<< Background >>Hiking, especially in the environments of natural beauty, is a valuable form of free time activity, raising curiosity of the world, offering opportunities for new encounters and contributing to a healthy lifestyle. It is a form of ecotourism that should be promoted among young people who tend to submerge in the virtual reality of digital games and social media interactions at the expense of physical activity in the open air. Schools usually organise class trips to distant locations of cultural or historical significance. However, the value of local and regional trips should not be disregarded. They are much easier to organise at a lower cost so more such trips are possible. They let students explore their own ‘small homelands’ often unknown in their riches. If combined with walking in the countryside, they give students an enjoyment of physical exercise in the company of school friends. If skillfully combined with an exploratory learning programme, they strengthen positive attitudes to education projects bridging school knowledge with the real environment in which the students live.There is a growing conviction among educators, researchers and policy makers that school education should move towards a more integral programme of teaching, connecting themes from across the curriculum to offer interesting and motivating learning experiences for students. Active exploration of nature facilitated by digital media (digital maps, photography, filmmaking) is a particular case of such an approach, linking school subjects of Geography, Biology, Physical Education and IT into integral learning experiences, attractive for young people and enjoyable at the same time.<< Objectives >>OBJECTIVEOur goal is to increase the number of school students taking part in hiking trips that combine physical outdoor activity with an interdisciplinary learning programme. In order to attain this objective we will take the following steps:- Identify hiking trails leading through natural and cultural heritage sites in the partner schools’ regions- Outline an exploratory learning programme for each hike- Involve pilot classes in each school and conduct preparatory lessons- Organise the trips during which students record the trails and gather resources for their annotation and illustration- Create, publish and promote the trail maps online to attract new groups of young people to these ‘hikeways’ - Share experiences from the trips through students online communication with peers from the other partner countries- Provide learning mobility opportunities to the best motivated participants involving explorations of trails abroad - Build a wider school/youth network around shared interests in hiking on the foundation laid during these first encounters- Distil the best trails and learning scenarios and present them in a publication that can encourage similar initiatives by other schools<< Implementation >>NOVEMBER 2021 - JANUARY 2022Identification of hiking trails leading through natural and cultural heritage sites in the partner schools’ regions; choosing the trails which are walkable in a given time, have some interesting features and their difficulty level is appropriate for groups of young people, including those with lower physical fitness; 1st meeting (Wadowice) to discuss progress of work and all the essential project management issues. FEBRUARY - JUNE 20221st round of school hiking trips (2 - 3 in each country); in each team one mountain guide leading on this and a group of teachers with specific competences for the particular aspects of the programme; designing and implementing outdoor learning experiences for the students in relation to the school curriculum of Geography, Biology, English, Art and IT; preparatory and follow-up activities in the classroom and online; 1st staff learning mobility (Ljubljana) focused on digital mapping; beginning of work on the main project output, the HikeWays Guide; creation of tools to propagate it widely (website, social media).JULY - AUGUST 2022Consolidating findings to date; finalising 1st set of trail guides covering the trips organised to date; 2nd and 3rd staff learning mobilities - on video storytelling in Cluj and on aerial photography in Wadowice; participating teachers introduce these aspects to the programme of trips in the following semesters. SEPTEMBER 2022 - JANUARY 2023Next round of learning activities following the same approach as in the previous semester; new exploratory programmes for different trails and for new classes (2 - 3 trips in each country); collecting more content for the Guide; online interactions of both the participating students and teachers from the partners’ countries facilitated by the project website and social media channels.FEBRUARY - JUNE 20232nd project meeting (Ljubljana); next round of learning activities with the same approach as in the previous semesters but on different trails and for new classes (2 - 3 trips in each country); collecting more content for the Guide; preparation of the programme of student learning mobilities in the summer; summative evaluation of the students’ satisfaction and learning outcomes to have well validated results to share with other educators. JULY - AUGUST 2023International learning mobilities for students from the partner schools in each country; completion and translation of the Guide and launching its promotion campaign.SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 20233rd project meeting (Cluj); mobilising the partner teams and networks to widely propagate the project results and share them with teachers and youth workers from other schools and educational establishments<< Results >>DIGITAL MAPSOnline maps with recommended trails in the mountainous regions where the partners’ organisations are located; detailed routes, descriptions of interesting places of natural and cultural significance on the way, practical info on what to do/see in the locality and photos giving insights into these places; all the maps accessible via the project website and social media. PHOTO GALLERIESPhotographs taken by the participants during the mountain hikes; photos of places and objects of natural and cultural significance as well as visual documentation of youth interactions on the way; both ground photography and aerial landscape photography; the best photos edited for publishing in online galleries (Instagram).MOUNTAIN FILMSDepicting the beauty of the mountain ranges and the places visited on the trails; also grasping the atmosphere of youth interactions, especially during explorations of interesting sites; footage from the hikes providing material for digital stories of the trips with visual content and narration in English. PROJECT WEBSITEA WordPress website with essential info on the project and posts from hiking trips contributed by the participants; all the major results presented on the website (digital maps with guided trails, photos, films).FACEBOOK GROUPFacilitating direct communication among members with feeds from across the network; linked to the project website.PUBLICATION “HikeWays: Mountain Trails for School Hiking Trips”Presenting the best trails and exploratory learning scenarios developed in the course of project activities - the main Project Result widely shared with educators and youth workers across Europe.OUTCOMES- For young participants: increased knowledge and skills in the areas of the interdisciplinary learning programme, a wider network of contacts and friends crossing national borders; increased knowledge of their own and the partners’ countries; healthier lifestyles; more positive attitudes to school education offering interesting and engaging experiences as well as European projects.- For school teachers and youth workers: more willingness to plan outdoor activities for young people with ambitious educational aims related both to the school curriculum and the students’ interests, curiosity and vitality; new opportunities for networked learning in a European dimension thus raising appreciation of EU projects.- For partner organisations: new cross-curricular learning programmes in the partner schools, reinforced capacity for European cooperation of all the participating organisations bridging school education, youth work and tourism; integration/adaptation of new pedagogical methods from other contexts.