<< Background >>Climate change is the greatest challenge of our times and humans are recognized as a major cause of Climate Change (UNESCO, 2009). The EU has launched the Green Deal initiative to raise awareness on climate change, industry innovation and more, while the European Education Area initiated a special Education for Climate Change Coalition, pledging for concrete actions made by individuals and collective actors at the local, regional and national levels. In this respect, the role of education in addressing climate change is increasingly recognized. Despite the effort happening on an EU level it seems that there is no specific behavioral change towards a greener future and Researchers argue that to find how to communicate the climate crisis in a way that would inspire behavioural change, one should look into how humans process information “narratives can help to find better ways to communicate science”. The partnership has also identified needs for teachers for late primary and secondary education related to:•Lack of effective strategies, practices and tools for delivering innovative, action driven Climate Change Education: In general teachers face various difficulties to apply innovative competence-based teaching in their settings as they are not trained in such practices while not feeling confident to teach for climate change due to the absence of clarity about the most effective teaching strategies. •Weaknesses in Digital Competences for Educators (DCE) increase when it comes to situations or tools specifically related to online teaching. The need for proper DCE has been fundamental for the avoidance of disruption in teaching-learning processes. Teachers’ digital tools’ needs have increased especially post-covid19 where more knowledge is needed than the regular digital communication skills. This leads to the need for suitable training on DCE in a structured manner; it can be said that covid-19 has emphasized the importance of teacher professional development for online and blended learning.In view of the above, project ActGreenStory (AGS) in response to these challenges, capitalizing on past projects, and innovative education methodologies and trainings for green skills, with the use of digital storytelling and creativity seeks to empower teachers towards achieving greener behaviors, shaping tomorrow’s climate action changemakers, with participatory methods, following a holistic approach. Digital technologies in all their facets coupled with strong narratives can engage students towards becoming tomorrow’s green stewards.<< Objectives >>Through our project ActGreenStory (AGS) , capitalizing on past projects, and innovative education methodologies and trainings for green skills, with the use of digital storytelling and creativity we seek to empower teachers towards achieving greener behaviors, shaping tomorrow’s climate action changemakers along with the engagement of families, hence following a holistic approach. Digital technologies in all their facets coupled with strong narratives can engage students towards becoming tomorrow’s green stewards (Buchanan, Pressick-Kilborn, Maher 2018). Through this process teachers, students and their environment will identify and act upon environmental problems through creative thinking as active citizens and not just as observers. Our objectives are to: i) design new-age educational material for students to use technology towards greener attitudes and actions, ii) empower teachers with new methods and tools to urge them activate students’ inner green activist, iii) create accessible online material for further use and capitalization, iv)develop an interactive online platform for the connection of students from all over Europe to take common actions for climate change and become a living network.<< Implementation >>To achieve these objectives, the project will bring together stakeholders and target groups (teachers, students, policy makers, education designers, environmental activists) and engage them in codesign, co-creation, testing, piloting, validation, sharing and promotion activities. Teachers and students will be involved in building stories related to green actions adapted to the online environment trying to bring change locally with their communities but also on EU level connecting to other schools and projects via the Connecting platform. Campaign-stories will be created and widely disseminated to the green EU community stakeholders to push for action and activation. Teacher training offline and online activities, video tutorials and animations will complement these activities to demonstrate the educational potential and impact of AGS on teachers, students and community and contribute to the development of future oriented curricula that will empower young learners to become agents of change in the environmental transformation.<< Results >>The AGS expected project results are:1.AGS Curriculum is the learning and teaching material aiming to support teachers and students to develop the necessary skills such as agency, creativity and design thinking, digital and environmental literacy and problem solving that will transform them into green changemakers. AGS project also aspires to empower teachers with new skills for CCE and serve as a good practice for designing and delivering green digital storytelling.2.AGS Teachers´ Training Lab aiming to support teachers on the smooth and effective implementation of the project´s curriculum, on how to introduce Digital Storytelling methodology in class for climate change actions. 3.AGS Multimedia Hub where videos, animated presentations, interviews and tutorials will be produced in cooperation with animators with practical and useful tips for future applications, ready to use activities and digital resources.4.AGS Connecting Platform that aspires to create a European-wide online community comprised of more than 1000 teachers, students, schools, policy makers, environmental NGOs and associations, parents and community stakeholders to support, contribute and participate to educational activities that promote campaigning for climate change.

EnvStories project is based on the thesis that every instructive activity aims at a better communication of human beings with their environment. Τhe experiential action, achieving successive goals, constructivism and interaction with the artificial and natural environment are teaching approaches essential to the evolution of the education process. ENVSTORIES will bring together “young changemakers” from four countries to brainstorm ideas for solutions to local, national and international environmental problems. The project aims at strengthen teachers' profile to effectively coach pupils in working effectively in relation to the subjects: -Health & Environmental Effects on Society -Natural Environment -Geophysical Hazards -Natural Resource Depletion -Waste disposal and recycling Through this material pupils will aquire practical, logistical and personal skills to lead environmental actions and spread the word about the need to live more sustainable lifestyles. The project offer comprehensive training material for the above subjects, a teachers guide with the pedagogical approach and an online collaboration platform to be used by the pupils for the co-creation of interactive stories (in the form of e-books), spreading to their social environment tηe need for more sustainable lifestyles. Teachers, acting as coaches, assist pupils to develop the EnvStories triggered stories by the offered training material. Pupils had to work collaboratively using the platform in order to produce 24 stories that communicate complex concepts to others structuring information and data in meaningful and useful ways (storytelling). During the project, the pedagogical framework behind EnvStories platform was developed related to the project goals. Teachers and environmental experts gave the initial triger to groups of pupils to create their own environmental stories by tailoring their messages for the intended audiences (Other pupils and Parents). A five day long, blended mobility (training school) of 30 school learners (age 10-12) and 10 accompaning teachers form Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Turkey took place in Athens and visited NKUA to learn about geology and environment, from actual hands-on experiences and work on their first e-book stories on the EnvStoreis platform. The students with their teachers will used the platform during a half school year to learn and to create stories. Unfortunately, duo to COVID19 outbreak, schools weren't able to visit many cultural heritage sites (natural history museums, geological parks) and gather material (photos, videos) for their stories. However, during the training school in Athens, they had the oportunity to experience many outdoor activities along with cultural and environmental importance places. Feedback from tutors and pupils was gathered and applied to the methodology and tools. The final platform with the training material, the pupils' stories in the form of interactive e-books and a teacher's guide is now publised and available for open for all use. EnvStories focuses on raising awareness, knowledge and experience to the teachers, pupils and the wider community on sustainable development, which is achieved through the actions of environmental education. Consequently, our project objectives are: • Increase educators competences on advanced teaching methodologies (Experiential Teaching, Storytelling, Deep Learning ) and ICTs. • Provide educators and pupils with the necessary training material and digital tools to collaboratively create attractive stories tackling more complex tasks together than they could manage individually. • Develop a digital platform and interactive teacher guide to be used by all project partners and also other schools as a best practice. • Encourage and strengthen inter-cultural understanding and communication by school collaboration and pupils exchange. The duration of the project is 27 months and the activities planned are: A1: Project Management A2: Pedagogical framework and training material A3: Development of the ENVSTORIES Platform A4: Pilot implementation A5: Evaluation and Exploitation A6: Dissemination Expected Intellectual Outputs include: 01: Pedagogical framework 02: Environmental teachers handbook 03: EnvStories Platform 04: EnvStories stories 05: Course materials certification. 06: Professionals guide on the use of EnvStories methodologies and tools In parallel we implemented 2 conferences, 5 webinars, and 1 fullday teleconference for the dissemination of the project methodolies and results. The countries that constitute the consortium are Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Turkey. The consortium has been formulated to be able to handle all risks involved in the project and consists of 4 schools, 2 organizations in close connection with schools and teachers, a University relevant to environmental training, a certification company and and an IT partner.