Our children grow up in a world that is more urban, global and digital than ever before. With new opportunities come challenges such as children's alienation from nature, a lack of physical activity, living under a deluge of new information and under the spotlight of always online social media. We aim to mitigate the resulting negative consequences such as high dropout rates by improving education and children’s enjoyment of school. We call the project HOB’s adventure or Hands-on Biodiversity adventure because we want to use hands-on and active learning methods utilizing biodiversity in outdoor areas and potted plants in the classroom to educate 5-9 year-olds regarding topics and values such as global citizenship, reasonable consumption of goods, variety in nature, the needs of plants and animals, health and welfare. The project topics fall under the UN’s Global Goals and the well-established framework of the global Eco-Schools programme of which all five project partners and ten schools and kindergartens are members. Our partners will be leading environmental education organizations in Estonia, Iceland, Latvia and Slovenia that have established national networks of teachers and unique competences that are relevant to the project. Among other things, Estonia is experienced with outdoor learning that utilizes digital tools, Iceland has years of experience with global environmental issues, Latvia has developed fascinating hands-on methods with potted plants and Slovenia has extensive experience building large sustainable networks of teachers to find best practices teaching about biodiversity in children’s immediate environment. We want to bring together teachers from four European countries with different teaching environments, experiences and skills and build a network where teachers can share best practices and use what they have learned to develop new methods and materials. Altogether, at least ten schools or kindergartens will participate in the transnational workshops, although more have expressed interest already. Planned multiplier events have more than 230 slots. Cooperation will continue in between meetings over Skype and social media. Interaction will occur in English, allowing teachers to practice their language skills and build up confidence to continue their international collaboration well after the project is concluded. By the end of the project, we will have produced a multitude of illustrated instructional materials for teachers of 5-9 year-old children, combining best practices from all participant countries. These materials will be made available online for free in English, Estonian, Icelandic, Latvian and Slovenian, so the impact will be even wider. In the long term, using innovative new methods to improve children’s education regarding the environment, physical activeness and enjoyment of school, we will have better prepared a generation of children for the challenges of the 21st century and reduce downstream issues such as high school dropout rates.

The strategic partnership (SP) developed innovative teaching-learning modules and guidelines for supporting secondary school students’ aspiration and imagination towards the future. Our inclusive, future-oriented pedagogy addressed the acute problems of EU societies related to science education: the decrease in student interest in pursuing STEM careers and the “skill-gap” between school learning and labour market needs. Furthermore, in the midst of dramatic social change with unprecedented flows of migrants to the region, Europe more than ever needs education that acknowledges and anticipates diversity.Underlying these problems and challenges is students’ difficulty in projecting themselves into the future as responsible and active persons, citizens and professionals. In order to foster this capacity, our SP created novel ways to develop future-scaffolding skills of all upper secondary school students (ages 16-19). These skills include scenario thinking, systems thinking, thinking beyond the realm of possibilities, action competence, managing uncertainty and complexity, and creative thinking.The SP consisted of three secondary schools, two universities, an environmental NGO, a teachers’ association and a private foundation. The partners were from four EU countries: Italy, Finland, Iceland and UK. The SP grounded on two well-established and effective school-university partnerships: one between the Liceo Einstein and University of Bologna (UNIBO), and the other between Helsinki Normal Lyceum and University of Helsinki (UH). The Icelandic Environment Association brought to the SP their expertise in environmental and sustainability education and the action competence approach. Hamrahlid College in Iceland added to the cultural diversity of students and teachers participating in the project. The partnership between the three schools in Helsinki, Reykjavik and Rimini proved to be fruitful in terms of cultural exchange and the generalisability of the results. The Association for Science Education brought added value through their extensive school and teacher network in UK. The Fondazione Golinelli, in Bologna, contributed their network to the partnership that gave the project dissemination access to a wide variety of stakeholders. The SP developed four I SEE modules on cross-cutting and societally relevant fields: climate change, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and carbon sequestration. The modules consist of activity descriptions, resources and a manual for teachers and students for use both in the classroom and in out-of-school settings. The start-up module developed during the first year was implemented, tested and refined in the Summer School in Bologna in June 2017 which hosted a culturally diverse group of 24 students from Iceland, Italy and Finland, as well as teachers, educational researchers and other stakeholders. Building on this experience, the partners developed three I SEE modules through an iterative process of design, cross-testing and refinement that ran over the second and the third year of the project. The modules were implemented at least two times each in Reykjavík, Helsinki and Rimini during 2018 and 2019.In addition to modules, the outputs of the project include a guide for developing further I SEE modules, case studies, and policy recommendations for inclusive, authentic science education to enhance students’ capacity to aspire to a better future. The materials are publicly available through the project website. To increase the impact, national multiplier events were held in Finland, Italy, and Iceland in 2018, and international multiplier events in UK and Italy in 2019. The modules developed by the project have already directly and indirectly benefited hundreds of teachers and students and reached thousands through multiplier events and dissemination.Case studies in the project show that students who participated in modules widened their perceptions of the future and felt the future to come into their reach. They gained new skills that help them imagine new possibilities for themselves in STEM careers and as active, responsible citizens. Through a guided process of designing, testing and implementing modules, teachers gained new resources and abilities to futurize science education. Both students and teachers gained insight into cutting-edge science through collaboration with outside experts in and out of the classroom. The partner schools and institutions continue to share these materials, experiences and insight through their national and international networks. In addition, this project provides longer term benefits for research and researchers by opening interdisciplinary and potentially ground-breaking research opportunities in the field of science education and serving as a framework for further studies developing and studying future-scaffolding learning environments. Studies have begun at UNIBO and UH, and publications have gained international attention.