[VERSION FOR EU SCHOOLS] EU-HK School Project “Green Living and Sustainability in the Community”

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The European Union Academic Programme (EUAP) is delighted to announced the launch of the “Green Living and Sustainability in the Community” pilot e-learning project. Currently, we are seeking participants from high schools or colleges in Europe (4-6 from each institution) to participate in this pilot e-learning project, along with schools in Hong Kong, in order to facilitate direct exchanges of ideas on green topics amongst students and to improve their English through communication. The project will be launched in late February/early March 2015 lasting 8 weeks, conducted in English, and is free of charge.

Summary of Details:

Key learning area/subjects: Geography, Environmental Studies, Humanities
Start date: Late Feb/Early March 2015
Duration: 8 weeks
Target students: Age 14-18
Remarks: This project is conducted in English and is free of charge

This project will run on an online learning platform “Blackboard” where groups of students will explore the programme with basic guidance and work at their own pace through self-regulated learning. We aim for schools in Europe and Hong Kong to collaborate for a co-construction of knowledge through this pilot project, while we hope that the project will boost the student’s all-rounded understanding, higher order thinking and communication skills and heightened awareness for sustainability at the end of the course.

We understand the curriculum and semester duration might be different between European and Hong Kong schools, therefore we will remain flexible and are open to any suggestions from interested schools. Throughout the project, we will coordinate with both sides and try to work out the best solutions for every school.

To minimise workload for teachers, they are not required to know the individual topics in-depth. During the class, teachers will be facilitating discussion and guiding students through the tasks, with materials and guidelines provided by us. Also, we ask teachers to send us a short weekly feedback of the class for us to keep track of progress.

Prize
Towards the end of the project, we will hold a Group Community Project with a Blog + Multimedia Presentation Competition. If 5 or more EU schools commit to this 8-week project, we will invite the most successful project team (maximum 2 students + 1 teacher) to fly to Hong Kong for a 1-week stay in May or June 2015. We will cover airline tickets and accommodation costs, and the team will have an opportunity to visit green facilities in Hong Kong and their partner school during this time.

In summary, we have outlined the aims and targets of the project below.

The participants will learn about and work on the following topics:
1. What is sustainability?
2. How does the EU support sustainable living?
3. How does their own city/government support sustainable living?
4. What can you do to support sustainable living in your community?

Students of the participating schools will:
1. Familiarise themselves with EU and Hong Kong initiatives on green living and sustainability
2. Evaluate their own communities in terms of sustainability
3. Collaborate with each other on environmental projects and actions
4. Present their green living community project to an international audience
5. Compete to be the “EU’s Best Sustainability Ambassadors”

The project will have three phases across a total of eight weeks:
1. Gathering Knowledge and Understanding Concepts: Learning about Sustainability
2. Research Tasks: How Green is my Community?
3. Independent Cross-Cultural Project: Towards Green Living in the Community

PREVIEW OF BLACKBOARD (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Preview
You can refer to the document below for further information:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/253380759/ConceptNoteHK-EUSchoolProject-external-12Jan2015-EU

The e-learning project is now open for registration for schools in Europe. The registration deadline is Friday 13th February 2015.  For any enquiries, please contact Mr. Julian CHAN at +852 3411-6589 or wtjulianchan@hkbu.edu.hk.