<< Background >>The responsible management of natural resources, including land, water, air, minerals, forests, and biodiversity has a direct impact on the preservation of the natural environment and the quality of life of present and future generations. It creates a balance between social, economic, and environmental factors. It leads to the well-being of people and communities, the preservation of jobs, and the protection of biodiversity. Sustainable natural resource management is of high priority in the 21st century as it can contribute to the avoidance of land degradation, the avoidance of desertification, the mitigation of climate change, and more. It is included in UN sustainability goals, such as sustainable cities and communities, responsible production and consumption, climate action, life in land, and life under water.Achieving sustainable natural resource management starts with awareness-raising and education. Society is faced with climate change, the rise of temperatures, and the destruction of habitats with direct consequences on biodiversity presentation as well as the long-term health of natural ecosystems. In this environment it is imperative to develop educational initiatives that prepare the young generation to become responsible, active adults in relation environmental sustainability in all aspects of life in the industry and communities.Raising a young generation that adopts responsible natural resources management behavior requires the development of scientific and technical knowledge on the function of ecosystems and the life supporting effects of those. It further requires critical and analytical thinking, innovative mindsets for designing environmentally sound solutions, and ability to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams. While digital tools do exist for contributing to natural resources management more can be done for enriching environmental education through digital technologies. NATURE will develop an experiential learning intervention for building the capacity of higher education students to adopt responsible behavior on natural resources management and to design solutions for environmental sustainability in everyday and professional activities. The proposed learning intervention will:-Build awareness on the importance of sustainable natural resources management for the well-being of communities and plant and animal species.-Develop theoretical knowledge and practical skills that empower students to become active citizens designing environmentally sustainable solutions.-Develop soft skills that foster innovative mindsets that help students become the problem-solvers of tomorrow towards sustainable practices in the industry and society.Digital learning games will enable students to experiment with scenarios inspired by real-life. Through digital applications students will be encouraged to undertake the role of stewards of natural ecosystems in a manner that would not be possible in an off-line physical laboratory. They will be challenged to design solutions that maintain the balance of environment preservation, economic activity, and quality of life. The learning games will introduce clear learning objectives, interesting roles, and rich actions that students may undertake to design environmentally sustainable solutions. They will provide real-time, immediate feedback on the consequences of their choices, thus developing awareness and knowledge on the effects of human activity to natural ecosystems. They will be designed for deployment in broader learning offerings that combine theoretical knowledge and hands-on practice.The impact of the proposed environmental learning intervention will be an updated scope and increased relevance of environmental education, modernization and enrichment of environmental education through emerging learning design and digital technologies, development of green skills, and enhanced dialog towards societal change on responsible natural resources management.<< Objectives >>NATURE introduces an experiential learning intervention that builds awareness , knowledge, and skills on responsible natural resources management through digital experimentation that engages higher education students in scenarios that they would not be able to be exposed to through off-line activities.The project aims to achieve the following objectives:-Educating students: building theoretical knowledge and soft skills applicable on responsible natural resources management.-Training instructors: supporting the seamless integration of the proposed experiential learning design and digital learning games in existing instructional practices through reference material in diverse media.-Modernizing higher education through digital technologies: developing an open digital games developed specifically for learning purposes that promotes interactive exploration, fosters motivation in learning, promotes long-term student engagement, and helps students understand the link between actions and effects on the environment.The outcomes of the project will be:-An active, game-based learning methodology for environmental education through exploration, collaboration, and experimentation.-A digital serious game that challenges students to engage in scenarios related to responsible natural resource management inspired by real-life.-Educator support content in the form of learning activities, videos, and a reference guide that facilitates the integration of project outcomes into teaching practices..Project outcomes will be validated and disseminated widely to promote adoption:-The NATURE learning intervention will be validated in practice through piloting activities with higher education students in in Latvia, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Evaluation activities in diverse academic, cultural, and economic environments will ensure the European relevance of results.-Multiplier events will be organized in Latvia, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy for community-building and promoting the adoption of project outcomes.-Project activities and outcomes will be disseminated widely through digital channels, press releases, scientific articles, informational material, a periodic newsletter, and more.The desired impact of the project is:-Enriched awareness, knowledge, and skills of students on natural resources management.-Increased relevance of environmental higher education.-Enriched learning opportunities on environmental aspects, with long-term effects.-Updated scope of environmental higher education.-Development of green skills.-Contribution to societal change in relation to responsible natural resources management.-Strengthened communities that have the capacity to act towards environmental sustainability.-High quality educational practices on responsible natural resources management.-Deployment of digital technologies in environmental education.-Modernization of higher education through emerging learning design.-Promotion of cross-themed education, as environmental learning requires the integration of knowledge from diverse fields.-Linking higher education outcomes to the needs of society and industry. -Enhanced interaction among higher education institutions on environmental education at the regional, national, and European level.-Enhanced interaction among higher education institutions and authorities at the regional and national level.-Improved practices, strategies, and policies on environmental education and responsible natural resources management. -Development of soft skills desired by industry and society, including critical, analytical, and entrepreneurial thinking.-Good practice development and exchange between countries on responsible natural resources management.<< Implementation >>A.Methodological learning design:Focus will be on the design of an innovative experiential learning framework that is based on serious games and challenges students to develop awareness, knowledge, and skills on responsible natural resource management through activities that are inspired by real world environmental sustainability practices. They will include:-Analysis of the stakeholder groups that stand to gain from the project.-Analysis of current practices and initiatives related to responsible natural resources management.-Analysis of related digital tools deployed in environmental education.-Analysis of learning needs of students on building knowledge on responsible natural resources management.-Analysis of the instructional skills needed by educators for designing and delivering engaging environmental education activities that deploy emerging learning design and digital technologies.-Design of an experiential methodological learning framework that promotes learning by doing through experimentation in the context of digital learning games. B.Implementing a digital learning game and learning scenarios for responsible natural resources management:-Design of the basic game functionality common in all learning scenarios, such as tools for designing the scenario surrounding environment, setting scenario goals, defining student roles, and facilitating collaboration. -Software development of the NATURE digital learning game.-Design of learning scenarios on natural resources management that will be integrated into the digital learning game.-Evaluation of the digital learning game with external groups of students in Latvia, Greece, Estonia, Portugal, Spain, and Italy and integration of input into project outcomes.C.Activities on instructor support content development that promotes the seamless integration of project results into existing educational practices:The activities will produce reference material that instructors will use for directly deploying in their classrooms the project experiential learning design and NATURE digital learning game. They will further support instructors on designing and integrating into the NATURE digital learning game their own scenarios that address specific learning objectives related to the interests and needs of their students. They will include:- Development of a reference guide for the NATURE digital learning game on responsible natural resources management.- Development of learning sheets that describe end-to-end educational activities based on the NATURE digital learning game that instructors will be able to use in their classrooms.- Development of videos that demonstrate the functionality of the NATURE digital learning game. D. Dissemination and adoption:Multiplier events will be organized in Latvia, Greece, Estonia, Portugal, Spain, and Italy during which audiences will be exposed to the proposed experiential, game-based learning design and will use the digital learning game hands-on. The events will demonstrate the benefits of the proposed learning intervention and will promote the uptake of project outcomes beyond the consortium.Dissemination activities will use a wide range of channels for effectively reaching higher education stakeholders, including students, educators, authorities, policy makers, educational organizations, industry, and the general public. They will include:- A project web portal.-Informational leaflet.-Newsletter.-Internet and social media presence.-Press releases.-Scientific articles.-Presentations.-And more.<< Results >>The following outcomes are expected:Result 1: An experiential, methodological learning framework for building awareness, knowledge and skills on responsible natural resources management. The framework will be based on an analysis of stakeholder groups that stand to gain directly or indirectly from project activities on environmental education. Direct stakeholders The learning framework will be designed based on the results of a learning needs analysis of students and educators in relation to building knowledge on natural resource management. It will further take into account existing practices and policies in environmental education as well as related activities, initiatives and projects, ensuring that the learning framework can be effectively integrated into existing educational practices.The analysis will inform the design of an experiential methodological learning framework that promotes learning by doing through experimentation in the context of digital learning games. The methodology will follow an open science approach that will complement formal educational practices. Through the proposed learning design, students will have the opportunity to build knowledge and skills by exploring environmental education scenarios inspired by real world challenges. Game-based approaches will foster students’ internal motivation for engaging in learning through gaming elements such as clear goals, rewards, recognition, social interaction, and more. Result 2: A digital learning game and educational activities on responsible natural resources management.The game will challenge students to engage in learning scenarios inspired by real-world challenges on natural resources management. It will follow an open science education approach through open ended activities that will foster student creativity and critical thinking. In addition to scenarios that will be prepared by the consortium, the game will offer rich functionality through which users will be able to design scenarios of their own. Educators will be able to define the objectives of a learning activity as well as student roles; they will be able to structure the scenario surroundings for addressing specific educational goals related to a particular scenario using buildings, public services, business, recreation areas, natural resources bodies such as water bodies, forests, and mineral sources, and more; they will further be able to overlook student work. Students will be provided similarly rich opportunities for introducing environmentally sustainable solutions to the given challenges through terrain formatting, city building, design of technical infrastructures, and more. Result 3: Instructor support content that will build the capacity of educators to adopt the proposed experiential learning design for environmental education.The content will act as reference material that will support educators in the use of the NATURE learning game and will inspire them for creating their own learning activities. It will use a variety of channels including:-A learning game reference manual.-Learning sheets describing end-to-end learning activities.-Videos that demonstrate the game functionality.

"<< Objectives >>Our project is aimed at reducing the early school leaving of students by supporting the teachers professionally with learning difficulties by using digital techniques based on multi-sensory learning model and storytelling technique.By making the educational environment more attractive,students who drop out of school due to this anxiety and negative attitude make peace with the education environment again<< Implementation >>Our project includes 5 work packages and the activities in these work packages. Our work packages under general headings are as follows;WP1: Project ManagementWP2: ""Digital Storytelling Techniques "" Training ProgrammeWP3: Online interactive learning/teaching platformWP4 : ""Recommendation Programme"" to promote digital story telling techniquesWP5 : Evaluation Programme (Conferences and Workshops)<< Results >>We aim at creating following following results via work packages;- Decreased dropout rates of students with learning difficulties- Increasing the professional development of teachers with new tools and methods- Active use of the ""Recommendation Program"", which also includes the Digital Storytelling curriculum- Developing the professional capacity of teachers thanks to the online learning platform-Increasing the capacity of educational institutions"

The current situation, shown by the Eurostat data 2019, related to the unemployment rate of young people is high in different European Countries. Concerning the EU Media (35,2%), Italy has an unemployment rate of 42,7% followed by Greece with 40,6%, Bulgaria 35,8%, and Latvia 30,4%.The youth unemployment (labour force aged 15 to 24 years old - the earliest point at which mandatory school education ends) tends to be higher than unemployment in older age groups. Typically, teenagers who are fresh out of education do not find jobs right away. Additionally, it also tends to be higher in emerging economies than in industrialized nations.In the European Union, unemployment, in general, has been on the rise since 2008, which is due to the economic crisis which has led to a considerable job loss, fewer job offerings, and consequently, to a rise in the unemployment rate.All in all, the number of unemployed persons worldwide is projected to rise, and this is not due to the economic crisis alone, but also the industrial automation of processes previously performed by workers.The transformations of the worldwide economy lead to the need for digital skills for nearly all jobs where ICT complements the existing tasks. Careers such as engineering, accountancy, nursing, medicine, art, architecture, and many more - require increasing levels of digital skills.However, on the base of the Eurostat data, the percentage of young people who have basic or above basic overall digital skills in 2019 are 51% in Greece, 43% in Latvia, 42% in Italy and 29% in Bulgaria.To cope with this situation, several key competencies facilitate young people's transition to the job market and future career prospects.In this direction, according to EU Commission communication ‘Rethinking education: investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes’ (2012), entrepreneurship education, a one of the key competence, is recognized as the supporting tool for young people to develop a general set of competencies applicable in all walks of life, not simply about learning how to run a business. This means acquiring the ‘the ability to think critically, take initiative, problem-solve and work collaboratively’.Consequently, real-world experience, through problem-based learning and enterprise links, should be embedded across all disciplines and tailored to all levels of education to create new opportunities for business creation as a career destination.In this context, the common needs emerge among the countries involved:1.To promote entrepreneurial and digital skills in school curricula in terms of concrete knowledge, skills, and attitudes.2.To encourage the development of critical thinking and problem–solving skills in students to cope with new digital challenges.3.To promote STEM approach to reinforce interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teaching in a different contest with the involvement of all academic disciplines and guaranteeing social inclusion and gender equity in this particular field.4.Reinforcing school and teacher networks to share resources and best practices.Thus, the project responds to these needs with the following objectives:- Defining a common framework for digital entrepreneurship following the EnteCom Framework.- Designing a new curriculum for the promotion of new digital careers with a special focus on STEM skills development with the support of the European Digital Competence framework.- Operationalizing such curriculum through the application of the design thinking method which promotes the development of creativity, innovation, and an entrepreneurial mindset with a strong focus on understanding the needs and desires of the end-user.- Supporting STEM skills (vertical and horizontal skills) useful for professional careers for both teachers and students.- Improving the collaborative sense among teachers and schools through the exchanging of experience, best practices focusing on the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach.Target group: Secondary school teachers and students.The main results will be as follows:- Framework to integrate entrepreneurial and STEM skills through design thinking approach- STEM and entrepreneurial skills reinforcement through 3D serious games environment - Outputs and Recommendations on integrated STEM and entrepreneurship educationShort- term impact:- on students: improve STEM and entrepreneurial skills; increasing student motivation through the design thinking approach for STEM and ICT careers and a 3D Learning Environment;- on teachers: provide them with needed skills on how to integrate STEM and entrepreneurship education in school curricula; improve teaching processes through design thinking approach; reinforce their role as learning facilitator for entrepreneurial and STEM skills development.Long-term impact:- A digital entrepreneurship curriculum to be integrated into the school curriculum- Supporting transnational cooperation among the schools

Project Summary is in English.

Design thinking is a learning approach that focuses on developing students' creative confidence. Design includes many elements such as thinking, developing empathy, promoting action-oriented prejudices, directing thinking, developing meta-cognitive awareness, being active, problem solving, and using one's imagination. Through design-oriented thinking, the pedagogical repertoire of teachers is expanded (AEÜSBED,2019).The design-oriented thinking process begins with the definition of a problem. It involves research and the ranking of priorities that often compete with each other. It tests the applicability of multiple solutions with prototypes and ends with the social evaluation of objects. (Davis, 1998).Considering that the most important factor in individuals' lives is creative problem solving, design thinking is a highly functional approach to finding creative solutions to complex problems. (Carroll, Goldman, Britos, Koh, Royalty and Hornstein, 2010; Vande Zande, Warnock, Nikoomanesh and Van Dexter, 2014).Design thinking supports students 'critical thinking, social development, team work skills, and students' academic performance. It increases students 'academic performance by contributing to students' understanding, identification and analysis process (Carroll et al., 2010; Vande Zande et al., 2014; Watson, 2015).According to the data obtained from European Commission, over %46 of youths are at risk of social exclusion since the education system has not been successful to prepare and maintain teachers and trainers with high-performance in order to provide their learners with practical and authentic skills. Correspondingly, the learners lack of guidance, applicable and life context skills which are creative thinking, problem solving and collaboration skills, so they are left with a few options like early school drop-out. Low academic success is one of the variables that can be the predictor of school dropout alone. Low academic success leading to school dropout damages the self-esteem of the individual and creates a sense of loss of control (Agnew, 1992).There are many studies that found that low academic level and low grades are strong predictors of school dropout (Alexander, Entwise and Kabbani, 2001; Goldschmidt and Wang, 1999; Rumberger, 1995).In line with all these requirements and the data (COE), it is clear that there is a gap in academic success of teachers to prevent early school leaving by providing their learners with applicable skills and guidance. This project will bridge this gap through the training modules based on design thinking skills.The project aims at increasing academic success of teachers, supporting professional development of educators, empowering teachers/trainers/educators with resources to teach design thinking skills, equipping teachers with a design thinking mindset, facilitating the adoption of design thinking educational practices, strengthening the capacity of educational authorities, policymakers and decision makers to promote and mainstream design-thinking educational practices, as well as decreasing early school drop-out through the following intellectual outputs:- Methodological Framework for Design Thinking Skills in Secondary Schools- Training Content for Teachers and Online Learning Platform- Instructional Guide and Practical Resources to Promote Design Thinking Skills- Recommendation Paper to promote Design Thinking Skills in EducationThe target groups are teachers, trainers, educators, decision-makers, policymakers, and educational authorities.The project will involve the following participants in different activities of the project; 60 teachers for analysis of the current situation in Design Thinking Skills education 15 teachers for testing the platform and contents40 participants in national pilot trainings145 participants of teachers, educators, policy makers, educational authorities and academics in multiplier events. This project will have a direct impact on improving the academic success with design thinking approach in multi-disciplinary areas in education and enhancing the instructional capacity of teaching staff.The envisaged impact will be increased social inclusion of European students through mainstream design thinking education at schools.