The main objectives of the project are:

• to understand how true Socrates´ words were:” There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance”.

• to provide pupils with a cultural window to other countries e.g. to give the idea of joint responsibility in order to help combat racism.

• to cope with life.

• to give the idea of joint responsibility.

• to develop sensibility about consuming and to increase the pupils awareness of responsible consuming.

• to become aware of one’s rights and obligations as consumers.

• to impact the things learned during the project in everyday life by acting responsibly in consuming.

• to learn about the basic food groups, the basic nutrients as well as vitamins and minerals to fuel their inner healing force to enable the body to action up to its fullest potential.

• to have a clear idea of the components of a healthy diet.

• to learn to use senses (smell, taste, sight and hearing) in all parts of the project, for example in order to choose/ select the healthy, tasty and balanced foods.

• to make pupils carry out their own projects to inform people around them e.g. parents, peers, other schools.

• to encourage pupils to use new technologies and foreign languages.

Main Activities and the end products of the project. Impact on the participating pupils, teachers and institutions.

All the participating schools have worked towards the jointly agreed aims according to the plan in the application keeping in mind the object of promoting consumer education, good consuming habits and the environmental things. 

Finland as the coordinating school has worked on the formats and patterns to be discussed and carried out and made a power point show on them. Every country has done by given dates what has been planned. All the partners have kept diaries and made cd:s  on what they have done in their schools. The cd:s were  presented and delivered to the partner countries at the meeting in Finland in April 2005.

In addition Turkey has made a poster as an end product. Greece has prepared two questionnaires, the 1^st (made by the pupils) concerns pupils’ nutrition habits and the 2^nd (made in cooperation with ‘EKPOIZO’, Consumer association “The quality of life”) concerns pupils’ information on consumers’ rights.

In all the countries 100 pupils had done the questionnaires on eating habits and on consumer protection by the meeting in Finland.  Greece and also Finland had worked beforehand on some ideas for the patterns of the graphics.

The graphics will be done during computer classes by pupils and they will be sent to the partner countries to be put on the consumer corner next autumn.

As for the environmental education, in all the countries pupils have made excursions e.g. to a dumping area, to water treatment works, to an erosion area or to study some traditional plants and natural products (e.g. the mastics of Chios) The processed results have been disseminated to the pupils in the school and also parents and other people outside school as well as the partner schools mainly through the consumer corners.

 Each school has found either a corner or a classroom for the consumer corner with a cultural window inside the school according to the plan.

In Italy and Turkey pupils have made some suggestions for the cover of the cookery book. Finland as the coordinator has promised to take photos of the suggested covers to be sent to partner countries so that pupils in each school could vote for the best cover next year.

In all the countries the traditional recipies for the first year have been chosen, the food helpings have been prepared, photographed and presented to partner countries on cd:s. In the meetings both in Athens and in Kolari the dishes have been tasted by the partners; by some pupils, parents and teachers in the “international parties”.

In all the countries healthy food helpings have been put on show. The amount of salt, sugar and fat has been focussed in the helpings.

The communication between the partner schools have been lively: 52 e-mails and 5 faxes between the schools in the autumn by 18^th of December 2004, 91 e-mails and 1 fax in the spring term by 12^th of May 2005.

Also pupils have started sending e- mails and mobile phone messages to each other after the teachers´ meeting in Athens, where each country received files and lists of e-mail addresses from Finland and Turkey. After the meeting in Finland where 14 pupils, 9 from Turkey and 5 from Italy were accommodated in families the contacts have been increased enormously.

Athens, November 2004

Three teachers from Finland, two from Italy, three from Turkey and seven from Athens (the principal, the Greek coordinator and the other teachers of the pedagogical team of the school) had a project meeting in Athens, Greece  on  the 22nd- 26^th of November in 2004. The Finnish coordinator had sent the agenda for working and also some questions for the partners to answer and think about before the meeting so that the meeting would be useful and effective. 

The coordinating school presented the power point show concerning the formats and patterns for the working tools: the consumer corner, the cookery book, the excursions, the-mail-partners and competitions etc.  They also showed what Finnish pupils had done in the autumn by the time of the meeting.  Also Finnish nature, the four seasons in Finland and the climate were shown through some pictures in the show. 

The participants were able to visit the Department of Dietetics and Nutritional Science in  Haropokio University. They also met  the president of ‘EKPOIZO’and had a discussion with her about the consumers’ education and the ways the results of the  questionnaire can be disseminated They got acquainted with Pelopponese on a one-day trip by visiting the city of Nauplio and the ancient Theatre of Epidauros , the surroundings and  the museum there.

They had also an opportunity to attend a guided tour in the historical centre of Athens: Akropolis and the Archaeological Museum.

Kolari, April 2005

In April 16^th-22^nd, 2005  there was a project meeting in Kolari, Finland attended by 2 teachers and 5 pupils from Italy, 3 teachers and 9 pupils from Turkey and 5 teachers from Greece (1 of whom through headmaster programme).

The main themes of the meeting were:

1. Evaluation of the past year

Discussion about how the chosen tools: the consumer corner, the cookery book, e-mails, pupils contacts, evaluation etc had worked

2. Reporting on the past year

 “Homework” topics were discussed

3. Future plans travelling to Turkey and the topics of   the future meeting in Konya.      

Agendas and memories have been made on all the meetings.

The first meeting in Finland was opened by a morning assembly attended by the guests, all the pupils and teachers of the school, the pupils and teachers of the Special school, the evaluation group with the leading headmaster and the chairman of the educational and cultural board. The representatives of the partner countries presented, mostly by power point shows, what they had done and how they had carried out the jointly made plans in their schools.

The guest teachers had an opportunity to attend classes in Kolari  Comprehensive school and visit the special school for slow learners.   

In Finland the guests visited a reindeer farm in Venejärvi, the Ylläs area, a Finnish winter sports recreation centre and a spa there. They also took part in winter sport activities  in the school surroundings  arranged by the members of the  pupils´ body and other pupils and teachers of the school.

How did you evaluate the progress and execution of the project during the  period?

Finland has 2 evaluation groups: one inside school and then a bigger group with representatives outside school. The Finnish group consists of teachers and  pupils and the bigger group in addition  the leading headmaster, a representative of the other staff in school, a representative of Forest research Institute,  the head of  entrepreneurs and the chief of the Educational and cultural board in Kolari.

The smaller group has had meetings when necessary, the bigger group has had 2 meetings one in autumn and the other one while Finland hosted the meeting.

The evaluating and planning has been done through discussions.

In Greece  the Comenius paedagogical team, consisted of 7 teachers has worked actively towards the jointly agreed aims according to the plan made by all partner schools. The progress and the execution of the project was evaluated by the teachers in several steps of the process in order to the aims of the programme be achieved.

The Greeks had had an agenda for each meeting to discuss and plan and after that they had evaluated whether students had obtained new knowledge and changed their attitudes. For that purpose short questionnaires were given to pupils so that the results could be checked.

In Turkey: A Comenius expert from The Turkish  National Agency visited the school in March 2005 to monitor the activities in the project and informed  that things were going well.

The Turkish evaluation group with the teachers working actively in the project have  had regular meetings. They have also had agendas for each meeting to discuss and plan.

The Turkish team are planning to include a representative from Consumers Association in Konya

In Italy the evaluation group have had one meeting so far. They will have a final meeting at the end of school year (end of May) with the whole teachers´staff, the headmaster, the pupils who came to Finland, 2 representatives of parents and 1 representative involved in education from municipality.

How did you disseminate the results and experiences of the project amongst the different parties?     

All the countries have informed  pupils, parents, their local partnership schools and other people around them e.g. through morning assemblies, discussions, letters, meetings, brochures, through local or provincial papers, Turkey also through local radio and  tv , websites.  The consumer corner has been an effective  way of disseminating information as well as the information pupils have given to their parents and peer groups .

Main difficulties faced during the project (e.g. in relation to the institution, to the pupils, to the teachers).

Lack of the time to work on the project , partly on extra curriculum hours. Technical problems with internet and e-mails as far as students communication is concerned. Too much work, especially paper work for the coordinators.

How are you planning to continue the cooperation after the project?

Schools could continue cooperating with each other on different subjects. Pupils should go on communicating with each other. They could publish/ prepare a joint newspaper to exhibit in “the cultural windows” There might be school visits once a year. The far partners could also start brother/ sister school to keep their relations in the future.