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Travelling through a pandemic: conclusion of the Erasmus+ international exchanges
Giving a concrete meaning to the word‘resilience’ – a term that has been used so frequently in recent times that it has almost lost its meaning – was perhaps the most unexpected outcome ofGEOclimHOME PRO – Geoheritage and climate change for highlighting the professional perspective.
Scheduled to run for three years between 2018 and 2021,thisErasmus+ projectinvolved secondary school pupils from three European UNESCO Geoparks: Rokua in Finland, Sesia Val Grande in Italy and Chablais in France.
The aim: to raise awareness of climate change and improve students’ understanding of humanity’s active and passive roles in the environment. The aim of the educational activities was also to raise students’ awareness of social responsibility, with a view to encouraging active citizenship and discovering new job opportunities capable of meeting the needs of sustainable development, for an equally sustainable future lifestyle.
The project’s key strength was its educational approach. The students were deeply engaged through international exchanges, during which they took part directly in conferences and practical activities with researchers, working in mixed-nationality groups. At the end of each exchange week, they shared the results of their activities with an audience of students, teachers, geopark educators and families.
As you can well imagine, the Covid pandemic has turned this successful approach into a weakness. It was very difficult, if not impossible, to travel around Europe and meet people. How could we carry on with the project in this situation?
During the 2020 lockdown, activities were suspended; given the differing rules in each country and the great uncertainty surrounding the coming months, teachers and educators rescheduled their activities, considering various scenarios so as to be prepared for any eventuality.
In February 2021, therefore, the meeting between Finland and Italy was a hybrid event, featuring both in-person activities and online sessions. In October, the Finnish partners were once again able to be hosted in Italy, whilst the final event, scheduled for 13–17 December at the Rokua Geopark, was held virtually: challenging conditions in the host country once again made it impossible for external visitors to access schools and take part in the planned activities.
And so, via our screens, we marked the conclusion of an extraordinary project – the result of a collaboration that began more than seven years ago and which provided an unexpected way to put into practice the very resilience it sought to encourage in the face of future global changes.
