Mobility in Crotone

Following the mobilities held in Zagreb and Kaunas, the 3^rd and final Learning Teaching and Training Activity (LTTA) of the CiELO Project was held in Crotone, Italy, from May 2 to May 6, 2023.

The ITI Guido Donegani, welcomed the students and teachers from the other schools participating the project: V. Gimnazija (Croatia), Domeikavos Gimnazija, (Lithuania), Liceul Teoretic Sfantu Nicolae, (Romania), as well as a delegation from the other partners: FEEM, CivicaMente, and the University of Zagreb (Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering Faculty).

The 39 students involved in the LTTA, (about 10 for each school, ITI Donegani included) were those who did a good job in the creation of the Knowledge Hubs, that had been evaluated by experts from CivicaMente, FEEM and the University of Zagreb, and also by the students themselves (the online voting performed by the students influenced the final score by 25%).

The students were involved both in “out of the classroom” activities, mainly in the mornings, and “in the classroom” activities, mainly in the afternoons, where the students were divided into five transnational groups, called Water, Air, Earth, Fire and a Mixed group.

In the classroom (the aula magna of the school), the groups carried out activities focused on the Digital Storytelling, that shifted from attending to masterclasses to the active production of text, pictures and videos in the international group, using materials collected outside the classroom.

The students participated to three masterclasses held by CivicaMente experts: 1) “VISUAL. THE STORY BEHIND” – How the pictures can have an impact when a story is narrated? What are the important elements that compose a good picture? 2) “SOCIAL – A NEW PARADIGM OF COMMUNICATION”- the ways of communicating on social media and the correlated risks (i.e. fake news, cyberbullying, etc.). 3) “WRITING. WE CALL IT… A STORY” – how to structure the writing of a story through social media.

At the end of the week each transnational group of students produced also three short videos, based on different social media formats.

The activities outside the school where very diverse and interesting, and included:

• visit to Plastilab and NET (first day). Plastilab is a company located in Crotone whose aim is to re-cycle plastic waste. From this kind of waste, they are able to produce various products, in particular urban furniture, giving plastic a “second life”. NET (Nature, Energy and Territory) is an innovation hub that stimulates the implementation of innovative projects, connecting enterprises and research centres, such as Universities. The partners participated to three interesting lectures: the first lecture was “Ac. Ca. Building – Designing and building safely with steel and hemp – Innovative technologies for environmentally sustainable buildings”, held by Mr. Giancarlo Giaquinta, from, NET Innovation Pole. The second lecture was “Flood detection system – IoT as a prevention tool”, held by Mr. Giuseppe Pellegrino, Head of Engineering Dpt ENI Southern District. Mr. Pellegrino presented the project implemented in Crotone aimed to detect potential flood disasters. The last lecture was “Technologies and best practices for a sustainable valorization of post-consumer plastics”, held by Prof. Giuseppe Chidichimo, Department of Chemistry, University of Calabria. Since there are many different types of plastic, Prof. Chidichimo explained some ways of how them could be recycled. After the lectures, Mr. Luigi Borrelli and Mr. Giancarlo Giaquinta from NET gave a tour of the laboratories and the Ac. Ca. Building prototype;
• visit to Callipo Company (second day). Callipo is one of the first enterprises in Italy to tin the precious Tuna of the Mediterranean Sea. The participants had the possibility to visit the production site and see all the steps of the production chain. Callipo’s staff explained also the policies they are adopting in order to become more and more sustainable from an environmental and social point of view (such as the wastewater treatment, use of sustainable packaging and so on);
• visit to Santa Severina (third day), a medieval village close to Crotone. There, they had a guided tour of the castle, which is important also from educational point of view, considering that until some decades ago it hosted an important and prestigious college for boys. Students had also some time to collect and sort out materials (videos and pictures) for the LTTA outputs;
• visit to the Hydro-electrical plant in Calusia, Cotronei (fourth day). The staff gave a tour of the plant and explained its functioning. Then the director gave a panoramic of the history of the plant and the policies they are adopting in order to become more sustainable from an environmental point of view;
• workshop organized by ITI “G. Donegani”’s teachers. Students worked in the school’s chemistry laboratories and realized soap from used domestic oils, and were brought to the beach of Crotone, were they collected samples of soil and air. Then, thanks to adequate instrumentation, they measured the environmentally important characteristics and determined quality of the samples collected in the laboratories of the school.

The partners also joined in the Multiplier Event organized by ITI Guido Donegani “Discovering new didactical trajectories to foster circular thinking” (fifth day), in order to communicate and disseminate the objectives and results of the project CiELO to the local community. A Visit to the museum and the archeological site of Capocolonna concluded the LTTA experience.