices are involved between these. We come together to help students be equipped with the necessary information, and knowledge on food systems so to understand the link between their food choices and climate change and act as responsible citizens.

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The 6 schools, of this partnership, belong to vocational education and are complementary to each other: a Food Technology school (Greek), 2 schools with Food & Beverages Services profile (Turkish and French), an economic school (Austrian), a Hospitality, Hotel & Restaurant Services Management profile school (Italian) and a Chemistry school (Serbian). Thus, the theme of project can be posed in different geographical contexts and cover technological, economic, ecological and social aspects related to food systems (production, processing, packaging, distribution, retailing, consumption, etc) so to develop competences in various sustainability-relevant sectors, preparing students to become true factors of change.

 

In each school, around 50 students, aged 15-19 years old, are involved in the project for 24 months.These students are selected according to their wish and volunteering for the project topics and activities, their language and ICT skills and their engagement.They participate in national and international teams weekly in STEM activities through the eTwinning platform, as teacher independently as possible. Besides virtual exchanges, there are 6 mobility periods corresponding to a different issue in order to provide additional knowledge and skills to the subject:

• November 2020-Kırıkkale,Turkey:Impacts of food systems on climate change-Impacts of climate change on food security and nutrition

• February 2021-Vöcklabruck,Austria: Green growth, sustainability and circular economy

• May 2021-Belgrad,Serbia: Green Food Chemistry

• October 2021-Milazzo,Italy: Food, Agriculture and SDGs 

• February 2022-Auch, Short supply chains and procurement

• April 2022-Nafpaktos,Greece:Conclusion: Dietary shifts and food production technology that meet environmental and social challenges

 

4 students and 2 teachers will take part in each mobility.We proceed STEM/CLIL activities related to hosting school's profile: science and biology experiments, team projects based on environmental issues around food matters,surveys,analyses and searching of scientific books, etc. and produce educational material (videos, comics, infographics, e-books,etc). In mobilities we also have interviews,seminars and lectures from experts,workshops during visits to local food industries, enterprises, and producers,etc.​

 

By the end of project, we will have developed:

-9 module projects for implementing STEM on different aspects of Food-Nutrition and climate change, designed to be completed in a minimum of six weeks at two hours’ class time a week.

-15 e-magazines written by the students, encouraging other youths to take action. These will include in their content, beside others, a variety of other products (infographics, posters, STEM comics, e-books, 3D animations, survey's,etc)

- A DVD with a movie made up of the individual steps

 

The module projects, e-magazines, and other material produced will be translated in all native languages and be freely accessed ensuring maximum dissemination.

 

The project’s main expected impact is on youth's eco-behavior across Europe: change eating habits; play an active role in the public life influencing eco campaigns, training parents, pupils and farmers, etc.They will also develop skills so to arrange our long-term goal of favoring access to STEM careers. One of our other long term goals is a a common European nutrition related curriculum-as it's required by the Green Deal needs-for all grade levels and school types in all disciplines. If our products spread awareness to policy makers or curriculum developers this could be a follow up project.

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