Project's topics: Media literacy and tackling disinformation; Creativity, arts and culture; New learning and teaching methods and approaches

KA1 - YOUTH EXCHANGE
"Criti?al th?nking"

About the project:

The aim of our project is to create a space, where during the time of youth exchange participants, aged 18-25 from 5 different countries can meet, share their cultural peculiarities, share their own experience and the most important - learn new about critical thinking and develop their own knowledge all together.
One of the objectives is to learn how to use the skills of critical thinking more effectively in daily life and while making important decisions take into account their own needs and wishes that are not imposed by society and advertising. Our aim is during the duration of the project we want to develop our analyzing skills, skills of making an argument and of how to achieve your goals.

Day 0. Welcoming day!

Taevaskoja was ready for the guests and international inhabitants, who are seeking new knowledge and experience…

First ones, who arrived at the destination were Lavian team - all together they came in one car and implementing team was ready to welcome them. After 1,5 hours we were ready to welcome others, who were coming by train. There were people from Curacao, Moldova, Italy and Estonian team. With a 20 minutes delay the train came and after everyone went out from the right door, we put all the baggage into the cars and were ready to go to the project venue. Arrived!

After the small opening words of Sasha, the first thing that we did was dinner. Then was the first session - circle of names and 2 truths and 1 lie. Now we know that the Italian clock system is a little bit different - they are not late, they are on time, but on their own time, and there are a lot of people here, for whom it is the first Erasmus project.

Estonia-Latvia friendship

Waiting for the group

First time all together

Day 1. Welcome everyone and let's get to know each other and make some rules for our time together.
We started with receiving notebooks for our further work, and then introduced our 2 new Italian participants… First thing that we did together was a chair changing game.

- I am Kira and I have been to Italy twice
Silence and sitting italians… They live there all their life, so should they stand up and change the place?
- I am Alexander and I love training.
Silence. Admiration and ovations for the only hero.

The next activity was to remember the names better, so we went outside and made two circles.

Lina Lina, Manuel Manuel. Did everyone remember the names? If not, go to another circle!

Next part was to draw our portraits on the envelopes. For sure, there were some similarities. We ended our first session with taking our pair to exchange the cups and speak with this cup-elevator friend. What is your favorite color? How old are you? Are you studying and what are your hobbies?

It was possible, but what about “Mission Impossible”? 15 tasks in 30 minutes and as an outcome - the flag of the project looks amazing and so does the group portrait drawing too, the lines from the poem of the project topic sound absolutely great… Do you still remember the participants' handshake? And of course, the best storylines…

But let's take a break. It's time to try Estonian Kama and after that Volleyball! After the break it was time for a small hike. Walking and talking with your pair, thinking about your life decisions… And finally we reached our destination - the Taevaskoja river. The last session back in the activity room was about fears and expectations. The net of wool was very tangled, but also full of important words and thoughts.

"On a last project we felt very excluded and also there was a lot of discrimination happening. White people did not want to even listen to us and made faces full of disrespect. We are a hundred kilometers away from our hometown, it is hard for us. We also want to feel safe."

Day 2. Out of The Box

Misty morning, stretch with Alexander and his 3 sporty followers - not bad for the beginning at all! We started our day with the dancing energiser. Kirill almost guessed the right person (let's not mention that he started to point at everyone in a row). After the energy level was highered we started with gossip and some information. Pasha has beautiful eyes and Alexander stole someone's heart…

Small rock-paper-scissors energizer to continue with breaking the ice between us. But now enough talking, it's time to train our brain muscles and get to know the “Out of The Box” games! Did you get the rule of Black Magic? Can you be one of the magicians? Well, before the coffee break, some people had a brain explosion and some were feasting their win.

And after the break it was time to get into the topic. What is critical thinking to me? How do I use it and how does society and surroundings affect it? We had time to work in groups and then present one of the topics that we discussed. Then the next session started. “Light the candles” they said and left us alone with a lot of different similar items. What were the rules? What should we do and how? When the first marker was received, we started to work together and accomplish different tasks. Let's hope that now we will be more respectful to each other and look after each other, so even if you are left behind the wall or stay outside the house, you won't be left there without support. On that day we also had our first cultural evening made by Latvian team. Now we know that Latvian flag means, traditional dances and places to visit.

Day 3. Arguments

Argumentation and opinion formation. The Hand of Opinion was there to help you to have your word. Studying abroad or in your own country? What do you think about the language of education you will gain?

Then we talked about how to build an argument. Thesis-Explanation-Example-Conclusion. Youth and Politics - should they be involved more in what is happening in their country? We had a small debate about that and then it was time to go and refresh our minds.

Italian team, your session was the next one. We started with capoeira basics and experienced the language of this fighting dance. It was a nice warmup before going outside to do the treasure hunt. Of course there was a team, which made it the fastest way, but let's be honest and accept that we all won the game at that moment, when the treasure hunt was announced because the most precious treasure that we could find in Taevaskoja except the knowledge is the people around us. It was a really nice activity and after it we had a deserved rest.
And what was next? The story of Abigail.

Day 4. Olympic games

The first session was an Olympic game for the brain. Do you know what to say in the interview? Did you find the pair of the same name and trained your memory? Did you manage to make a trip plan? What has keys but cant open the locks and do you know where to find Totoro Ethos? The questions were answered and all the stations were completed!

After the break there was Moldovian session. King, king - give us a soldier! The soldiers did their duty and after that we started our debates. The discussion was filled with different arguments and opinions, but at the end the judges made their choice and we had a talk about the topic.

Day 5. Preparations

Our fifth day. And it started with Latvian session. Next session started with information about the trip to Tartu. From today some sessions will be for us to work in small teams and make workshops for local people. Let's get out of our cozy bubble and spread the information and knowledge that we gained here to new folks!

Physics helped us to make a molecule of 6 membered teams and refreshed our knowledge about how the atoms move and how temperature influences their speed. What will be the ideas of the workshops? The brainstorm went well, but how will the
preparation go?

And you can always read more here...

Day 6. Time to reflect

Day 6 so far…

The first session started. What is critical thinking? Which skills do we need to include while using critical thinking? 6 Thinking Hats and the topic of immigration.

How to search for the facts?
How to look at the situation from the emotional side and take into account both negative and positive aspects?
Do not forget that creative hat is for all the ideas, even if it feels like it's unreal to make them real.
And of course - analyzing skill - how to combine all the information and make the conclusion.

After the coffee break we had a workshop made by the Curacao team. The workshop went really nice and we even had some time to reflect on both activities all together.

After our free time we had our last session for today - Youthpass Key Competences. We discussed the topic in the circle and then worked in smaller groups. During this activity we tried to find how we used and developed key competences here and what knowledge we will take from Taevaskoja.

Day 7. Trip to Tartu

The trip day has come and we were ready to go to Tartu. We found out that today was the beginning of the students' days in Tartu, so the main square was full of people and free food. It was also time to investigate the culture of this town, meet new places and people and invite them to our event, which should have started at 16.00 at the main square.

5 locations - different games. Escape box, Maze, Charades, Black magic and the Number game… Was it hard to invite people to participate? How did you feel as an organizer? There were even some people who stayed for a long time to play or chat with us. It was AMAZING!

Day 8. Conclusions

We started the morning and talked about our experience in Tartu. After that we had a small introduction into Erasmus+ opportunities. Do you remember the difference between non-formal and informal education? What is YE, TC and ESC?

Coffee break went very quick and after that we had photo session and time to participate in Manuel's podcast, discuss reimbursement and the way back home or just enjoy the warm sunny Estonian autumn. Secret friends were revealed and it was time for the Youthpass ceremony.

And now - final official session. Time to free our souls and let emotions guide us through all the project and moments that happened. Some teardrops started to fall from someone's eyes already, but then we heard story about the lollipop moments and it was our time to share lollipops with each other. The session ended with a group hug.

What did you learn, who did you meet and what did you share with us during this project will stay with all of us forever. Was it a kind word or beautiful smile, new skill or wise argument - remember it and keep it in your memory.