Project

The AUGE Project (Advancing Utterly Green Environments) is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme and is supported by Key Action 2: Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices among Organizations and Institutions. This Action supports both Cooperation Partnerships and Small-Scale Partnerships, a new action that was notified in 2021, which funds projects with the amount of 3,0000 euros or 6,0000 euros (flat rate amounts), in which at least 2 organisations are involved. The AUGE Project is funded by this new action, and it has secured the flat rate amount of 3,0000 euro, for which the application had been submitted. It has a duration of 13 months (April 2022 – May 2023).

From the four Key Actions of the Erasmus Programme (Education, Training, Youth, and Sports), the AUGE Project focuses on the field of Education, and more specifically the School Education (Primary & Secondary). From the four main horizontal priorities of the Programme, the Horizontal European Priority “Environment and the Fight against Global Warming” was selected for the AUGE Project. Furthermore, the following two additional priorities concerning School Education were selected:

• the support of teachers, school leaders, and other professions
• the development of the participants’ basic skills

Consequently, further to the cultivation of the ecological awareness of the target group (Primary and Secondary school students), the AUGE Project also aims to train and support teachers and school leaders in environmental issues (teacher training), as well as to develop the participants’ basic skills through activities that can cultivate and promote cooperation, creativity, active citizenship, critical thinking, and others.

Among others, the AUGE Project’s main objectives can be summarised as follows:

1. To inform and raise the awareness of Primary and Secondary school students on issues concerning the environment, climate change, and soft (renewable) forms of energy, particularly sustainable and rational resource management.

2. To cultivate the students’ theological consciousness through presenting the world as God’s creation/gift.

3. To provide the students with certain opportunities so that they can:

• express their concerns about the aforementioned issues using alternative methods, such as through music and visual arts.
• leave their green footprint on society and understand that their every “green” action is an act of love that impacts not only the natural environment but also society as a whole. This will be achieved through “green” actions involving the elderly or the general public (creating a botanical garden and hand-made crafts using natural materials for the elderly, making awareness videos for the general public, etc.).

4. Create an environmental website, authentic learning material, and other consolidation exercises.

5. Inform and raise the awareness of teachers and school leaders around Ecological Theology and train them in issues related to energy conservation as well as to the implementation of creative reuse (Upcycling) in school units.

6. Disseminate the project’s findings so that not only the participants but also the general public can be benefited, since the ultimate goal is to raise awareness around environmental issues.

Although various environmental programmes focusing on School Education have been implemented in the past few years, the AUGE Project, despite its short duration and scope, has some particularities, which attribute a special character to the project. The AUGE Project’s main innovations can be summarised as follows:

In the various ways in which it attempts to include actions and experiential-interactive workshops with an environmental focus in a wider and more universal context, which, contribute to the development of the participants’ horizontal skills (collaboration, creativity, critical thinking) but also, at the same time, to the cultivation of empathy and active citizenship (creating a botanical garden and crafts with materials from nature for the elderly, creating animation films about Antarctica, paper recycling).

To offer a series of experiential-interactive workshops during the summer months, outside the school context and classroom, so that the participants feel free to express themselves and be more creative, but also to be able to reflect on various ecological issues.

To create educational material on the environment, which will include, among others, ancient Greek myths with an ecological content, as well as the “acquaintance” of the students with ancient animals, birds, and plants. The educational material will be enriched with interactive exercises, which will be designed based on the principles of gamification (crosswords, crypto words, matching exercises, and others).

1. Open meetings at the beginning and at the end of the Project.
2. The creation of a website with information on the AUGE Project and authentic learning material & exercises whose design is based on gamification principles.
3. Experiential-Interactive Workshops on the environment for students.
4. Seminars on the environment, in Cyprus and Crete respectively, with topics that relate to Ecological Theology, energy saving, but also to the use of creative reuse (Upcycling) in school units.
5. Visits of the TSCC members to the OAC and vice versa for the exchange of views.
6. The dissemination of the Project Results.