<< Background >>A number of studies and EU reports have highlighted the need for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) professionals in near future for sustainable growth and development. However, despite the need for STEM jobs, the reports and studies also indicated that the young learners do not want to pursue a career in STEM fields. Similarly, in the mentioned reports and research, we are facing global issues which are connected to the lack of STEM specialists. The global issues such as pollution and climate change that we have to face are complex problems, and the solution of these problems needs interdisciplinary knowledge and skills.Developing and increasing an understanding and taking action against the environmental problems and climate change are more needed than reading them from the textbooks. The students know that we should save our planet and that climate change is a vital problem for our world, but almost all of them do nothing to reduce their carbon footprint. Thus, the main aim of this project is to develop STEM-related skills and competencies for our children through STEM activities-inspired environments. In line with the aim of the project, our partnership is focused on developing students' skills and academic success in STEM disciplines while enabling them to create STEM solutions for environmental issues and to fight against climate change. As emphasised in the programme guide and the European Green Deal Communication, our schools have a key role for a successful transition to become climate-neutral by 2050. The project is also focused on developing our students' skills and awareness of environmental sustainability through designed STEM activities. Thanks to this project not only our students, but also the whole school community including parents will be aware of how individual consumption, habits, and lifestyle affects the environment and climate change. European Commission aims to strengthen “basic skills” and “key competencies” in EU member states for sustainable development and educational growth. In line with this strategy, regardless of the background and abilities of the children, we aim to improve our children’s “basic skills” as literacy, numeracy, science, and technology and “key competencies” such as knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will help learners to find personal fulfillment and, later in life, find work and take part in society. The project is not only aimed to develop key competencies, but also 21st-century skills, such as critical thinking, cooperation, communication, creativity, adaptability, and media literacy, which are vital for individuals.The problems such as climate change, pollution, poverty, epidemic diseases that have arisen in the 21st century are becoming increasingly complex. Therefore, these complex problems can be solved by individuals with 21st-century skills and interdisciplinary thinking. As a result, with this project, we aim for our students to have the competence to solve these complex problems.<< Objectives >>In recent years, STEM education as an educational approach has come dramatically to the forefront in many countries, as in the EU. Apart from meeting the increasing need for engineers and scientists for economical growth, the STEM education approach offers important opportunities for educators and learners. One of the opportunities is to develop STEM activities by using environmental issues and climate change in real-world settings. STEM education can help students to develop their key competencies, systems-oriented thinking skills as well as empathy towards environmental problems in these learning environments. Students can collect data through observations in a natural environment and analyse it to identify problems and research the solutions for the problems through engineering design. Moreover, they can develop solutions and test them, and share the solutions with their peers as well. According to the needs analysis we conducted in our schools, our science and mathematics teachers think that our students' level of success in this field is insufficient. Supporting this, our students’ results of local and national exams of science and mathematics are lower compared to other subjects. In addition, they do not enjoy learning from a textbook inside the school walls, so we should carry out the learning activities outside of the school walls. For this reason, we believe that STEAM education can be a solution to make science and mathematics lessons more meaningful, enjoyable for our students and improve students' achievement in this field. Also, developing environment-inspired STEM activities can support green initiatives and a sustainable future in general, positively. In this context, the main aim of this project is to develop STEM-related skills and competencies for our children through STEM activities-inspired environment. In line with the main of the project, specific objectives of the project are following: Students;-improving attitudes and interest STEM disciplines and STEM career -raising awareness and pursue taking action against environmental problems and climate change (“take the future in your hands”)-developing key competencies and transversal skills through STEM application (megatrends of the world today)-improving and expanding their understanding of STEM.- increasing STEM literacy, supporting lifelong interest and participation in STEM -improving communication skills while working in an international team (development of sustainable cross-border cooperation.)Teachers- educational leaders:-developing professional skills to practice new learning approaches in order to facilitate an innovative learning approach in their lessons (future skills)-exploring formative students' assessment methods for STEM education outcomes-developing communication skills in a foreign language while exchanging good practices-improving organisational skills by implementing seminars, dissemination and LTTA’sParents-İncreasing awareness of environmental issues and climate change-Reducing carbon footprints at least -Contributing recycling at their home and work<< Implementation >>-The STEM Education activities which are designed in an environmental context: We will apply STEM activities not only in our classroom but also we will apply the activities in an out-of-school context. Environmental issues and climate change will be used as a common theme for our activities. Thus, while students are learning, they will develop knowledge and awareness about environmental issues and climate change. The students who participated in developed activities will work in a team and develop solutions for environmental problems. They will work as scientists and engineers to understand the problem and develop solutions for the problem in a real-life context. Environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and resource waste, as well as climate change, can not only be solved by interactions of a part of our society. Therefore we will involve parents and NGOs in part of the activities of the project. Participating in these activities will develop our students' key competencies as well as 21st-century skills.The joint activities that we will apply in each partner schools: -Reduce your carbon footprint: Students will calculate their carbon footprints with their parents. They will calculate and reduce to carbon footprint every month. Also, each school set up a STEM-based project for reducing energy, water and stationery consumption and recycle. We will compare the amount of consumption before and during the project. - Save the planet with STEM solutions: The activities focused on developing solutions for environmental pollution such as water, soil, light pollution, and fighting against climate change. Students will develop STEM-based solutions for environmental and fighting climate change. - Design by Nature(Biomimicry): The students will develop STEAM-based models-prototype, solutions, eco-friendly products which are inspired by nature to save nature. - Robotics Course: The students will work in an international team in order to develop technological solutions ( such as smart irrigation systems, smart energy systems, etc.)-Take action for nature: Students will develop action plans against pollution and fighting climate change in their region. Leaflets will be prepared to raise awareness in the school/local community.-STEM career days: Professionals from the STEM field will be invited and/or the students will visit the STEM workers at their job. -STEM fair: Students will exhibit the STEM project every six months at their school. The neighborhood schools, community leaders, and parents will be invited.We will organise 2 TPM and 5 LTTAs to reach our aims. The first TPM will be organised in order to make clear each step of the activities and the second will be organised for the evaluation of the project and to disseminate and remain sustainable. The LTTAs will be organised to improve our students' understanding and develop their STEM-related skills as well as to develop 21st-century competencies.<< Results >>The project will not only increase the awareness and competencies of our students, teachers, education leaders and partner institutions in the field of STEM but also increase their awareness of environmental problems and climate change. Not only our target group but also parents, teachers and organizations in the neighboring schools will indirectly benefit from the results of the project. In order to increase the impact of the project and influence wider audiences, dissemination activities have been planned at every stage from the beginning of the project and beyond the project. All activities in the project are aimed at developing the key competencies of the participants in line with the European values and goals, as well as ensuring that the participants become democratic European citizens embracing European values. Also, the project will enable us to carry STEM disciplines out of the school walls to in an environmental context. While participants learning science in a different context, they will have the chance to experience hands-on activities. We are expecting ;We are expecting our students will be interested in science and also they will be able to read scientific news to think critically on scientific issues. To make them ready for the 21st-century and its complex problems we are expecting our students to develop their key competencies as well as 21st-century skills by attending the activities in this project. The project activities also designed and support the team working in collaboration. The mentioned complex problems need cooperation to be solved. All activities that we are going to apply allow to students working in a real-life context. Thus, the students will develop their competencies such as digital, creativity, self-confidence skills. Moreover, we are also expecting them to develop their awareness against climate change and reduce their carbon footprints and become STEM-literate democratic citizens of the EU.

"In the EU, those with the lowest awareness of the EU and common citizenship is the 15-24 age group (Eurobarometer, 2019). The most effective way to address this is EDUCATION, in a way that engages these digital natives. Despite the acknowledged value of education, there are vast differences across Europe in terms of citizenship education, (Eurydice, 2020). Furthermore, there is little innovation in terms of meeting young people citizenship awareness needs and education beyond the classroom - this group are mobile literate with smartphone adoption nearing 100%. Also, the EU attaches importance to young people's learning and adoption of their own culture and the common culture of Europe and developing cultural awareness to carry them to the future, as well as acquiring contemporary skills and knowledge to be the architects of their own lives. However, in the citizenship education of EU member countries, the development of European awareness and European common culture elements are not included. This situation raises the urgent need to expand the framework of citizenship education provided in EU member countries to include EU citizenship education. This project will meet the EU citizenship education needs of ALL students of the project partner schools aged 14-18 - written materials with 4 important elements of purpose, content, learning and teaching processes and evaluation form the ""EU CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAM"". By implementing a JOINT EDUCATION PROGRAMME with the schools in NWBLB with young students, we aim to provide consistent EU citizenship education and tools to adopt EU values, raise awareness of European common culture and to maintain a European identity. In order to achieve the EU's goal of creating an integrated Europe, it is important that EU citizenship competencies, EU values and European common cultural awareness are provided for young European individuals in an holistic way. As such, NWBLB will ensure that students will be supported in school, using a teacher-parent triangle, provide in-school/out-of-school activities, communication, cooperation, interaction with their European peers and share cultural responsibility and ownership together. To achieve this the following Intellectual Outputs are planned:* European Youth and Culture Clubs (IO1)These will be established in partner schools; Clubs, management units, contents and activities, working schedule, etc. will be developed and agreed. With the transnational project activity, it will be prepared by students of partner schools using peer-mediated teaching and brainstorming methods and collaborative teaching and co-creation. Clubs will raise awareness of the students regarding the European common cultural elements through active/interactive experiences. The creativity of students who plan, prepare, organize and participate in club activities will improve. Students will gain awareness of civic participation and cooperate with NGOs and other institutions in club activities.* Mobile Application (IO2)A mobile application will be created (iOS & Android compatible) and delivered to the user free of charge via Apple Store and Google Play Store. Users will be able to access all kinds of cultural content, information and knowlegde about Europe using the mobile app and mobile technology. The mobile app will enable young European users to communicate and interact with each other. The contents of the mobile application will be created by the young students using the peer-mediated teaching methods, brainstorming methods, collaborative teaching methods and co-creation in the transnational project activity. The mobile APP, which will be a common product for European youth, will reach many European young users and contribute to the formation of European common culture awareness among young people.* EU Citizenship Training Module/TOOLKIT (IO3)A Joint Education Program for EU Citizenship will be developed and implemented in partner schools by NWBLB to systematically gain EU citizenship competencies among European young people simultaneously. Cooperative education programs will be created by the course teachers of partner schools in cooperation through transnational project activities. EU citizenship education programs will be piloted for 8 months in partner schools with feedback through assessment and evaluation activities by UU (P1). The pilot will involve:-Sociology, Psychology and Philosophy classes learning Social Citizenship-Mathematics & Derivative courses learning Economic Citizenship-Informatics &Technology lessons delivering Digital Citizenship-History & Democracy lessons delivering Democratic Citizenship-Language, Literature, Painting, Music & Physical Education lessons delivering Cultural CitizenshipThe TOOLKIT will contain all outputs and required resources and methodologies, and will be freely available as part of NWBLB's legacyOverall NWBLB will enhance European citizenship among young people innovatively and digitally."

"European youth aged 15-24, while searching for identity and culture in their societies, are the most vulnerable in understanding the full potential of EU citizenship and its various dimensions. This being said, education has always played a significant role in cultivating identity and culture in young minds. That is why education, towards a common goal of a better understanding of EU citizenship, is essential. The European Union gives great importance to young people’s learning and appropriation of their own cultures and the common culture of Europe, in effect allowing the youth to acquire cultural awareness which will carry them to the future, as well as gain contemporary skills to become the architects of their own lives. However, among EU countries, there are different approaches to EU citizenship education in school curriculums and education systems in general (Eurydice, 2017). Unfortunately, in some countries their teachings are simply insufficient. This situation raises the need to expand the framework of citizenship education and its dimensions among EU member country school education systems .This project will train to implement EU citizenship education into the curriculum of the students from the project partner countries (TR, PL, LT). The target students are aged 14-18. This project will deliver a Training Module 4 important elements: 1. Purpose; 2. Content; 3. Learning Teaching Processes; and 4. Evaluation - defined as the ""EU CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAM"". By implementing a joint education program with the schools in our project, we aim to provide EU citizenship education, to adopt EU values, to raise awareness of European common culture and to have a European identity among young students. In order to achieve the EU's goal of creating an integrated Europe, it is important that EU citizenship competencies, EU values and European common cultural awareness are given to young European individuals in a holistic approach. In this sense, our project ensures that students will be supported in school within the teacher-parent triangle, with in-school and out-of-school activities, communication, cooperation, interaction with their European peers, and take responsibility together. In this context, we aim to achieve and impart three Intellectual Outputs by the end of the project’s program implementation.European Citizenship Common Education Program for Integrated Europe’s Intellectual Outputs:* European Youth and Culture Club (IO1)EYCC will be established by and with partner schools. EYCC Management Units, Activity Contents, and Working Schedule will be prepared by the participating students of partner schools using peer-mediated teaching, brainstorming, and collaborative teaching methods. EYCCs will raise students’ awareness about European citizenship through (inter)active events and activities. By joining the club, students’ planning, preparing, organizing, and participation skills will improve. Students will gain awareness of civic participation with the help of partner NGOs and other institutions involved in club activities. * Mobile Application (IO2)A free and accessible iOS- and Android-compatible mobile application will be created. App users can access significant content and information about artistic and cultural items in Europe. The app will enable young European users to communicate and interact with each other. The contents of the mobile application will be created by the young students using the peer-mediated teaching, brainstorming, and collaborative teaching methods. Through the project, the mobile application will reach many European young users and contribute to a common understanding of European citizenship among young people.* EU Citizenship Training Module (IO3)A joint education program for EU citizenship will be implemented among partner schools. The implementation aims to systematically provide EU citizenship competencies to European young people. The program will be created by school teachers and will be piloted for 8 months in partner schools. The weaknesses and strengths of the pilot implementation will be assessed through ISCTE-IUL's evaluation activities.It is important that teachers be trained about EU citizenship for them to incorporate their learnings into their class syllabuses and teaching materials, and eventually, better educate the youth towards European common values. After the trainings and with the finalized EU Citizenship Training Module, we aim to improve existing teaching modules/materials as well as train participating teachers about:- Social Citizenship in Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy classes; - Economic Citizenship in Mathematics and Derivative courses;- Digital Citizenship in the Informatics and Technology lessons;- Democratic Citizenship in the History and Democracy lessons; and- Cultural Citizenship in Language, Literature, Painting, Music, Physical Education lessons."

"In initiating the project “Culture, Creativity, Inclusion”, the institutions from Italy, Romania, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Latvia, schools and NGOs involved in intercultural education, started from the social and educational value of culture; the existence in their regions of similar contexts: multicultural students groups with discriminatory tendencies; their needs in intercultural education as a strategy for social inclusion, for reducing marginalization and to diversify the Curriculum; needs for non-formal education strategies to replace classical teaching based only on the transmission of knowledge, to create a positive working atmosphere, attractive lessons, and ICT resources; a rich national cultural heritage used as a support for intercultural education. Their strategic objectives are the orientation towards innovative, and attractive European didactics.The aim of the project is to increase interculturality, creativity, and innovation in the practices of partner institutions, to develop skills through culture and creativity.Project objectives for teachers as the main target group and for partner institutions:1. To offer the acquisition of innovative and motivating strategies for the social inclusion of students, using as support the national and European cultural and artistic elements.2. To provide the acquisition of types of non-formal intercultural education activities, through the exchange of good practices between partners, during LTTAs.3. To offer the possibility to create, through collaboration, efficient digital resources in learning about European cultural diversity and the appreciation of the common European values;4. To offer partner institutions their professional development, promote attractive non-formal teaching, and support schools in their regions with European digital educational resources.The project's methodology consists of 6 LTTAs that each involves 20 teachers from partner institutions and 6-10 teachers from the host institution, and is based on innovative approaches: theoretical presentations and examples about the educational value of culture; cultural workshops; non-formal approach to a UNESCO monument; cultural theatre and creative workshops starting from works of art and cultural elements in the UNESCO Heritage; examples of involving students in cultural activities and promoting traditional elements: music, food culture, old occupations, handicrafts, folk dance; cultural ICT workshop using the media with a cultural message, to create certain types of videos and the ""Digital Photo Story"" as a final product.Students will only be involved in Virtual Exchanges with partner students and in local activities included in LTTA in their schools; they will be presenters of cultural elements, actors in theater and cultural workshops, promoters of their cultural values.Expected results through LTTAs: the acquisition of information on classroom management for inclusive education, good practices in encouraging the students ’integration; non-formal strategies and valuable multimedia resources for learning interculturality and developing students' creativity; types of cultural and ICT creative workshops; learning experiences to develop intercultural skills; educational practices using as support the national material and immaterial cultural elements of the UNESCO heritage and the traditional elements; ICT creative skills based on the cultural elements; ""Digital Photo-Story"", the final project product; creating E-twinning Space and the project website as tools for promoting and disseminating results.Expected results through the students' participation: superior intercultural competencies, respect, and tolerance for other cultures; new motivations to get involved in the group's life: more oriented towards group knowledge, discovering common and different cultural aspects, an improved position towards the group culture.The project impact on teachers illustrated by their future professional behaviors: the use of a wide range of innovative approaches; integration in their activities of the digital resources acquired through the project, especially of Digital Photo-Story, a valuable product in intercultural teaching, in the process of social inclusion; new professional skills in organizing non-formal activities, using as support the cultural elements and capitalizing on students' creativity; new ICT skills and the interest in their integrating into lessons.Impact indicators on students: more tolerant behaviors towards students of different ethnicities and living environments; new intercultural competences: more tolerant in the interaction with students of other cultures; more eager to get involved in national cultural projects and Erasmus +.The project sustainability can be ensured by developing new projects using at a higher level the results obtained, by integrating the results in the didactics and the Curriculum through new optional courses of intercultural education."

"Higher education standards and student attainment are the main goal of current changes in schools. Nowadays, mathematical thinking is an issue that people pay more attention to than ever before. Many studies show how important mathematical thinking is for people to be more effective in their professional careers and in the contemporary digital world. Our extensive survey in partner schools shows that the mathematics taught in these schools does not take into account students' strictly defined technical skills and does not fully develop their potential for their future careers. Researches reveal that students who graduate by taking traditional mathematics education, which teaches mathematical concepts and relationships, cannot use this information in real life. Therefore, traditional mathematics education causes learning difficulties. Learning difficulties lead to early school dropouts. For this reason, we must find a new way of teaching and learning mathematics and enable our students to integrate their math knowledge more into their real life. While preparing this project, our basic motivation with our partners is; To organize math and technology centered stem activities using Agile methodology and to disseminate project based education.Our aim with this project is to integrate students' mathematical knowledge into their real life situations with the help of technology. Due to the integrated structure of real life situations in terms of disciplines, it is impossible to find solutions to complex real life problems with a single discipline. For this reason, our project will develop the skills, competencies and visions of students, teachers and schools for the solutions of the problems of real life situations in which mathematics and technology disciplines are located. Our objectives are: 1- In the research conducted by the World Economic Forum and attended by the leading companies of the business world, the most important of the 2020 workforce skill set is ""complex problem solving skill"". The development of this skill is the main goal of our project. 2- Connecting students' knowledge of mathematics to real life situations with the help of technology will cause them to learn meaningfully, which will decrease their early school dropouts. Our goal is to reduce the rate of early school drop-outs below 10%, which is determined by the European Union, in all partner schools. 3- We want to carry out project-based learning to be organized within the framework of Stem (Science, Technology, Mathematics, Engineering) in at least 20% of the lessons to be done in our common arrows to ensure that students learn meaningfully. 4- We want to contribute to the achievement of the goal of reducing the failure in Mathematics and Science below 15% according to the Strategic Framework Document on European Cooperation in Education and Training.The main target groups of the planned activities and activities of the project are teachers and students. Our students will consist of girls and boys aged 13-15. A math or at least one ICT teacher and project coordinator will participate in each LTTA and event. Other participating teachers will consist of branch teachers belonging to stem disciplines. For students with fewer opportunities, all kinds of support will be provided during the selection process. Participants to participate in LTT activities will be selected based on the criteria specified by each partner school. However, each school will be able to add to these criteria. As a local participant, other students, teachers and parents of partner schools, as well as teachers and students of the surrounding schools will be included. Local participants will participate in workshops and events at stem festivals during the project. Within the framework of our project,only teachers will participate in LTTA 1,3 and 5, while our students and teachers between the ages of 13-15 will participate in other LTTAs together.In accordance with the agility methodology, we will realize our project by dividing it into small pieces. The project consists of 3 sub-sections. Each subdivision also consists of smaller sub-parts and repeats of these parts. These duplicate parts come together to form subdivisions and these subdivisions. These iterations are a whole in their internal evaluations, results and successes. The success of the project depends on the evaluation of each sub-part. Each iteration will take place based on the evaluation of the previous study, so more skills and success will be achieved with each iteration.We will hold regular online meetings with the commission we will create with our partners for project dissemination efforts. Throughout the project, we will provide information about our activities on social media. Especially, a general hashtag will be determined on Twitter and all shares will be followed during and after the project."