Croatia

Primary school Bisag is a small school in the northwestern part of Croatia. Located between two
historically important cities Varaždin and Zagreb. Varaždin is a capital of Varaždin county and
Zagreb is a capital city of Croatia. Primary school Bisag has 128 students ( from 6 to 15) and 26
employees. As a small school, we are recognizing the importance of visibility in our society so we are
striving to implement in our daily routine a lot of different extracurricular activities enriched with new
pedagogical and ICT technology. Our students are interested in cooperating with others so our
school has some history of school cooperation on a national level. Our employees are willing to
cooperate with teachers from EU and argument for that is that some of them were joining EU projects
like Comenius and in-service training in EU countries. Primary school Bisag has a lot of experience in
the field of organization, organizing events at school and local level. Our school is consistently good
and competent leader and host to various events at the national, regional and county level. The logic
of school that emphasizes openness is reflected not only in the fact that the school accepts the
assignments and projects that are already suggestions from others, we are also providing our ideas
and motivation in a direct and precise engagement, so we are our own projects at all levels. Primary
school Bisag was good, quality and reliable organizer of the competition, tests, shows and meetings
of schools at the local, regional and national level, always thinking on participants in the meetings
and adapting activities and creating a stimulating and pleasant atmosphere during the event. The
school has participated in projects that have highlighted the cooperation with other institutions and
additional training for staff and students. Prmary school Bisag is familiar with the benefits of project
work from the experiences of individuals who carried out projects of professional training at a
personal level and Erasmus project collaboration with more schools from Europe. Our students are
sensitized to environmental issues and preventing pollution in nature. Biology teacher is preparing
events, lectures, and workshops for students and they are willing to participate in everything that
matters preventing pollution. Every year in primary school Bisag we organize eco actions, cleaning
our school and village environment. Lower grade students visit the Croatian coast and there during
one week they learn in nature „School in nature“. Learning precious lessons about our history, land,
and traditions. The main aim of involving in EU projects is to expand our knowledge of other cultures
and traditions and how are they dealing with the environmental issues and eco-tourism opportunities

Slovenia

OŠ Danila Lokarja is a public primary school. Located in the Vipava Valley, just 25 km off the Italian
border. İt is the biggest school in the Ajdovščina municipality. It has 650 pupils and 103 employees
(teachers, administrative staff, cleaners, janitors, a librarian...). The unpaid staff comprises university
students who come to our school to do their mandatory teaching practice (future teachers). Every
school year, we host over 14 students. Pupils come to school in different ways: those who live nearby
mostly come by bike or on foot, and those who live in neighboring villages come by car (parents) or
by bus. Our school prides itself on accommodating and taking considerable care of pupils with
special needs (the school houses a department for pupils with special needs) and learning disabilities
as well as gifted pupils. Some of our pupils come to Ajdovščina from other parts of Europe: Norway,
Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. The school
emphasizes experiential learning and for this reason, organizes a number of activities that take place
in nature and works on projects related to nature. The location of the school plays a major role in this
as it lies on the very edge of the town, only a step away from the forest. Our school curriculum
anticipates and encourages activities aimed at preserving nature and the environment. Activities
begin as early as the first grade, including but not limited to raising awareness of water pollution,
paper recycling, reducing waste materials and/or reusing them in creative ways. If we were to single
out a few projects: we encouraged children to collect used plastic bottle caps, which were then given
to a disabled person, who was once also a pupil of our school, to exchange for funds for equipment
for his needs. This was not only conducive to an increased awareness of the need to recycle but –
significantly – of the need to work together as a community towards a common and salutary goal. To
encourage intergenerational cooperation, special needs pupils and pupils from regular classes are
working together in our school vegetable garden, thereby also contributing to greater school self- sufficiency.
More generally, the curriculum ensures that every subject strives towards work
conducted outside, in nature, which consequently includes many experiential learning processes.
Earth is our home, yet we have polluted so much of it. Rapid industrial development has resulted in
severe ecological problems. Pupils need to be aware of our impact on nature and it is the teachers’
role to motivate them to learn about it. The project will foster the pupils’ awareness and
understanding of environmental problems in their local community and participate in signaling
attention to them. By way of this project, pupils will learn what it means to be creative and proactive
in bringing about feasible solutions.

Romania

Our school, School No. 7, Buzau is situated in Buzau city, the main city in Buzau County. Buzau

County is located in the south-east part of Romania. In this school there are 1067 students and 57
teachers, it’s a primary and a secondary school.We have classes in 2 shifts the primary in the
morning and the secondary in the afternoon. Our school has 22 classrooms, 1 big gymnasium 1
chemistry, and physics laboratory, 2 ICT laboratories,1 biology laboratory, 1 medical center and a
counseling office for the students with behavior problems. This year we have also an assistant for
from students who helps them integrate because some of them are from disorganized families. We
also have a teacher who comes once per week to help students with difficulties in learning. Our
students come from different families most of them are from the middle class and the school is a
partner for the parents and the local community, all of us with the aim to create a better place to
study, to educate and to share our experiences. Some students suffer because of their parents who
had to go abroad to work and sometimes they feel abandoned. School is their second home and the
teachers go to courses to learn and improve their methods to integrate them. The activities in
projects develop their self- estimate, they learn about tolerance and they become capable to
communicate easier. We have local partnerships with libraries, other schools enterprises, and
organizations and we have activities in all fields because we consider that the school offers
information that students must apply in their life. We want these extra school activities to represent an
important part of their education. School No. 7, Buzau is a school with young teachers who are open
to the new methods, they are enthusiastic and they love communication and new technologies. We
use to involve our students in all kind of activities, projects where everybody finds his place. Some of
the students are involved in eTwinning projects exchanging postcards with students from European
schools. They improve their skills to communicate in foreign languages and they discover European
culture and traditions. All school participated in the international Project: ECO SCHOOL and they
participate in different activities related to the environment. The Erasmus + Project “Science,
Technology, Engineering, Math by ART “ (2016-2018) encourage innovation and creativity increase
the motivation for stem subjects. The motto of our project:“Stem creates future and language
connects people”.

Portugal

Professor António Natividade Group School (AEPAN) - public school: The AEPAN is located in the
District of Vila Real, Portugal, municipality of Mesão Frio, about 100 km from OPorto International
Airport. We are a group of 2 schools: a pre-school and primary school that teaches children between
4 and 10 years. And, another school, which integrates basic education (2nd and 3rd cycles of
learning and secondary education, for young people between 11 and 18 years). The AEPAN are
courses of areas: science, languages and humanities, technology and professional and vocational
education. We have 590 students divided by 5 cycles of education: pre-school - 73; primary school -
152; second cycle of learning - 75; third cycle of learning - 169 and secondary learning -121. Working
in AEPAN, 71 teachers and 36 employees. We have strategic partnerships with approximately with
11 institutions in the fields of education, research, innovation and development and science. Our
school has a large experience in regular, vocational and Professional teaching in various areas. In
the Professional and Vocational fields our school has been developing in the last few years several
courses in the areas of Rural and Environmental Tourism, Computing, Management of Computing
Equipments, Commerce, Gardening, Table and Bar service between others. Moreover, we have an
extensive net of institutional public and private partners in the field of research (TCF – Technology
and science foundation of Portugal), Teaching (University and Polytechnic) training in the working
field (Institute of Employment and Training - Portugal) and business partnership. Furthermore, our
school is located in the international Douro valley – UNESCO’s classified World heritage. The Group
of teachers involved have training in different areas and have experience working in tourism projects.
The Group has experience in coordinating, organizing and evaluating the activities undertaken in
different areas in units or hotel chains with expertise in the field of management and marketing,
enabling the development of cognitive and practical skills required for designing creative solutions in
a company of this nature. The technical skills of the group are: - Training of guides and animators of
Ecotourism - Planning and management of tourist activities - Ecotourism business operation -
Collaboration in teams of I&D - Support of rural and natural resource management activities -
Teaching and environmental education - Application of quality in Ecotourism models The areas
where our students have developed projects along with companies, are: - Boat rental - Bike rental -
Jet rental - Canoeing - Kayak - Bike 4 - Birdwatching - Flora and fauna observation - Guidance - Boat
trips - Sport fishing - Tracking - Horseback riding If it is needed Nuno Santos (Erasmus+member)
and Marta Ferreira (Sub-Director) will take over the key persons' role.

Lithuania

Kretinga Marijonas Daujotas Basic School is the educational institution, located in the Western part
of Lithuania. Directions of the school are ecologic education, economic and entrepreneurial training
and aesthetic education. The objective of Eco-education is to develop a non-consumerist approach
to nature, respect for life and the responsibility for it, concern not only for yourself, but for your
country and all the Earth's future as well. The number of students 862 (453 in primary classes and
409 students in the 5-10 classes The staff of the school: 67 pedagogic staff and 27 non-pedagogic
employees . Project's activities could help our learning and make it more interesting and more
attractive for students and teachers as well. Connections in this project could help in developing
personal skills and students could be introduced with the actual information, the view on what is
going on in the world. Therefore, it is very important to Marijonas Daujotas Basic School to improve
the quality of training and to ensure the opportunity for our learners to have social and cultural life, to
encourage the international collaboration and move from a narrow, national, to a wider European
context Lithuanian regional policy sustains a lot of problems. Our school takes part in various
projects and activities which are directly related to the project: International Environmental Education
Program International Project “Less Waste” Republican Project "Cork Campaign" Republican
Project ”We are sorting" Republican environmental contest "Another Form Pupil. Eco Community "

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EcoStep in Europe- general information

           The Erasmus+ project EcoStep in  Europe is a current, relevant area of study within schools. It is taught within a number of curriculum , Environment Protection, ICT, Natural Science, Geography and also a usual topic in foreign language studies. It is also a worldwide topic with implications for all, due to environmental issues such as global warming.Ecotourism is still a fairly new phenomenon in many countries, so it is not surprising that partly the problem lies in an elementary shortage of knowledge and skills.That is why the aim of this project is to create knowledge, skills, abilities about being an ecotourist.

           The project idea stems from local and international demands. All of the partner schools are situated in Eco-touristic areas.They are all directly affected by the negative environmental consequences created by tourism activities. Tourism is economically essential and it enables people to experience the naturally beautiful environment, which is a key element for the future of our students.Thus, it is important for the learners to take early responsibility for the conservation of these places and prevent them from deteriorating.Some of our schools are settled near touristic areas and have knowledge, understanding, and experiences of various conservation initiatives, and they will share this with the other groups and have a collective range of ideas, initiatives, and interventions, to develop an environmentally conscious tourism.