How to approach sustainability in high school: an innovative educational ecosystem
Institution: Liceo Chierici – Italy
This project is a learning sequence that offers a new educational approach focused on sustainability in the fields of fashion and furniture.
The main objective is to place the student at the center of an educational experience connecting school, businesses, sustainable design and emerging technologies (local and international).
This project is a learning sequence that offers a new educational approach focused on sustainability in the fields of fashion and furniture.
The main objective is to place the student at the center of an educational experience connecting school, businesses, sustainable design and emerging technologies (local and international).
Learning is done in partnership with real stakeholders (local businesses, universities and local organizations) via internships, visits and competitions.. The context is authentic and oriented towards active citizenship.
The sequence uses multiple languages (verbal, visual, multimedia): from the creation of a sustainability dictionary to creative design, including the production of visual artifacts, digital prototypes and mood boards. Language is a tool for designing and telling sustainability.
Learning goes beyond the classroom walls (companies, laboratories, universities, digital platforms). Emphasis is placed on tools like VisionArt (reflective orientation), digital printing and 3D modeling to connect imagination and technique.
the Sequence uses active methods such as PBL (Project-Based Learning), action research and cooperative learning. The specifications are the central tool to guide and document the sustainable design process.
Role of the teacher: Mediator, facilitator and didactic designer who orchestrates content and relationships in this dynamic ecosystem.
Direct cognitive resources towards relevant stimuli.
Attention
Conscious and motivated student participation, essential for sustainable learning.
Active engagement
Receiving feedback to improve mental representations.
Feedback (error correction)
Fix knowledge in long-term memory through repetition.
Consolidation
Evaluation is integrated and continuous (formative evaluation) and accompanies the entire process.
It includes self-evaluation, peer evaluation and teacher observations.
Based on rubrics and shared criteria, it makes the objectives transparent and allows the processes to be valued as much as the products.
It makes it possible to adapt teaching dynamically to the needs of the students.
AI is an educational ally in the Sequence, used in a conscious and critical manner:
It amplifies creative, reflective and design processes (ideation, prototyping, research).
It promotes human-machine collaborative dialogue and strengthens digital citizenship.
Its adoption personalizes the training experience and strengthens conceptual thinking, making the Sequence more effective and oriented towards the world . professional.
Academic partnership
In collaboration with the University of Bologna, Department of Training Sciences (Chiara Panciroli and Anita Macauda).
How to set up innovative educational courses on sustainability with an orientational approach?
The teachers involved are trained to design projects consistent with sustainable development objectives, using new tools (notably AI in the initial phase) and digital technologies.
Competition “Artforward: Visionaries for new sustainable connections”
European competition focused on sustainability in the fields of Fashion and Furnishing Accessories.
Chierici Artistic High School (Italy, coordinator), Toulouse Lautrec High School (Bordeaux, France) and Paul Poiret High School (Paris, France).
Develop new educational models in collaboration with companies (here: Confindustria Reggio Emilia) to train sustainable design professionals in a European context. The competition is the result of a collaboration that spans from the design phase to the final presentation, including internships in companies for the winners.
The competition is open to students in their penultimate and final years of secondary school, who must design a piece (clothing or home accessory) incorporating the themes of culture, sustainability, and design.
For each category, the two best projects will be awarded a two-week internship with renowned companies in the fashion and furniture sectors.
The jury is composed of industry professionals, representatives from Italian and French companies, and institutional representatives (here: Mr. Baptiste Chauveau, Attaché for French Cooperation).
The jury evaluates the proposals on five essential criteria:
More than 40 projects were submitted; .
The high quality of the proposals led to the award of special mentions.
The quality of the projects is the direct result of the experimentation with active educational approaches such as PBL (Project-Based Learning), action research and cooperative learning, which made it possible to effectively link academic knowledge to professional requirements.
The competition is the first . of three editions, which makes it possible to build a lasting common vision between the school and the professional world, with a visible impact on the territory.
The composition of the European jury and the presence of the Cooperation Attaché for French (impact on multilingualism and the dissemination of the Italian-French ESABAC course) are major assets.
Project visuals
Architecture Competition “Artforward: Minimal, Lightweight and Circular Architectures”
This architecture competition originated within the Erasmus+ Artforward project. It aims to experiment with new interdisciplinary educational models that connect school, the profession, and the local community.
Partners: G. Chierici Art High School (Reggio Emilia, Italy), the Regional Council of the Order of Architects of Reggio Emilia.
The challenge: designing time and the essential
The competition is based on the idea that architecture is not fixed, but rather a temporal process and an ecosystem. Students are invited to imagine buildings that can regenerate, be dismantled, and reassembled.
The central theme is “Sustainability and Lightness in Architectural Design.” The goal is to design “minimal, lightweight, and circular architectures” that act as laboratories for the future.
The teams (composed of an architecture student and a furniture design student) had to design a residential or multifunctional module (max. 28 m²) – intended to be a reproducible prototype – as well as an integrated and modular piece of furniture. The hypothetical site was the courtyard of the Reggio Emilia Innovation Park.
Students were required to use and develop fundamental skills for the profession and sustainable citizenship:
● Circular and material design: the ability to choose and justify the use of recycled/sustainable materials and to integrate the complete life cycle into the design.
● Interdisciplinary teamwork: the need for effective collaboration between skills in Architecture/Structure and Furniture/Functional Design.
● Systems approach: the ability to design not just a space, but a reproducible and adaptable housing system that addresses climate and social challenges.
● Innovation and economy of means: translating economy of means (minimalism, lightness) into a high-quality living experience.
Strengthening the link between school and profession: close collaboration with the Order of Architects has
embedded the project in real-world professional requirements, validating the
pedagogical approach and the relevance of the skills acquired.
Effective interdisciplinary pedagogy: the requirement to form teams composed of profiles in
Architecture and Furniture has proven the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary approach in solving
complex problems of minimal and modular housing.
Application of active methodologies: the competition served as an ideal framework for the concrete application of active methodologies such as Project-Based Learning (PBL) and action research, transforming ideation into genuine educational and environmental research.
The mission to create a circular object: the emphasis on circularity, lightness, and reversibility from the design phase is an essential teaching method for the architecture of the future, promoting the ethics of sustainable construction.
Replicability: the competition aims to design a reproducible prototype, a methodology that encourages students to think on an industrial and social scale, and not just in terms of a single case.
Project visuals
Tool sheet:
Design a reusable stand
Practical sheet:
Using recycled and local materials
Case study:
Transformation of an exhibition structure into sustainable furniture
