The fact that the European job market has undergone major changes in recent years is undeniable and it is natural that education should respond to the latest developments and requirements. Our project, entitled “What’s the Use of It?” will provide useful materials that will come to the aid of both students and teachers in order to create a more attractive learning environment, using ICT based methodologies. One of the most frequent questions mathematics teachers get is “What’s the use of it?”(“where will I use this in real life?”), so we plan to give a possible answer to this. We will use “Functions” chapter of mathematics in applications of economics, statistics and computer science. Our main goal is to approach teaching Mathematics (sciences) in an innovative way and to create alternative lessons for the chapter ‘Applications of functions’, as well as a new curricula for a cross-curricular optional course. Participants in the project will be 36 teachers (science, IT, economics and English) and 48 students, ages 16-9 from 6 participating schools in 5 countries. This will be done by combining 3 international meetings with 2 joint project work of groups of school pupils in between the five participating countries: Cyprus, Croatia, Spain, Romania and Turkey. Hence we will have both the ability to meet and create lessons in English and the languages of the participating countries, as well as make use of communication technologies, such as live streaming, video conferences, social media, e-twinning, MOODLE etc. Efficient communication will enable us to develop a series of activities that will engage both students and teachers: • We will provide cultural and linguistic training, which would entail gaining basic skills in the languages of the participating countries, through on-line lessons; we will use the twin space of the project on e-Twinning. This will be done before each international meeting. The kick-off conference of the project will be organized in each country, as well as the first management meeting, in which we will make the schedule for the next period, draw tasks, guidelines and dead-lines. • The first international meeting, which is to take place in Cyprus in October 2014 will be a meeting between teachers of Mathematics, English, Economics, IT, the purpose of which is to plan the curriculum and the activities. • In February 2015 a second mobility will take place in Croatia, between teachers, where we will compare the materials and lessons we have prepared and work together in order to obtain a final format. • Meanwhile, every team will work on the final form of the lessons, using the experience and the conclusions of the previous meeting. We will involve students with ATS (Accelerated Thinking Syndrome) while working on the materials. • The third mobility will take place in May 2015 in Turkey, between teachers, and we will present and compare the final materials, the final curriculum to use in the classroom. Materials will be loaded in MOODLE and use the set of 30 e-lessons. • Afterwards, each of the teams will start to implement the methods in their schools: initial tests will be given to two pilot-classes from two countries (Romania and Turkey) • The fourth meeting will be in Spain, October 2015, blended mobility with students and teachers. Teachers will use the lessons previously created, for classes with students from each country, and applications will be emphasized. • The next stage will engage students in peer learning. • In May 2016 a final mobility will take place in Romania. The teams of students will present their methods of peer learning which they have found to be most efficient and they will apply them in their joint group work. The two pilot-classes will be given another test to show progress and relevance of applying the new methods. • The final evaluation will take place, interpreting the results of the tests, questionnaires and discussions, the intellectual output will be certified, as well as the final products. • we will prepare an on-line in-training course for teachers willing to use the syllabus Every activity will be shown on the e-Twinning project’s space. Every three months we will have dissemination activities. Every three months we will have management meetings. The results: new syllabus, 30 e-lessons uploaded in Moodle and e-Twinning, in-training course, new teaching skills based on ITC methods for participating teachers, improved social communication abilities and cultural and linguistic knowledge for participant students, team work improved abilities for all participants. The final products will be uploaded on e-twinning, a MOODLE learning platform and published in every participating country, so they can be used by many other beneficiaries. The new curriculum will become part of many schools course offer (long term). Evaluation will be ensured throughout the whole project, as well as quality check of the materials and of the outputs.
The fact that the European job market has undergone major changes in recent years is undeniable and it is natural that education should respond to the latest developments and requirements. Our project, entitled “What’s the Use of It?” provides useful materials that will come to the aid of both students and teachers in order to create a more attractive learning environment, using ICT based methodologies. One of the most frequent questions mathematics teachers get is “What’s the use of it?”(“where will I use this in real life?”), so we planned to give a possible answer to this. We used “Functions” chapter of mathematics in applications of economics, statistics and computer science. Our main goal was to approach teaching Mathematics (sciences) in an innovative way and to create alternative lessons for the chapter ‘Applications of functions’, and a new curricula for a cross-curricular optional course. Objectives: develop a positive attitude towards science, connect school to real life, innovative way of teaching science Participants in the project were 36 teachers (science, IT, economics and English) and 48 students, ages 16-19 from 6 participating schools in 5 countries. This was done by combining 4 international meetings (there were 3 planned, but due to some political issues, we made 4) with 2 joint project work of groups of school partners in between the five participating countries: Cyprus, Croatia, Spain, Romania and Turkey. Hence we had both the ability to meet and create lessons in English and the languages of the participating countries, as well as make use of communication technologies, such as live streaming, video conferences, social media, e-twinning, facebook, whatsapp etc. Efficient communication enabled us to develop a series of activities that engaged both students and teachers: • We provided cultural and linguistic training, which entailed gaining basic skills in the languages of the participating countries; we used the twin space of the project on e-Twinning, facebook and whatsapp. This was done before each international meeting. The kick-off conference of the project was organized in each country, as well as the first management meeting, in which we made the schedule for the next period, draw tasks, guidelines and dead-lines. • The first international meeting, which took place in Croatia in October 2014 was a meeting between teachers of Mathematics, English, Economics, IT, the purpose of which was to plan the curriculum and the activities. • In February 2015 a second mobility will take place in Cyprus, between teachers, where we compared the materials and lessons we have prepared and work together in order to obtain a final format. • Meanwhile, every team worked on the final form of the lessons, using the experience and the conclusions of the previous meeting. • The third and the fourth mobility took place in May 2015 in Turkey and in June in Romania, between teachers, and we presented and compare the final materials, the final curriculum to use in the classroom. Materials will be loaded on the project's website, on e-twinning. • Afterwards, each of the teams started to implement the curricula in their schools: initial tests were given to pilot-classes from three countries (Romania,Turkey and Croatia) • The fifth meeting was in Spain, October 2015, blended mobility with students and teachers. Teachers used the lessons previously created, for classes with students from each country. • The next stage engaged students in peer learning. • In April 2016 a final mobility took place in Romania. The teams of students presented their methods of peer learning which they have found to be most efficient and they will apply them in their joint group work. The pilot-classes were given another test to show progress and relevance of applying the new methods. • The final evaluation took place, interpreting the results of the tests, questionnaires and discussions, the intellectual output was be certified, as well as the final products. • we prepare an in-training course for teachers willing to use the syllabus, containing pedagogical issues. Every activity was shown on the e-Twinning project’s space and on the project's website. At least every three months we had dissemination activities and management meetings. The results: new syllabus, 34 e-lessons uploaded on the project's website and e-Twinning, in-training course, new teaching skills based on ITC methods for participating teachers, improved social communication abilities and cultural and linguistic knowledge for participant students, team work improved abilities for all participants. The final products will be uploaded on e-twinning, the website of the project and published in every participating country, so they can be used by many other beneficiaries. The new curriculum may become part of many schools course offer (long term). Evaluation was ensured throughout the whole project, as well as quality check of the materials and of the outputs.