Picture provided by the author, attribution CC-BY
The project
Measure me up! Is an Erasmus+ Project designed by six partners: Os Vladimira Becica Osijek (Croatia), Nikola Tesla Szerb Tanítási Nyelvu Óvoda, Általános Iskola, Gimnázium, Kollégium és Könyvtár (Hungary), Osnovna skola Sveti Sava Kikinda (Serbia), IES Santísima Trinidad (Spain) and Özel Marmaris Çağdaş Bilim Anadolu ve Fen Lisesi (Turkey). It started in 2020 and will finish in 2023.
Our vision and goals
In the near future professionals with a high profile on science, technology, engineering and mathematics will experiment a high demand in a European context. While there is a technological revolution out there, the current methodologies for teaching those subjects seem disconnected to reality and obsolete.
The result is an increasing number of students feeling disengaged in the study of those subjects and a constant decrease on their choice when they reach higher education. This need has been reflected in this call by the EU commission, including the acquisition of STE(A)M skills as a horizontal priority, within the acquisition and development of key competencies. Our aim within this project is contributing to reduce the mismatch of the STEM skills provided to our students and the skills actually requested including real world applications, by working in a new approach based on inquiry and ICT enriched learning, as well as collaborative practices.
To do so, every partner country decided to share an area of expertise and design hands- on activities, so the students could explore areas that traditionally are not covered by the curricula in Secondary Education, such as architecture, astronomy and cultural heritage history.
Achievements
So far, we have accomplished four mobilities with students, as well as one teacher training mobility. Being virtually impossible to describe every activity we worked on during the 5-day learning, teaching, training mobility in each country, this entry will highlight the most remarkable ones:
Spain: Exploring the old.Students learnt about the evolution of measurements in time and built a thermoscope. They explored the main monuments in the UNESCO World-Heritage city and analyzed the proportions in the buildings.
Serbia: Making a videogame.Students coded a videogame prototype about measurements using Metaverse Studio app. They participated in a workshop about physics and chemistry.
Romania: Measurements & Astronomy.Students built their own sundial and made astronomical observations outdoors.
Hungary: Measurements in architecture Students designed stained glasses using GeoGebra, they also took measurements of Tekelianum building and recreated some rooms of the building using ArchiCAD software. They manufactured soap in a chemistry workshop.
Expected products and goals for the future
The main goal of the project is to increase the interest in science and science-related careers, and so far the majority of the participant students have expressed their desire to continue on this path. As for the majority of the participating high-schools, this is their first Erasmus+ experience, the activities have awoken the interest and the curiosity among students and the community in general. Having said that, the tangible products of this project which are already under development, are:
- A catalog-book of results with the work of the students in each mobility,
- The publication of a videogame in the Google Store related to the measurements,
- A didactic guide of activities, which will be made available to the participating schools so that current and future teachers can put into practice the activities proposed in each trip.
We have great expectations to achieve all of our goals by the end of 2023.
Azucena Marset Castro is a teacher of Physics & Chemistry in IES Santísima Trinidad (Baeza, Jaén- SPAIN). She also holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry and has a a deep interest in exploring the methodologies and the approaches to disseminate Science among students.
Tags: Education, experiment, Outdoor activities, Science, STEM, Students
