European eTwinning Awards 2024, 12 teachers from 3 Italian schools among the winners

The European Commission and the eTwinning Central Unit recently announced the winning projects for the eTwinning 2024 European Prizes. After a selection of 1.284 candidate projects in the 5 categories per age group and in the special category for Initial Vocational Education and Training (IVET), the 2 winning projects involve 12 Italian teachers (including founders and members) from 3 Institutes, who, with their classes and respective international partners, have been awarded the prestigious European recognition for their work in eTwinning:
- "The adventures of eTwinfish", for the 7-11 year old category, by Alessandra Cicero (founder), Gloria Celia, Marika Di Gennaro, Francesca Filice, Floriana Garufi and Monica Stefanucci of the IC "Gianni Rodari" in Rome;
- 'Oceans', in the 12-15 years category, whose partners include the teachers Annalisa Cozzolino, Maria Rosaria Del Sorbo, Anna La Montagna and Giovanna Salemme of the ITCG and Liceo Scientifico 'Da Vinci' of Poggiomarino (NA), and Rosaria Marotta and Rosa Martelli of the IC 'Vittorini' of Messina.

The official award ceremony will take place during the next European eTwinning Conference in the autumn, in the presence of representatives of the European Commission.

Below is a summary of all the award-winning projects and links to the TwinSpace work area, with the Italian lecturers and summaries of their activities highlighted.

Age category ≤6 - Winner: The sense of rainbow colours
This winning project took an interdisciplinary approach, combining subjects from art to science. It reflected a strong collaboration between the partners, incorporating the skills and interests of the young students.
Second place: Little citizens
This project aimed to raise awareness among participating school communities about social and environmental problems in their areas. Their goal was to enrich the cognitive and social well-being of their pupils, who engaged in activities that effectively incorporated various stakeholders.
Age Category 7-11 - Winner: The adventures of eTwinfish
This winning project, built around the journey of a small octopus called eTwinfish, aimed to raise awareness of inclusion, empathy, knowledge and peer relationships. It encouraged discussion on topics related to environmental pollution and promoted collaborative learning processes in school teams, including peer mentoring and role-playing.
Second place: Kids save lives #skillslabs
This project focused on first aid skills and sustainability knowledge. It linked activities and methodologies that improve pupils' autonomy and decision-making.
Age category 12-15 - Winner: Oceans
In this winning project, pupils collaborated across borders on topics related to Life Below Water, UN Sustainable Development Goal 14, using a variety of tools to create educational games on marine topics. They engaged stakeholders through interviews and advocacy, producing impactful outcomes including a travel-themed video.
Second place: Let's podcast!
In this project, pupils chose topics they wanted to work on and participated in collaborative activities including creating engaging podcasts covering various interests including music and sports.
Age category 16-19 years - Winner: Code of mystery
In this winning project, game-based teaching methods were used to teach mathematics. The pupils first worked in national teams to each create a part of a large digital escape game and then, in international mixed teams, solved the game's crime by deciphering the mathematical clues. In the end, they created a common encryption method with a mathematical algorithm.
Second place: Potes en voyage avec eTwinning / Compis de viaje con eTwinning
In this cross-border project, pupils from France and Spain collaborated, using the language of their partner. Pupils acted as mentors and helped their peers practise the other language by co-writing an imaginary travel diary. They collaborated in bilateral meetings and online forums.

Initial Vocational Education and Training (IVET)
- Winner: Natural is good, chemical is bad? This IVET project laid the foundations for strong collaboration between participating schools through online meetings and shared support materials for teachers to talk about misconceptions related to the belief that synthetic chemicals are more harmful than natural ones.