This project started at the end of 2015 with duration of 2 years, and it was funded by the EU Programme ERASMUS+. Partnership included the following 6 partners from Macedonia and Bulgaria:
– Municipality of Kochani – Lead Partner
– Municipality of Pazardzhik
– Primary School Rade Kratovche
– First Primary School Kliment Ohridski
– Association for Supporting Economic Development – Local Action Group Kochani
– Centre for Sustainability and Economic Growth
Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources (RES) and Energy Efficiency (EE) together with Environment protection (EP) represent contemporary topics which are currently a worldwide trend. Unfortunately, those topics are not very popular among students due to lack of attractiveness. However, there is a real necessity of their implementation to prevent negative influence of industrial development and more and more obvious climate changing. Municipality of Kochani and Municipality of Pazardzhik decided to make one innovative approach for their youngest inhabitants, students in primary schools, by developing a Strategic partnership through preparation of “Strategy for development of education cooperation between schools from Kochani and Pazardzhik”. The project involved also 2 pilot primary schools from the participating countries (Macedonia and Bulgaria) which participated in development of innovative teaching methods for implementing of renewable sources, energy efficiency and environmental protection, on adequate way in accordance with students age. Teacher’s training was supported by experts from Macedonia and Bulgarian NGOs from Kochani and Pazardzhik (LAG and CSEG) who have large experience in utilization of RES, EE and EP as well as great practical experience in implementation of Open Education Resources (OER) for educational purposes.
There were two main target groups for trainings:
Group No. 1: Teachers from Pilot Primary schools in Kochani and Pazardzhik that were teaching students of age from 7 to 10 years old
Group No. 2: Teachers from Pilot Primary schools in Kochani and Pazardzhik that were teaching biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics to students of age from 11 to 14 years
Both groups were trained on RES, EE & EP by using contemporary open education resources in order to integrate those thematic fields into their educational programmes
The other specific objectives which were envisaged within the project were:
– Provide teachers with practical ideas about how to integrate RES, EE and EP into their existing lessons;
– Familiarize teachers with current Web 2.0 and Internet trends;
– Giving an opportunity for exchange of experiences and good practices among teachers coming from different countries who work in the same field;
– Improving teamwork skills through the use of ICT in promotion of RES and EE;
– Sharing of best practice in teaching and learning with colleagues from other primary schools in Kochani and Pazardzhik
Targets which were achieved within the project included over 900 students from the two Pilot Primary schools that were presently studying with increased knowledge on EE, RES and EP by using contemporary OER, as well as all future students from the primary schools in the two municipalities could take advantage of the ECO-EDU approach.