Hong Kong-EU School Project

Green Living and Sustainability in the Community

4 De c emb e r 2 01 4

PROJECT OUTLINE
The e-project will connect school classes from different European cities with school
classes in Hong Kong on the topic of Green living and sustainability in the community.
Students of the selected schools will:
Familiarize themselves with European Union and Hong Kong-initiatives on green
living and sustainability
Evaluate their own communities in terms of sustainability
Collaborate with each other on environmental projects and actions
Present their green living community project to an international audience
Compete to be the EUs Best Sustainability Ambassadors

PROJECT PARTNERS
The project is supported by:

The European Union Academic Programme, Hong Kong

The European Studies Programme Hong Kong Baptist University
The Institute of English Studies, Leuphana University, Lneburg, Germany
The ConsulatesGeneral of participating countries in Hong Kong

THEMES
The participants will learn about and work on the following topics:
What is sustainability?
How does the EU support sustainable living?
How does your own city/government support sustainable living?
What can you do to support sustainable living in your community?
ACTIVITIES
The project will provide a variety of audio-visual and reading resources in English
language relating to the above themes on BLACKBOARD, which is an open source
online learning management system. Students will be able to share and exchange their
ideas on the platform using discussion forums and blogs.

QUESTIONS
1. How will it work exactly?
The project will have three phases:
I. Gathering Knowledge: Learning about sustainability
Teachers and students will use the resources on BLACKBOARD to understand the
concept of sustainability and sustainable living. They will be introduced to best practices
from HK and European cities on sustainable and green living. Teachers will guide and
help students to complete the tasks in this phase.
II. Research Task: How green is my community?
Tasks:
Each group of students will choose one of the four topics on the BLACKBOARD
platform and organize themselves in working units to learn more about the
challenges to sustainable living in their own communities.
They will conduct small research tasks such as:
Answering simple questions through discussions on forums
Reading comprehensions
News & articles summaries
Short pieces of writing allowing them to explore their independent ideas
Reflection and observation of the habits of neighbours, friends and family

Teachers:
Teachers will play an advisory role in helping and making sure students work to the
schedule and submit tasks according to the times set out in the programme.
They will not need to know the individual topics in advance and in-depth as we have
created content that will carefully guide the students forwards throughout the tasks.
Should coordinate with the EUAP team if there are any issues/questions/feedback
III. Independent Project: Towards green living in the community
In this final phase, students will form cross-cultural groups (Europe + Hong Kong) and
develop ideas to implement sustainable living within their community. Examples of such
ideas are: to convince more people to avoid plastic bags, to use the air-conditioner for
fewer hours per week, to set up little roof-top gardens, etc. Students will document their
project in the form of a blog.
The most successful project in terms of idea and implementation would be awarded an
EU-Certificate as the Best Sustainability Ambassador and will be invited to present their
project on Europe Day 9th May 2015 at the EU-Mission of their city in front of delegates
of the EU and the member states. Additional prizes will be announced at a later stage.

2. How long will the project last?

The first teacher training workshop will take place on Thursday 18 December 2014,
17:30-19:30. It will be decided if subsequent workshops will be held.
The three phases of the project will be completed in 8 weeks of the spring term
(February-April 2015).
Phase I: 3 weeks
Phase II: 2 weeks
Phase III: 3 weeks
The Best Sustainability Ambassadors will be announced at the beginning of May.

3. What will we do for you?

Prepare the learning materials
Provide you with all the help and support you need BEFORE and DURING all
phases of the programme, in order to facilitate the smooth running of the tasks
Hold workshop(s) for teachers on using the materials and resources on the
BLACKBOARD platform
Provide assessment methods if you decide to integrate the project in your
assessment for the subject
Read and reply to your feedback at least weekly
Continuously monitor and support the BLACKBOARD platform, answering any
questions or difficulties experienced by participating teachers and/or students
BLACKBOARD PREVIEW:

4. What do you need to do?

Find a group of 10-20 students and 1 Teacher-Mentor per group: 1 local school
group will be paired up with 1 European school group. Each school group will
then be divided into smaller working units of ideally 2-3 HK and 2-3 European
students, for the purpose of simultaneous projects and online coordination.
Prepare one session of 90 minutes every week for 8 weeks (allocation of working
hours is flexible)
Mentor students and guide them through the online materials
Prepare computers/ iPads with internet connection for each participating students
N.B. No prior knowledge will be needed for teachers to carry out the project.
During the class, teachers will be facilitating discussion and guiding students
through the tasks, with materials and guidelines provided by us
We ask teachers to send us a short weekly feedback of the class for us to keep
track of progress
5. Who can participate in Hong Kong?
14-18 years old secondary school students
Students with high English proficiency (who will be able to express themselves
through conversation and writing, and understand main ideas of complex text)
Motivated students, willing to take up challenges
6. What can the students gain?
More in-depth and practical knowledge on environmental & sustainability issues
Experience in developing independent and innovative ideas
Better English language skills
Observation and reflective skills through research in the community
Communication skills by interacting with European students
Intercultural experiences by interacting with European students
Technical skills of using online tools for learning
7. What are the ideal subjects to integrate this project into?
Liberal Studies
Personal, Social and Humanities Education (PSHE)
Moral and Civic Education
Integrated Humanities / Social Studies / Life and Society
Geography
English