Into the Wild

“Into the Wild“ is a project about national parks and protected areas in Europe devised by schools from four European countries. Pupils between the 8th and 10th grades will be visiting different and little known national parks or protected areas and design advertising materials.It is one of the pronounced aims of the project that the pupils will learn to appreciate the significance of environmental protection as well as recognize problems of European areas lacking in infrastructure. Furthermore, the project intends to raise awareness among the students about a sustainable and careful handling of nature and its resources. In order to guarantee enough time for intercultural encounter and experience five pupils per school will be participating in each exchange. The pupils, grouped in international teams, will be researching topics such as the protection of species, biological diversity, water quality or environmentally sensitive tourism in the respective national park or protected area. There, experienced rangers will advise and support the children’s work. The pupils will have the opportunity to pre- and post-process their research during several project days so that they can get to know each other and can participate in the activities offered.The projects focusses on pupils in grades 8 to 10 as those would already be familiar with basic biological and geographical knowledge. In addition, it is desirable that pupils are convinced of the necessity of environmental protection at a young age.In order to raise and support the popularity of the national parks and protected areas, the following activities are planned: local charity events, reports in the local and regional media, publication of the results on a project website as well as the presentation of the results to communal decision makers. Furthermore, the pupils will also develop long-term products such as a tourist brochure including information on the national parks and protected areas together with rules of behaviour in all four languages involved, a board- or card game that can also be used in teaching younger pupils, an online-quiz and an interactive map. In addition, a geocache will be planted in each national park or protected area, which will be monitored even after the project has ended and which will serve to reach a wider public. Motivation will be raised by a special “challenge”: Geocoins are supposed to wander from one national park to the next.This way, the economically underdeveloped regions’ attractivity for tourists will be raised and inner-European tourism will be stimulated. Another result of the project may be – besides school partnerships – long-term partnerships between the cities or national parks involved. We are hoping that through the project the participating pupils will start regarding themselves as citizens of a united Europe, which must begin to develop shared strategies in environmental and climate protection.