NECESSITY BEGETS INGENUITY

esamtschule Hardt

Welcome! It's great to see you here!

When creating this website we set out to achieve two objectives. First, we wanted to take part in the 68th European Competition and present our diverse results in an appropriate way. Second, we wanted a place where we could share all the wonderful memories made through this international project.

"Wait! A EUROPEAN project. You are supposed to partner with another European nation. Who is your Geography teacher?" - You might want to add a few questions when looking at our website's logo. Yes, it resembles the official design, but somehow a new continent sneaked in.

Well, this was our intention! We are fully aware of the fact that we might be disqualified due to our collaboration with Americans (instead of other Europeans), but we are more than happy to take that risk. Please let us explain:

Drawing a clear picture of the European Union is not as easy as you might think. A geographic perspective, for instance, quickly leads us to places far away from the European continent - and, in fact, even to America. The so-called Eurovision Song Contest even includes Australia. So we can safely say that this approach doesn't help much. Instead, we decided to concentrate on the shared values inside the European Union, the most important of which are democracy, human rights, solidarity, peace and liberty.

We are convinced that these values are shared by people all over the world! As a consequence, a European project can also be carried out between American and German students. That's what we understand by thinking OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Did we gain your attention? Use the menu above to learn more about our creative team, a transatlantic delegation of students from Lakeshore High School (Stevensville, Michigan) and Gesamtschule Hardt (Mönchengladbach, NRW). Browse through the products that we created during our exciting virtual exchange.

Noah
Nadia
Isabelle
Rustin
Jeff
McKenna
Aidan
Josh
Emily
Rhianna
Ethan
Eden
Cydney

That's us

Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand

Both American and German students thought about how to make the best of the current situation. Even though the next in-person exchange program linking our two schools is planned for this autumn, we decided to reconnect virtually in December 2020. We wanted to exchange views on our cultures, digest the current situation in a creative way, and motivate others to make the best of the pandemic.

Of course, we also spent a lot of time getting to know each other, talking about our hobbies, or chatting about our families. Well, a (digital) exchange isn't only about working, is it?

THE AMERICAN DELEGATION

THE GERMAN DELEGATION

Melike

Charlotte

Lena

Nora

Linn

Oliver

Jule

Jolina

Fabienne

Jonas

Communicating through art

Art speaks where words are unable to explain

In this section, we would like to give you some insights into our creative streak.

It all starts with our logo - the one that you recognize from our cover page - and finishes with two cartoons on the current COVID-19 situation in our countries.

The Design

Through this project, we decided to create a drawing that represents the connection between our countries. It shows that it is possible to connect with others even though we are all stuck at home, staying safe.

We decided to modify the original logo for this competition by adding two human hands, one from the United States and one from the European Union.

Charlotte thought of the idea to fill the right hand in with words one night, as she was unhappy with what she previously had. The words are supposed to represent the connection and experiences that we have had between our two countries.

Josh colored in the left hand, made to represent the United States as a whole. The United States is known to have tons of diversity, which is supposed to be represented by the hand colored in with several different skin tones in a puzzle-piece shaped pattern.

Katelyn colored in the globe behind the hands. She drew the flags instead of coloring in our locations to help make them pop from the rest of the world.

By making this picture, we wanted to show the importance of the United States having a connection with the European Union, and to show that people can still have good relationships with others, even over an ocean!