A few months ago, I found myself in a classroom in Prague, alongside teachers from Italy, Spain, and Turkey. What had brought us together was an intensive Erasmus+ training course entitled „Education for Sustainability: Designing Tomorrow.” Honestly, the experience brought about a profound shift in perspective. The main goal was to explore how our schools could practically prepare students to address complex environmental and social challenges, rather than simply discussing climate change in abstract terms.
The entire course was highly interactive and closely aligned with both the European Green Deal and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through collaborative workshops and experiential learning, we explored, together with our mentor and fellow participants, how to integrate global issues into our local teaching practices in a natural and meaningful way. We delved into the mechanisms of climate dynamics, learned how to make data-driven decisions, and discussed ways to foster empathy and civic responsibility in our classrooms.
The turning point for me was Module 10, aptly entitled „Turning Knowledge into Action.” Our mentor challenged us to take everything we had learned and develop a concrete initiative that we could implement immediately upon returning home. This very challenge sparked my new educational project: „Every Drop Counts – Protecting Water, Protecting the Future.”
In Romania, I teach at a technological high school specialising in the food industry. Geographically, our community is located in a strategically important river basin, right at the confluence of the Danube River and the Prut and Siret rivers. For this reason, water is the lifeblood of both our local ecosystem and the food industry as a whole. With this in mind, I developed a ten-week programme designed to rethink how our school, and perhaps even our wider community, uses and protects water.
The project is designed to put students at the forefront. We begin with hands-on laboratory workshops entitled „Water Under the Microscope.” During these sessions, students will measure water pH, test for impurities, and assess water hardness, thereby developing their STEM skills.
However, the work will extend far beyond the laboratory. To support data-driven decision-making, student teams will conduct a comprehensive audit of water consumption throughout our school. They will monitor daily water use, identify potential leaks, and propose practical solutions to prevent waste. We will also explore the concept of the „hidden” water footprint in greater depth. By tracking their daily habits over several days and using public databases, students will calculate how much water is needed to produce everyday foods such as meat and rice.
We will also step outside the classroom to see these concepts in the real world. We will organise educational visits to the Galați Wastewater Treatment Plant and aboard the REXDAN research vessel, giving students the opportunity to interact with experts in professional water monitoring. To bridge the gap between school and the wider community, we will organise a clean-up activity along the banks of the Danube, bringing together students, parents, and local authorities. Finally, students will design their own visual awareness campaign, creating posters and QR codes linked to educational materials to keep the initiative alive throughout the school corridors.
This entire ten-week project is my way of grounding the ambitious goals of the Erasmus+ training course in Prague in our everyday reality. By connecting our local water resources with global targets such as SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), we are transforming sustainability from a distant ideal into a tangible practice.
During our training, the mentor shared a Native American proverb that has truly stayed with me: „We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” As I watch my students take responsibility for their local environment through this campaign, I am confident that they are developing the changemaker mindset they need to help design a much better tomorrow.