"Project North Wind - South Sun"

Language aims
a) to be able to use the vehicular language (English) in its written and oral forms effectively
b) to acquire a basic knowledge of the language of the partner country (Italian / Norwegian).

Cultural aims
a) to know the socio-cultural identities of the two countries involved in the project
b) to know some features of the links between school education and the world of work in the local areas of the respective European regions
c) to go into, understand and appreciate different ways of life, common or peculiar values
d) to develop values of understanding, tolerance and respect towards different cultures and ways of thinking
e) to realize experiences of active European citizenship through language learning and experiences of cooperative learning with students from another country
f) to be able to search the Web for information and communication purposes
g) to be able to communicate in diversified forms
h) to compare – through debate and fact-finding research in such a strategic field for Europe and future generations as the field of power sources – the views of young people living at different latitudes.

Expected impact
- on the students
- Improvement and consolidation of their competence in the vehicular language (English).
- Familiarity with another European language.
- Wider knowledge of the cultural identity of the partner country.
- Increased competence in the use of information and communication technology.
- Comparison and widening of competence in the field of alternative power sources.

- on the teachers
- Exchange of education modules concerning the field of alternative power sources.
- Collection of "best practices" through the cooperation between schools in different countries.
- Possible reconsideration of their educational methodology through criteria of multidisciplinary.
- Enrichment of their professional experience through the comparison with different European Educational Projects& School Curricula.

- on the participating schools and the local communities
The experience of mutual knowledge which will originate from the meeting of the two cultures will have a positive impact on the local community in terms of comparison, enrichment, real opening up to Europe and to different ways of living and working. It will represent a precious opportunity for an area which has always been characterized by abroad-oriented businesses, trade, tourism and service exchanges, also thanks to the dissemination of the Project contents and activities on the Internet through the school web sites and exhibitions.
Especially significant will be the comparison between the Educational Projects of the participating schools – which are typologically similar – as regards the problems concerning the links between the school institution, the territory and the world of work.

The widening of the competencies and the useful comparison of the points of view on the need, the opportunities and the methodology for using alternative power
sources will represent an opportunity for educational growth.


2. The project, which will last one year, is composed of five different phases:

First phase: activities preparatory to the exchange (September 2004)
a) acquisition of the grounding in the language of the partner country;
b) technical preparation for the exchange.

Second phase: first exchange
(11 - 24 October 2004: Italian students in Norway)
a) personal contact with the foreign partners;
b) acquisition of a basic knowledge of the language of the partner country;
c) planning and first implementation phase of the Research Project on the use of Alternative Power Sources in their respective regions to be carried out with the teachers’ collaboration during the school year 2004/2005;
d) practical demonstrations in the school department where alternative power sources and their applications are studied;
e) visits to local plants where these power sources are used;
f) cultural visits to towns and especially important institutions;
g) comparison and joint reflection on the products to be realized or in progress;
h) comparison and debate over the lifestyles in the two countries.

Third phase: Project prosecution in parallel (24 October 2004 - 2 April 2005)
a) development of the Project in parallel;
b) communication between groups of students on videoconference (monthly) or by email;
c) technical preparation for the exchange.

Fourth phase: second exchange
(3-16 April 2005: Norwegian students in Italy)
a) personal contact with the foreign partners;
b) acquisition of a basic knowledge of the language of the partner country;
c) practical demonstrations in the school department where alternative power sources and their applications are studied;
d) visits to local plants where these power sources are used (AMGA S.p.A – electric company, Progetto dell’Assessorato per l’Ambiente della Provincia di Udine);
e) final development phase, checking and evaluation of the end product;
f) cultural visits to towns and especially important institutions;
g) comparison and debate over the lifestyles in the two countries.

Fifth phase: implementation and publication of the end product
(18 April 2005 - June 2005)
a) implementation in the electronic format and publication of the end product;
b) analysis of results and exhibitions.

4. Evaluation
In the course of the activities teachers and participants will evaluate the overall impact of the Project through periodic plenary meetings (with the participation of all the components of the Project itself: students, teachers, staff of the schools involved) and the drawing-up of a logbook of the activities in progress. Balance and final report are scheduled for June 2005.

5. The dissemination
of the Project results and end products includes the publication of paper material and of an extensive documentation of the Project activities on the web sites of the participating schools and on the Project home page, besides the publication of the hypertext and the video documents on the Internet.

6. The Project framework, which ranges from language knowledge to cultural aspects and technical knowledge, will promote the participation of female and male pupils and staff.
As the Project aims primarily at promoting the contacts and meeting of students coming from two regions of our continent, which are not only geographically distant, but differ also in their histories and ways of thinking, it will definitely contribute to combat racism and ethnic prejudice, in the direction of actual European integration.
Within the scope of the Project in Italian, Norwegian and English, the presentation of the features peculiar to the Friulian language, the dialect of Veneto and the minority languages present in the province of Udine may represent a very good example of language integration in a small European area.

7. The schools participating in the Project will collaborate on an equal footing as regards the Project planning, organization and implementation. The Project activities, which have been devised so that they may be absolutely specular in the two partner countries, will be carried out in parallel during the First and the Third phases (see point 2) and jointly during the Second and the Fourth ones (ibidem).
In particular, Malignani Institute will be in charge of the implementation of the Project home page and the hypertext, of the contacts with the Italian institutions and the cultural and sectorial visits in Italy, while the Haram vidaregåande skule will provide the material for the Project home page and the hypertext and will be in charge of the contacts and the cultural and sectorial visits in the Norwegian country.
Finally, both schools will be in charge of the welcome and the stay of the foreign students in Italy and Norway.

8. The use of information and communication technology represents the competence and the essential tool for the productive implementation of the Project.
During the whole Second phase contacts and communication between the groups of students (in the vehicular language) - the primary aim of the Project - will be made possible only thanks to this mode of communication. Also in the field of the research activities, cultural, general and specific to the subjects involved, surfing the Internet will supply an extensive collection of information, sources and material for the Project formulation and production.

9. The students’ active participation in the Project will be wide and responsible: after the participants in the Project have been chosen, they will become an integral part of a teamwork which will involve them in all the implementation and evaluation phases through frequent meetings. Besides, the students will write reports documenting their own evaluations of the Project activities.

10. As the Project aims at the consolidation of the language competence and the expert use of information and communication technology through the closer examination of one of the topics studied in the vocational subjects, it is fully functional to the logic of the students’ courses of study in both participating schools.
The two schools are similar as to their teaching typology and educational methodology: the Norwegian school “steers” its educational profiles towards the vocational subjects through cooperative learning and a close collaboration with the local industries; the Italian school, a technical industrial institute including several specializations, “gauges” its curricula in the direction of the integration of scientific/technological knowledge with the knowledge connected with information and communication technology and the consolidation of language competence, in the English language in particular. In fact it has been experimenting the teaching of scientific/technical subjects and humanities by using English as a vehicular language for over ten years (CLIL Project).

11. As regards the preparation in the target language, the Italian students will have the opportunity to avail themselves of Norwegian classes (10 hours) organized in collaboration with the Cultural Department of the Norwegian Embassy in Rome; more classes for another 10 hours will be given by the partner school during the exchange in Norway. The competence level to be reached will give the students a sufficient command of the language which will make it possible for them to face everyday life situations.
As regards the language competence in the vehicular language (English), it is possible to rely on what the students have already acquired through the school teaching of the language and the additional competence developed with the CLIL Project.
A course in Italian will be given to the Norwegian students for 10 hours in Norway and another course will be given by an Italian teacher (10 hours) at Malignani Institute during the exchange in Italy.

12. During their visit to the partner school the students will be given hospitality by the families both in Udine and in Brattvåg, which will let them come into contact with aspects of everyday life in the host country and:
a) will present their pieces of work and compare them with the local students’ ones in teamwork and workshops;

b) will participate in moments of reflection and debate over the progress of the Project and its further development and highlight its possible strengths and weaknesses;

c) will have the opportunity to propose the closer examination of the themes which have emerged from the Project work.

The students who have specific technical, linguistic or cultural competencies will share them with the others.


More information will follow later ...


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