Main objective of the project: INNOVATION

Project Title _ WILD! The Wild Garden for Learning and Development

Project Acronym _ WILD! 2019-1-IT02-KA201-063227

Project Start Date _ 01-12-2019

Project End Date _ 31-05-2022

Project Total Duration _ 30 months

National Agency of the Applicant Organisation _ IT02 Agenzia Nazionale Erasmus+ - INDIRE

Echipa proiect UPIT

Coordonator partener/Manager: conf. univ. dr. Adriana Lazar

Cercetatori: conf. univ. dr. Claudiu Langa, conf. univ. dr. Gabriela Petruta, conf. univ. dr. Delia
Duminica, conf. univ. dr. Loredana Tudor, conf. univ. dr. Magdalena Stan, lect. univ. dr. Luiza Sarbu

Manager Scoala Gimnaziala Al Davila Pitesti: prof. inv. Primar. Florentina Tudorache

Project Summary:

According to the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 (2018 / C 189/01), Member States should
promote the acquisition of skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), taking
into account the links with arts, creativity and innovation, and motivate young people more.
However, international surveys such as the PISA or the OECD PIAAC indicate that a constantly high
proportion of adolescents and adults have insufficient basic skills.

This project's main objective is not only to improve the scientific expertise of the teacher and the
pupil, but also to provide an educational tool of high pedagogical value that is versatile and able to
satisfy the requirements of the teacher. This requires not only stimulating the discussion of scientific
topics, which are often difficult to convey in the classroom, but also encouraging schools to
reinvigorate how they organise the teaching of the natural sciences, using inclusive and integrative
didactic strategies to actively involve all pupils and to improve the quality of the lessons.

To achieve this goal, teaching aids have been prepared to help primary school teachers to design an
implement Wild Gardens where pupils can experiment, observe, and become directly acquainted
with the mechanisms that regulate natural ecosystems. The plants and animals in the small
ecosystem of a Wild Garden achieve a balance similar to that found in nature: these living things
carry out their lifecycles under the curious gaze of the young pupils, giving teachers the opportunity
to make learning about the natural sciences more engaging.

Participating organizations:

(Applicant) Studio Naturalistico Hyla (Italy) - Leader of the Partnership – Small and medium sized
enterprise - Environmental Education Center (EEC)

(P1) Universitatea Din Pitesti (Romania) – Higher education institution (tertiary level)

(P2) Scoala GimnazialaAlexandru Davila (Romania) – General education (primary level)

(P3) Instituto Politecnico de Castelo Branco (Portugal) – Higher education institution (tertiary level)
(P4) Associação Jardim Escola João de Deus (Portugal) – General
(P5) Uniwersytet Lodzki (Poland) – Higher education institution (tertiary level)

(P6) Foundacja Dar Edukaji (Poland) – Foundation

This project develops a methodology and didactic tools based on the natural garden (Wild Garden), a
place in which to experiment, observe, know closely the mechanisms that regulate natural
ecosystems that can be recreated in smaller school spaces.

The main objective of the project is to improve the scientific skills of the learners thanks to teaching
tools of high pedagogical value, able to respond to all the teacher's needs not only in dealing with
and stimulating the treatment of scientific topics, often difficult to illustrate in the classroom, but
also that of being able to renew the school schedule using inclusive and supplementary didactic
strategies that allow to actively involve all the pupils, with particular reference to the special needs

The WILD garden gives the opportunity to carry out teaching and cooperative learning, collaborative
problem solving between students, the formation of groups in teaching activities and the use of
alternative strategies in learning. These are important tools to design teaching aimed at providing all
students with a good learning of scientific subjects and at the same time creating aggregation and
constructive social relationships between pupils and between the teacher and pupils.

With this objective, the project will develop support materials for teaching science for primary
schools because it is precisely in this age group that the pupils' orientations can be most affected,
triggering virtuous mechanisms based on the child's curiosity to lay the necessary foundations. to
address these issues in subsequent school cycles.

Considerăm că este foarte interesantă propunerea proiectului Wild privind organizarea şi

desfăşurarea activităţilor didactice în cadrul unei gradini naturale atât pentru îmbogăţirea
vocabularului activ al elevilor din şcoala primară cu noţiuni de ştiinţe ale naturii, cât şi pentru
dezvoltarea simţului răspunderii, a dorinţei acestora de a respecta şi proteja natura.

Observarea directă a plantelor şi animalelor, a relaţiilor existente între vieţuitoare, precum şi

a relaţiilor acestora cu mediul de viaţă, va facilita înţelegerea şi însuşirea corectă de către
elevi a noţiunilor de ştiinţe ale naturii. De asemenea, realizarea unor lucrări practice sau
experimente în acest adevarat laborator viu creat în natură va contribui la formarea
capacităţii elevilor de a observa natura, precum şi a unor deprinderilor practice de lucru.

Activităţile şcolare şi/sau extraşcolare desfăşurate în aer liber vor constitui un cadru adecvat
pentru dezvolarea unor relaţii interpersonale care să stimuleze învăţarea la elevi.

Main objective of the project: INNOVATION

Project Title CLIL for Young European Citizens Project

Acronym CLIL4YEC Project

Start Date (dd-mm-yyyy) 01-09-2019

Project Total Duration 36 months

Project End Date (dd-mm-yyyy) 31-08-2022

National Agency of the Applicant Organisation IT02 Agenzia Nazionale Erasmus+ - INDIRE
Language used to fill in the form English

Coordonator partener/Manager: conf. univ. dr. Adriana Lazar

Cercetatori: conf. univ. dr. Claudiu Langa, conf. univ. dr. Delia Duminica, conf. univ. dr. Loredana
Tudor, conf. univ. dr. Magdalena Stan, lect. univ. dr. Luiza Sarbu

Manager Scoala Gimnaziala Al Davila Pitesti: prof. inv. Primar. Florentina Tudorache

“CLIL for Young European Citizens” is a strategic partnership project aimed at extending and
improving the use of Content and Language Integrated Learning in Primary Schools at the
European level, applying it to the develop of meaningful issues like European Citizenship,
Environmental awareness, and Basic Financial Education. Language learning is a major
European priority and, in particular, "The European Commission promotes language learning
and linguistic diversity across Europe. It is working with national governments to meet an
ambitious goal: enabling citizens to learn at least two foreign languages from an early age.
This goal was agreed by EU Heads of State and Government in 2002 already. The same
objective was emphasized in December 2017: "enhancing the learning of languages, so that
more young people will speak at least two European languages in addition to their mother
tongue". (https://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/multilingualism/about-multilingualism-
policy_en) CLIL has proved to be very effective to this end, and is indeed becoming known
and used in Education, even in the context of Primary School, where specific methods have
to be applied, thanks also to EU funded projects like "CLIL for Children". Several analysis
underline that CLIL leads to greater intercultural awareness (Coyle, D., Hood, P., and Marsh,
D. 2010, CLIL, Cambridge, CUP; Coyle, D. Holmes. B. and King, L. 2009, Towards an
integrated curriculum: CLIL national statement and guidelines, London, The Languages
Company.) and is “a tool to explore and construct meaning” in a “a meaningful context”. With
CLIL “learners can engage in deeper learning about themselves and others, and, at the
same time, experience the process from the perspective of their counterparts” (Ena Harrop,
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL): Limitations and possibilities, Encuentro,
21, 2012; Coffey, S. 2005 Content-based learning, in Cerezal, F. (ed.) De la Práctica a la
Teoría: Reflexiones sobre la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de inglés. pp.49-62. Alcalá de
Henares: Universidad de Alcalá). Although the implementation of CLIL in Primary Education
is ever becoming more widespread all throughout Europe (Eurydice reports 2006, 2017),
there are important areas to explore if CLIL moves a step forward from integration with
curricular subjects to cross-curricular and intercultural education for European Citizenship
and the development of key competences and basic skills. In particular, the project focuses
on three topics: European citizenship (the main institutions and their role, the relevance of an
inter-cultural approach, basic common rights, mobility, etc.), Environment (every-day actions
for environment protection and preservation, main European programs against
environmental pollution, the role of the removable energies, etc.), Basic Financial Education
(the purpose of the money, the value of an object, and the value of the work, basic elements
about the circular economy linked to environmental preservation, the basic concepts of
marketplace, of the banks' activities, etc. ). 18 specific lesson plans will be developed for
CLIL, task based learning and parents involvment. Just for example, the lesson plans can
explain, describe and propose tasks about basic notions of financial education such as the
use of an ATM, the pros and cons of a card, what is a bank account, the purpose of money;
or the production of some objects in the classroom (and then sell these objects, calculating
the price of materials and what is a financial profit); or - for what it concerns the European
citizenship and the multicultural education - the schoolchildren can work on the origin or
ancestors, i.e. the customs and traditions of the culture of each child, involving parents in
getting some products such as food or other typical products. Moreover the complex use of
digital media can help increase the digital competence of Primary School teachers and
pupils. The project’s target groups are: * Primary School's Teachers; * Primary Schools; *
Primary School's Pupils; * Parents & Families of Primary School's Pupils; * Trainers of
Primary School's Teachers; * Universities, Language Schools and other organization that
specialize in training Primary School's Teachers.

What results are expected during the project and on its completion?

The project will produce seven Intellectual Outputs addressed at the aforementioned target
groups: * O1 is a research report that investigates curricular provisions and best practice for
CLIL in Primary Schools in connection to relevant topics such as European, intercultural and
global Citizenship, sustainable Environmental practices and Basic Financial Education. The
findings will involve collection of data from school managers, teachers, academic and
educational professionals in Italy, Spain, Romania, Portugal and the EU in general through
bespoke survey tools; * O2 is an extensive report on existing Open Educational Resources
from all countries of the participant organisations (IT, RO, PT, ES) suitable for Primary
School English CLIL lessons and activities focused on the topics chosen for the project:
European Citizenship, Environmental Issues, Basic Financial Education. Special attention
will be given to the potential use of OERs in practices that involve children in project based
learning and in collaboration with other classes (also in other countries and with different
mother languages); * O3 is a new web multimedia repository dedicated to OER Content for
CLIL in Primary School on the topics of European Citizenship, Environmental Issues, Basic
Financial Education; * O4 is a guide that serves as a comprehensive introduction to the use
of CLIL in Primary School to develop the broad crosscurricular topics chosen for the project;
* O5 is an innovative guide that will complement O4 with a handbook on the involvement of
families in the CLIL process with special reference to European Citizenship and the other
project’s topics; * O6 is an innovative set of two e-learning courses addressed at different
target groups, Course A. CLIL4YEC Teachers’ Training eCourse (30 hours) & Course B.
CLIL4YEC Parents’ Training eCourse (10 hours); * O7 is a collection of materials addressed
to Primary School teachers who want to integrate language and content in their classroom
activities using the innovative methodologies to apply CLIL in Primary school explained in
the Guide (O4). The collection will include 18 lesson plans (36 hours) about the three topics
selected for the project. The IOs are expected to have a relevant impact on the target
groups, as detailed in the Follow-up section. A total of 2.215 participants (conservatively
estimated) will be involved outside the partnership: 1.565 teachers/researchers/professionals
(outside the partnership), 500 pupils, and 150 parents. The information about the project is
expected to reach at least 60.000 more people in the EU in 3 years (again, conservatively
estimated - the CLIL 4 Children project, for instance, reached a total of 238.962 people).

Applicant Organisation

PIC Legal name Country

951204796 GIUNTI O.S. PSYCHOMETRICS SRL Italy

Partner Organisations

The Language Center srl Italy

Direzione Didattica Todi Italy

Direzione Didattica Aldo Moro Terni Italy

INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DE CASTELO BRANCO Portugal

Agrupamento de Escolas Gardunha e XistoPortugal

UNIVERSITATEA DIN PITESTI Romania

Scoala Gimnaziala Alexandru Davila Romania

UNIVERSIDAD DE EXTREMADURA Spain

CEIP LAS VAGUADAS Spain

The Project CLIL for Young European Citizens (CLIL4YEC) promotes: i) the use of Content
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in Primary School applying it to three relevant
issues, i.e. European Citizenship, Environment Preservation, Basic Financial Education; ii)
the use of digital technology to enable teachers to find, share, and reuse Open Educational
Resources; iii) the adoption of innovative practices - designing original lesson plans - that
involve both schoolchildren and schoolchildren parents’ in the learning process, in order to a)
support European schoolchildren in becoming European Citizens, b) gain awareness of
Environmental issues, c) and develop basic Financial skills. CLIL4YEC also improves the
digital literacy of teachers and children by involving them in authentic meaningful cooperative
learning activities across geographical space in a monitored way. All the seven project’s
Intellectual Outputs are in direct connection with the chosen priorities: * O1 “CLIL and Young
European Citizens. How to use Content and Language Integrated Learning to develop
European Citizenship, Environmental awareness, and Basic Financial Education in Primary
Schoolchildren – A Report on the State of the Art”; * O2 “Census of OERs to be used for
CLIL in Primary Schools for Cross-Curricular Activities on the Topics of European
Citizenship, Environment preservation, and Basic Financial Education”; * O3 “Development
of a CLIL OER Repository with Sharing & Rating Functions”; * O4 “Guide Addressed to
Teachers on how to Use CLIL in Primary Schools for Innovative Activities on Cross-
Curricular Topics: European, Intercultural and Global Citizenship, Environment preservation,
Basic Financial Education”; * O5 “Guide Addressed to Teachers on How to Involve Pupils’
Families in CLIL Activities for European Citizenship, Environmental awareness, and Basic
Financial Education”; * O6 “eCourses Addressed to Teachers and Families on How to Use
CLIL to develop European Citizenship, Environmental awareness, and Basic Financial
Education in Primary Schoolchildren”; * O7 “CLIL Materials for Teaching on Cross-Curricular
Topics: 18 lesson plans on European, Intercultural and Global Citizenship, Environment,
Basic Financial Education”. In particular, all the aforementioned IOs address the first priority
“Promoting a comprehensive approach to language teaching and learning” with specific
reference to promotion of a more intensive and effective use of CLIL in Primary Schools in
the countries of the participating organizations (Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain) and
throughout Europe. Additionally, three IOs (O2, O3, O6) directly address the second priority
“Open education and innovative practices in a digital era”: the content repositories, the
eCourses for learning, the opportunity of sharing open educational resources and good
practices online are all digital resources for an innovative educational approach. IOs O2, O3,
O6 are in turn used and/or referenced in IOs O4, O5 and O7 that thus indirectly address the
same priority. Indeed, O4, O5 and O7 suggest teachers how to use of digital content and
social media in the classroom to make CLIL education more effective. Finally, all IOs
address the third priority “Supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and
key competences” in an innovative way, given that the interdisciplinary subject areas chosen
for integration with language learning are European Citizenship, Environmental Issues and
Basic Financial Education.