The Project

Context/background of the project
The title of our project is “Mens sana in corpore sano. Food, nutrition, eating habits, health and disease at European schools as an (inter)cultural mirror”. The Latin expression refers to the expression „Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano“ (You should pray for a sound mind in a sound body), which was used by the Roman poet Juvenal in the satires (X,356) to claim that, in contrast with riches and fame, which are precarious, physical and mental health represent the basic goods which a wise man should strive for. 
The life of today’s youth, which is often marked by excess, oriented towards a material life and filled with ill-considered dietary habits, leads increasingly towards a passive attitude and mostly towards serious and long term health detriment. Therefore, the goal of this project is to analyse and develop, from an intercultural perspective and using an interdisciplinary approach, youth-relevant questions and approaches to problems related to the topics of diet, nutrition, eating habits and related eating disorders, sports/exercise and health on a European level.
Young people will be sensitized to and motivated to plan healthy and active dietary habits and a healthy and active lifestyle; this way they will recognize that these have an immediate influence on how they shape their own future. 
Cooperation with pupils of other nations will lead to better understanding of other cultures and their values. Multi-lingual communication will promote language skills for all participating members. The content-related project work will increase basic and transversal competences.

Objectives of your project
The objectives strived for are:

• Improvement of pupils’ basic and transversal skills;
• Reduction of the rate of school drop-outs resulting from diet-related behavioral problems;
• Promotion of internationalization and improvement in the quality of teaching staff and their abilities and competences as well as development of synergies between various partners on a European level;
• Increasing the attractiveness and visibility of each respective school.

Number and profile of participants
The partnership is made up of six different educational institutions from Austria, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The target participants are upper secondary school pupils in the ages 14–18. Working groups of 16 pupils will be formed in each respective school. Every 8th (alternating) pupil will take part in transnational learning activities and will act as disseminators for their working group and school community.

Description of activities/ Methodology used 
The following activities are planned for the 2015-2017 school years addressing the aforementioned topics:

Content/regional/intercultural preparations

• Video statements in the respective national language and in English will be filmed: the pupils will introduce their school and their city;
• Preparation of teaching materials in the national language and in English, which are designed in a way that partner schools can integrate them in their own lesson plans without any problems;
• Teaching of lessons;
• Regional and intercultural preparation of the student exchange and creation of a portfolio;
• In-school and external dissemination events

Transnational learning, teaching and education activities

• Presentation of the tests implemented and their results;
• Exchange of and testing of lessons in each project language and in English in mixed working groups;
• Writing film scripts, filming, (national language and English) and editing;
• Awards for best creative student products;
• In-school and external dissemination events;
• Exchange with non-participating institutions via Blended Mobility Activities.

Short description of the results
The following results are planned for each respective project topic: lesson plans, Power-Point presentations, portfolios, questionnaires, interviews, brochures, exercise journals, film scripts, and information and prevention videos.
The distribution of all multilingual and interdisciplinary project results is planned, so that these can be used in other schools and countries (homepage, eTwinning, regional and national education servers); the lesson plans developed during the project can also be adopted in bilingual lessons of various school subjects or in a series of lessons.

Short description of the impact envisaged
The results strived for are as follows:

• Improvement of pupils’ basic and transversal skills;
• Reduction of school drop-out rates;
• Strengthening of teaching staff‘s didactic skills;
• Improved internationalization;
• Sensitizing and making society aware of the European dimension of education and of its priorities;
• Improvement of attractiveness and visibility of the school’s location.

Potential longer term benefits
After completion of the project, material as well as immaterial results will continue to be available and can be used by further stakeholders. In addition, appropriate tools will be implemented, which constitute a substantial and economic resource for ensuring sustainability. As a result of the activities realized and the achievable results, the following additional long-term benefits can result from the project:

• Impulses for further development;
• Inspiration for third parties and transfer of project results to new areas;
• Promotion of the European added valued resulting from Erasmus+ and motivation to participate in the program.