"<< Objectives >>Project main objective, is development, implementation and promotion of the Activity- based educational concept for secondary school students in tackling of environmental challenges that communities in regions of Pazardzhik - Bulgaria, Kochani – North Macedonia and Larissa - Greece are facing. The project offers an interdisciplinary educational approach suitable for any topics from community interest, with high transferability potential for implementation in any educational institution.<< Implementation >>The following activities will be implemented in the frame of the project lifetime:1. Project Management and Implementation activities 2. 3 Trainings events, 1 long-term Teaching/learning event and 1 blended mobility event3. 3 Executive/Operational meetings & working sessions4. Activities related with creation of 4 Project Intellectual Outputs/Results 5. Communication/Promotion activities<< Results >>Expected project's outcomes/results are:- Four IOs created- Successfully implemented ""Activity-based"" educational concept in three secondary schools- Established teachers network on eTwinning platform (with min 42 STEM teachers from 3 secondary schools)- Minimum 72 students with increased skills for team work, implementation of critical thinking as well as a competences in successful performance of researching and finding the best solutions on environmental challenges from community interest"

"Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources (RES) and Energy Efficiency (EE) together with Environment protection (EP) are topics which are presently a world wide trend. Unfortunately those topics are not popular because of their attractiveness to the students but due to real necessity of their implementation to prevent negative influence of industrial development and more and more obvious climate changing.Many EU projects were dedicated to above mentioned topics and the most common conclusion is - There is HUGE necessity of arising of awareness for utilization of cleaner energy and to safe energy as much as possible with the most suitable target group - children from primary schools. Also that can be noticed from many previous attempts to approach with importance of RES, EE and EP closer to mentioned target group is that there was only randomly applied projects without strategical approach which will be focused on the learning about RES, EE and EP since the youngest age. Municipality of Kochani and Municipality of Pazardzik decided to make one innovative approach for their youngest inhabitants - students in Primary schools by developing a Strategic partnership through preparation of ""Strategy for development of education cooperation between schools from Kochani and Pazardzik"". Also proposed project is forecasting training of teachers from 2 (two) Pilot Primary schools from Program Countries (Macedonia and Bulgaria) in development of innovative teaching methods for implementing of renewable resources, energy efficiency and environmental protection, on adequate way in accordance with students age. Teacher’s training will be supported by experts from Macedonia and Bulgarian NGO’s from Kochani and Pazardzik who have a large experience in utilization of RES, EE and EP as well as great practical experience in implementation of Open Education Resources (OER) in educational purposes.Main project objective is to create strategic partnership for school education between Kocani and Pazardzhik through preparation of Strategy for development of education and training teachers from 2 (two) primary schools from Program Countries ( Macedonia and Bulgaria) in development of innovative teaching methods for renewable resources, energy efficiency and environmental protection.The other specific objectives of the project will be: Provide teachers with practical ideas for how they can incorporate RES and EE resources into their existing lessons; Familiarize teachers with current Web 2.0 and Internet trends; Giving a space for exchange of experiences and good practices among teachers coming from different countries who work in the same field; Improving teamwork skills through the use of ICT and RES and EE resources; Sharing of best practice in teaching and learning. Main target groups are teachers from primary schools in Kocani and Pazardzhik that are teaching students on the age from 7 to 10 years old and teachers from primary schools in Kocani and Pazardzhik that are teaching biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics for students on the age of 11th to 14th years, that will be trained for innovative teaching methods for renewable resources, energy efficiency and environmental protection. Final beneficiaries of the project will be 900 students from the two municipal project schools, existing and all future students from the primary schools in the two municipalities, municipal administration, NGO's in the field of education, national education institutions and European institutions involved in education.Main project activities are preparation of Strategy for development of education, performing of trainings for teachers about using of Open Education Resources for Renewable resources, Energy efficiency and Environmental protection; Establishing of teachers network with using of open forum modules; Learning with OER; Using of new educational approach; Preparation of bilingual brochure and 8 (eight) guidelines – small instruction handbooks for teachers (pedagogical work material) which will be used in the teaching of students for each school level and organization of two multiplier events for dissemination of the intellectual outputs."

"High school students are immediate – “tomorrow’s” democratic force of our society who should actively participate in all aspects of economical, environment and social life in local communities. Unfortunately, performed surveys show they have scarce knowledge and are not interested in getting involved in any aspect of local community existence. The project aimed to contribute in increasing the present and future generations of high schools students’ skills and competences to face different challenges in everyday social life from different perspectives and to become active members of their local communities. To achieve this, the project focused on increased skills and competences of the teachers, for teamwork and cooperation that leads to development and implementation of common education approach for their students. The project aimed to present advantages of using of ""learning by doing"" students-based approach in topics of high community interest. This project also supported teachers in adopting cooperative and innovative practices with their training to apply some of the existing web 2.0 tools (OER) and eTwinning platform to increase their skills in application of ICT-based techniques, which leads to development of more attractive learning approaches towards students. The project was implemented by 9 PP, 3 partners form each country (Bulgaria, Slovenia and North Macedonia) involved, those were: 3 high schools (HS of Economics and Management (BG), HS ""Ljupco Santov"" (MK) and School Centre Velenje (SLO)), 3 local public bodies (Pazardzhik Municipality (BG), Public utility “Vodovod” Kochani (MK) and Ljudska univerza Velenje (SLO)) and 3 NGOs (CSEG (BG), MAGA (MK) and KSSENA (SLO)). High schools participated with teachers (3x3) trained on implementation of OER in school subjects and learning-by-doing methods, and they became part of teachers’ network, and were guiding students during the project; also 45 students (15x3) increased competences and skills in creation of Virtual Cities through team work. CSEG, MAGA and KSSENA had responsibility to deal with coordination and organization of the project activities; preparation of education handbook; training for ICT-based tools, using of RES and implementation of EE measures; dissemination of project’s results; organization of national dissemination events. Local public bodies were engaged in teachers' training for community managements topics, for human rights and anti-discrimination, preparation of Document for strategic transnational partnership and increasing of public awareness. The activities carried out in the frame of the project were the following: project management, coordination and implementation; preparation of materials and necessary IT equipment for transnational meetings and short-term trainings; short-term trainings to increase teachers’ skills and competences; mentors and students’ teams work on development of “Virtual City”; development and printing of the intellectual outputs; development and maintenance of project web-site; preparation of brochures and leaflets; organization of media publications and press releases; preparation of presentations for final dissemination events. Foreseen methodology that was used within the short-term joint staff training events and long-term teaching assignment was a mix of theoretical and practical participatory approaches, accompanied by using of ICT based methodologies. The most suitable is so called “learning-by-doing” method. The results achieved with the project activities were: Handbook for teachers; Document for strategic transnational partnership; 9 HS teachers with increased skills for practical use of OER (web 2.0 tools); Established teachers’ network through eTwinning module; 9 teachers - mentors with increased competences and skills for team work to develop common theoretical and practical teaching approach on the topics related with community issues; 45 students with increased teamwork skills in developing own educational approach for facing the challenges of active citizenship in local community; 9 students with increased skills and competences in transnational cooperation; 190 stakeholders became familiar with new students based ""learning-by-doing"" educational approach and the 2 intellectual outputs; project Web site, which is presenting all project activities and will be active a minimum of 3 years beyond the project end. Joint team work led to establishment of good partnership among project partners, increase their overall competences and skills for the implementation of new joint projects in the future. Secondary schools benefited from students’ satisfaction with the quality of learning methods, new methodologies and opportunities for research and learning, networking opportunities with other educational institutions, enhanced capacity for transnational cooperation."