The project THE 4 ELEMENTS OF LIFE involve 4 countries: Spain, Portugal, Finland, and Sweden. In order for our students to succeed and acquire or ameliorate their key competences regardless of their socioeconomic background or learning difficulties, our four schools want to continue to develop skills like working with PBL (Peer-BasedLearning), UDL (Universal Design for Learning) as well as ICT and language skills. To teach our students ways to apply their knowledge to real-life, we also want to work more in an interdisciplinary way. The great challenges of today like the climate emergency, wealth distribution, social equality, etc. require an INTERDISCIPLINARY approach and this is why we want to prepare our students to become resourceful and knowledgeable learners, strategic and goal-directed learners as well as motivated and determined learners. To practice these skills, our students have to create 4 interdisciplinary exhibitions open to school communities, families and cities.

During the Ancient Greek period, there was the idea of a wise man, without the division of disciplines. This works with our interdisciplinary approach and from this base, we chose the four basic elements of life: FIRE, EARTH, AIR & WATER. 4elements & 4 partner schools. This topic will also allow us to raise awareness about climate emergency in our local community, which is one of our main priorities.

100 students will attend the transnational meetings and around 50 teachers will be directly involved and teams will be formed at each school to easier facilitate the implementation of the project. Approximately 2500 students and 260 teachers/adults will indirectly be involved in the project.

 

The objectives of the project are:

-To improve students' motivation for learning with the help of less conventional and interesting activities.

-To develop students' and teachers' key competences and skills such as foreign languages, ICT competences, and project management skills while working on the topic.

-To raise awareness of students regarding the importance of an interdisciplinary approach when solving a problem.

-To break traditional boundaries between academic disciplines.

-To encourage cooperative working among students from different countries.-To stimulate creativity and artistic skills when disseminating a research (exhibitions of the project).

-To raise awareness of the importance of nature (earth, air, water, and fire) in our understanding of the world and take care of it (climate emergency).

-To learn about the different conceptions of the elements along with European history (cultural heritage).

-To promote a successful partnership to provide a more attractive education while working on our topic in the frame of each school curricula.

-To involve families.

-To reduce differences among students giving the chance of traveling, no matter their economic opportunities.

 

The results we expect are the following:

-The project brings changes in students as they will acquire new skills and knowledge to be better equipped to be competent European citizens for the new world and its challenges.

-Teachers and students will increase their teamwork and ICT skills and strengthen their profile, thus preparing them better for their future life and jobs.

-Changes in the schools as the best practices will be integrated in the curriculum (creating a lesson/workshop plan).

 

The tangible results of the project will be:

- 4 exhibitions open to families and cities, one in each partner's city, with different titles that will help us to approach the topic of our project in different interdisciplinary ways.

-Teaching lesson plans with the activities held in the project

-YouTube channel with videos about the four elements.

-Instagram account to disseminate artistic images and poetry.

-Interdisciplinary workshops created by students.

-Web

-Timeline of the elements

-Touristic tours based on the elements in each country (GoogleMaps)

 

The long term benefits of this project will be the key competences our students get through the interdisciplinary work. Hopefully, it will change their way of working and widen their minds as they will break the boundaries of the disciplines. They will be able to make connections easily and to interpret any situation of life from different points of view. Our exhibitions will give the students a way of showing their interdisciplinary researches in public for their families and for the local community to see. That way, we will also raise awareness of the climate emergency to more people. The interdisciplinary workshops created by partner schools for the ELEMENTS DAYS can be set up in schools and repeated every year. Moreover, our Instagram (pics and literary quotations), web and YouTube videos could be used for future generations. The teachers involved will have worked in an interdisciplinary way with innovative methods like PBL which will help the students improve their academic results and promote the acquisition of skills and competences.

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