Project title: “Making learning fun and ecological”
Project Acronym: MLFE
Project start date: 01.07.2020
Duration: 12 months
Project end date: 30.06.2021/31.08.2021 (postpone/ covid-19)
Project number: 2020-1-МK01-KA205-077462
Coordinator of the project
Civil Society Organization Eco Logic – Macedonia
Partner Organizations
- Center for research & education Synthesis – Cyprus
- Energetska agencija za Podravje Energap – Slovenia
Context/Background
As young people are facing high unemployment rates and possible climate disaster, it is important that they feel empowered and like they can make a difference and contribute towards a better and more sustainable community. This project aims to develop and introduce innovation into learning and teaching materials on the topic of social entrepreneurship, linking it to environmental and climate matters and to other valuable skills, while using gamification and making learning materials freely available in an online platform. This is a project about providing innovative, open and free learning and teaching resources.
The goal is to introduce young people to entrepreneurship social entrepreneurship in general (with mentions of current policies in Europe regarding youth unemployment and social enterprises), while also increasing awareness on environmental and climate matters, teaching valuable skills. Such will be done through making materials available online (in a printable format), which use gamification practices, including a board game.
Objectives
A principal objective of the project is to promote entrepreneurship and creative learning and social entrepreneurship among young people by way of providing the material that has been shown in our experience to enable young people to think through the issues and challenges of their day-to-day.
Leading them to discuss and work together in such a way that they become more active in their local community with social entrepreneurship, and also contextualize and think of such issues in a trans-national manner.
This project will lead young people to actively participate in building and improving the communities they live in, all the while introducing the concept of social entrepreneurship; through which they could possibly be self-employed, or even employ others in the community. Additionally, this learning experience using innovative and gamied learning and teaching activities, high attention will be given to reaching out to young people on their level and discussing their ideas. The emphasis will be on entrepreneurship within a context of environment and sustainability.
Activities and Methodology
The methodology proposed in this project will lead to increased awareness on environmental and climate-change related challenges. The materials made available on the platform will promote lifestyle practices that are environmentally friendly and sustainable (with a focus on bicycling as a means of transportation) and increase the users’ awareness and embolden them to become more active in environmental causes, in taking action and being entrepreneurial towards the challenges.
An innovative online platform for young people, wherever they are, to learn about social entrepreneurship, while becoming further aware of ecological and climate matters, and learning valuable job market skills. The innovation lies in this approach towards how to engage with young people and to promote and empower them on several aspects at the same time, all thanks to one online platform. The impact will be felt with the young people that use the platform and are targeted by the workshops and other learning events carried out throughout the project.
The platform will be populated by a numerous materials with the aforementioned learning focus, namely:
- 1 board game (a tabletop game oriented towards target group, but also appropriate for other ages);
- exercises (exercises both individual and group for use by the youth, in different contexts);
- after-school activities (group and individual activities for students to carry out in after-school spaces administered by schools or other organizations);
- lesson plans (complete lesson plans for use by educators with students).
All of the aforementioned materials, including the board game, have been designed so that they can be easily printed and used by anyone that visits the online platform.
- Workshops, trainings and other learning sessions will be carried out with the materials under development, to the benefit of hundreds of youths and some dozens of educators.
Results and impact
This is a project wherein it is expected that hundreds of young people (including socio-economically marginalised) will have the opportunity to be directly involved in innovative learning and teaching related to improvement of various environmental and sustainability issues in relation to social entrepreneurship methodology. Apart from the youths, it is expected that more than teachers, educators, youth workers and or volunteers will be directly involved in the project through participation in the workshops and testing of the platform.
The project will introduce entrepreneurship social entrepreneurship. Additionally this pillar will inform the users about the EU funding possibilities in relation to the topics. It will also promote discussion on environmental and climate issues in society, environmental issues and their potential from an economic and social point of view, and social business models as potential solutions. Furthermore, as Eco Logic and the partners will organize several workshops in various settings and with different target groups, the participants will have a chance to discuss and develop models for their own potential social enterprises tackling environmental and sustainability issues in different communities. The organizations involved will do their utmost to foster such results and to help them develop and promote their idea so that it can possibly come to fruition.
