Europe ushers in a green year, with never seen before investments to redevelop our approach to the planet: LOOP, a project co-financed by the European Commission in the context of the strategic partnerships KA2, is in perfect time to sail from the Island of Cyprus and reach Italy and Croatia, involving over 160 students from these countries, on the topics of sustainability, circular economy and SDG's 2030.
The first meeting of the Erasmus+ LOOP project, Living Opportunities for Our Planet, was held on January the 16th and 17th 2020 in Limassol, Cyprus. The three-year project will let the students of 8 classes collaborate remotely, through innovative digital teaching methods, and physically, with experiences of transnational mobility.
Girls and boys, under the guidance of their teachers and specialized tutors provided by the partners (FEEM, CivicaMente, ENI, the latter figure as a private endorser of the project), and helped by a specifically designed online platform to support all their activities, will have to develop audiovisual documentation projects through a three-year process divided in stages: their vision of sustainability and circular economy, in particular for the territories where they live and study, will be the thematic focus to follow.
During the Cyprus meeting, the partners took the opportunity for a preliminary socialization, which soon gave way to close sessions of managing and planning. Thanks to Professor Lidia Hrncevic, of the Department of Mining, Geology and Oil Engineering in the University of Zagreb, all the partners' representatives could acknowledge the complexity of the content framework, what can reasonably be transferred to students, and what , on the part of these, can be demanded.
Dr. Tiziano Fazzi, CEO and representative of CivicaMente, the partner in charge of the technological facilitation aspects of the project, examined during the morning session what the overall development of the project will be, while during the afternoon session, he clarified all the characteristics and functions of the online platform.
Representing FEEM - Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, the technical-scientific, but also organizational partner, Dr. Floriana Nappini informed all participants on the administrative characteristics of the initiative, and on how to take care of it throughout the course of the project, correctly implementing the reporting of the activities carried out.
Representing the leading partner school, the Cypriot institute A 'Technical School in Limassol, Professor Yiannos Kouzarides, collaborating with Professor Myrto Pouangare (OmodosGymnasioum Lyceum), made sure that the agreed partners not only could enjoy a smooth organization of the work sessions, but also a warm welcome for everything that happened around them, with pleasant convivial moments and visits to the best local wineries.
Now the LOOP Erasmus+ ship has set sail, and it will be up to the students to demonstrate their value, between European mobility programs, flipped-classroom sessions, digital meetings and the creation of documentary projects to better understand circular economy, our territory under this aspect, and also to imagine a better future.
