Europe Diverse and United – tools and strategies for strenghtening European values from an early age

The Flash Eurobarometer 478 (2019) and Youth Survey 2021 show that young people are interested in current EU affairs but tend to avoid political activities as they do not feel they have an adequat...

EDU aimed to have a direct and indirect impact on multiple levels on the current young generations and in turn the future voters and civil participants of the EU. The main aim of EDU was to increase the awareness, knowledge and interest of young teens (10-14 years old) in Europe's diverse and rich culture and history as well as their interest and understanding of the European Union, its functionality and impact on its citizens. The main, direct and immediate impact of EDU is to educate its target group and equip them with the skills and materials to be more proactive in learning about the EU and events and activities they can participate in currently and in the future, indirectly increasing future civic engagement. Fostering a sense of European community is also important in combating discrimination. EDU aimed to develop materials which embrace the beauty of other cultures and help the target group view diversity in a positive light. Negative opinions form from prejudices of other cultures and identity so it is imperative to educate as early as possible as to avoid future division based on misconceptions. By educating the target group about the diversity of Europe EDU aims to decrease future discrimination.

The project materials are both educative and interactive and cover two of the EU’s most important pillars: its culture and its history, as well as they will provide a wealth of additional general knowledge about the current EU. The developed materials teach the children about the cultural diversity that can be found in Europe, acceptance and understanding of other cultures, as well as Europe’s history. They cover the creation of the European Union, the drivers behind it, the changes it underwent in the past decades and the changes it made in the lives of its citizens. The games that accompany each module are useful for the children to practice what they have learned in an engaging and entertaining manner. The 'European Integration Resource Tool' serves as a perfect source for all information about the EU and Europe so that the children do not have to go through numerous websites to find the information they need, instead, they will be able to easily access the EDU project website and they will find information of the European Union itself as well as all Member States. This resource tool is truly innovative as it will be designed with children in mind and it will be user friendly and visually attractive. Additionally, it should be acknowledged that there is an existing EUROPA portal which is a very good point of information about the EU - however, it does not meet the needs of this project target group as it is not developed with children users in mind.

The project developed the materials as set out in each project result. The first material to be developed was the EDU teacher's manual for the implementation of the EDU learning approach. The manual is split into three chapters: 1. Pedagogical guide for teachers and on-site facilitators which contains different learning approaches which can be useful when presenting the EDU materials 2. Teaching Methodology which focuses of learning activities and provides templates as to help them develop their own. This is useful in conjunction with the EDU materials as it promotes activities through which the target audience can practice what they've learned and test their knowledge, further engraving the new information 3. Useful Content Library which provides educators with different types of resources such as games, brochures, lesson plans and more which can be used either independently or as add-ons to the modules and will help students practice the knowledge they have acquired through the rest of the materials and help them further absorb it The EDU manual was develop as the first step and introduction for educators to the rest of the EDU materials so that they can gain a deeper understanding of the module objectives. The EDU training platform was developed in conjunction with the project website and then integrated into it so that all actors interested in the project can have a singular point of referral for all project information and materials. By setting it up this way the aim is for the website to first introduce the need behind EDU and its objectives and then present the materials which are free and available to use. The platform was developed as to be user-friendly so that both educators and young children can make use of it with minimal digital literacy. The second project output are the EDU modules which were developed to target both the educators as well as the children. Each module is composed of a PDF, a PowerPoint and an accompanying activity. The PDFs are developed as syllabuses for the educators and as such the languages used is of a higher level. They provide more in-depth information on each module such as the target group, the estimated time to present the module, resources for the materials, and the topics which the presentations cover. This was done for that the teachers have a full understanding of what they will teach the target group. The presentation were developed to eb directly shown to children and have therefore been developed in a fun and engaging manner with a balance of text, images, videos and other visual aids as to keep the children engaged in the material. The main three module topics are: - EU History - EU/European Culture - EU/European General Knowledge These topics were chosen as to address the main objectives of EDU which is educating young children on the forming, functioning and activities of the EU, as well as promoting the multi-cultural environment of Europe as to foster open-mindedness and acceptance of our diverse but united nature. The History module is accompanied by Kahoot quizzes where teachers can test what their students have learned during the lesson. These quizzes have proven to be quite successful during their testing stage and at EDU multiplier events where they have been tested directly on students. Students founds them very fun and were eager to participate in friendly competition. The European Culture module is accompanied by a scavenger hunt in the form of a 'travel journal' where students were given a list of local monuments to visit, foods to try and activities to engage in from each of the partner countries (Greece, Poland, Italy, Belgium). These can be used by educators during school trips and promote each country's cultural landmarks. The General Knowledge module is accompanied by an online board game which can be found on the project training platform and can be played in all partner languages. The board game is set up as a trivia board game with the following categories: history, geography, traditions, art/music, general knowledge, EU. The players each get assigned a token and must build an assigned famous monument by correctly guessing questions from their chosen category. The last project output developed the lesson plans and the resource tool. The lesson plans were developed to aid educators in presenting materials from different areas and provide resource, information and tools they can use. The resource tool is a singular source of information on The EU and its Member States, making it easier for the target group to find all necessary information in one place.