The project On the Wings of Europe is a 2-year project in which 5 partners will cooperate. The priority of the project are developing basic skills and using innovative methods and achieving better results through more effective teaching methods. To achieve the planned goals we have chosen a biology project dealing with an interesting topic, migration of birds, which will give teachers the opportunity to practise new approaches and innovative ways of teaching. We suppose it will contribute to the awareness of participants and the other people involved of preservation environmental diversity and deepen awareness of unity in Europe. Teachers will prepare the tools for effective work on the science project. The communication and cooperation of students from five European countries will be organized within each school and also internationally. Within two years we expect to collect materials for teachers to deal with students´ work on scientific topics. Not only the gained information about the migration of observed bird species around Europe will be important part of the results but we want to lead students to systematic work, from collecting data, through studying literature to final comparing and evaluating gained materials before forming conclusions and presenting them. We also believe all the participants, teachers and students, will develop their professional skills, not only the knowledge of biology but also their computer and language skills. The participating schools are from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania and Spain. They differ in number of students, specializations and problems they deal with, but in the former project they proved that it is the thing which enriches all participants and gives the cooperation deeper dimension and the opportunity to help one another and learn from each other. All partners have good conditions for carrying out the project on migration birds as their schools are near important routes. The students at all schools will work in project teams led by their teachers and later they will cooperate with all partner teams to summarize collected data. The key teachers' role in the project will be to monitor their own teaching and search methodological sources for suitable educative methods and incorporate new approaches in the work with students. At the first transnational meeting in October 2015 we will inform partners and wider community about the project development, share their first experience and plan the project impact. As the project is expected to result in the development, transfer and implementation of innovative methods, we will provide methodology for students´ observations, collecting data, their evaluation and summarization, learn how effectively cooperate with local, regional and international partners for solving the given tasks, sharing materials and their analyses. We will collect teachers´ findings and methodology tips. We expect to issue the results of the biology part of the project in a brochure with a survey of the bird migration, accompanied with posters, a map of bird migration and a calendar. In the educative part of the project we will present the methodology tips for dealing with teaching science subjects, based on project work methods, and we will offer an interactive presentation for biology teachers. All partners will participate at local and international activities, cooperate with the local partners: parents’ councils, public authorities. During planned short term exchanges students will present the results of the previous period in their schools, they will compare their work in each school. The short term joint staff training will contribute to teachers´ improvement in the field of counselling and coaching. The participants will agree on the form of presenting their experience either in articles for school websites, case studies or a bulletin with the description of their new teaching approaches. The second transnational meeting in spring 2017 as the last international event will focus on presenting the results. The project partners will evaluate the project results and project products so far in both, biological and methodological parts, they will decide about the most efficient dissemination activities and the effective use of the projects results. In this project students will develop their ability to find the information they need, work in a team and to deadlines. The project work will increase their science competence, social competence, IT competence and competence in foreign languages. They will benefit from the pleasure of discovering new things. Teachers will benefit from sharing ideas, exchanging learning and teaching materials. The quality of educational activities and innovative methods improved will raise the reputation and attractiveness of involved schools. We hope to increase a positive public perception of our educational institutions.
The project On the Wings of Europe was a 2-year project in which five partners cooperated. The priority of the project was using innovative methods and achieving better results through more effective teaching methods. To achieve the planned goals, we chose a biology project – the migration of birds. This project gave teachers the opportunity to practise new, innovative ways of teaching and gave students the opportunity to learn a team work and learn about an interesting biological topic. We suppose the project also contributed to the awareness of the preservation of environmental diversity and deepened the awareness of unity in Europe. The participating schools differ in number of students, age of students, national curricula and school problems they deal with but the project gave all of them the opportunity to learn from each other. Stredni prumyslova skola chemicka Pardubice in the Czech Republic is a secondary technical school which provides secondary education for almost 900 students aged 15-19. Malpils novada vidusskola in Latvia acts as a county high school for almost 400 students. There are primary and lower secondary education programmes, special education programmes for students with mental and learning disabilities. IES Virgen de Guadalupe in Spain is a public institution where about 450 students attend classes of Compulsory General Education, High Secondary Education and Vocational Training. The school also holds Specific Integrated Teaching for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders, special needs and severe behaviour disorders. Prva gimnazija Varaždin in Croatia offers three national programmes (General, Scientific and Languages), bilingual programme in English/Croatian and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP). The school is a member of the UNESCO's Associated Schools, working on the projects of promotion and protection of the national and global, cultural and natural heritage. Ignalinos r. Dūkšto mokykla in Lithuania provides primary and basic education for 110 pupils in grades 1-10; 20 of pupils are children with special needs. At the first transnational meeting in autumn 2015 we shared the first experience. We provided methodology for the students´ observations, made observation sheets and discussed how to cooperate effectively. We planned to issue the results of the biology part of the project in a brochure, to create a map of bird migration and to design a calendar. In the educative part of the project we started to collect methodology tips and to prepare an interactive presentation for biology teachers. All these materials were successfully created during the following 2 years of the project work. During short-term exchanges of groups of pupils we presented the results of the previous period in particular countries and we visited many bird areas with local ornithologists. Students gave their presentations on selected migratory bird species which they prepared in their teams. We often divided students into mixed groups for the workshops. Between the international meetings we organized competitions, visited nature reserves and bird areas. We met with students many times in afternoon lessons. We wrote articles about the project events for the school web pages and we displayed posters at schools. The short-term joint staff training event contributed to teachers´ knowledge in the field of counselling and coaching. The teachers worked together in a workshop, which focused on using new methods in lessons based on peer learning activities, and they exchanged examples of good practice. The second transnational meeting in spring 2017, as the last international event, focused on presenting the project results. We evaluated the project products, in both biological and methodological parts, and decided about efficient dissemination activities. We observed and evaluated warm-up and ice-breaking activities which our students and teachers prepared and which were recorded in the collection of methodology tips. We observed the work of the students done in the creative workshops. We compared the project links on different school web pages and planned the last simultaneous bird watching held in all countries at the same time. We discussed the possibilities of future cooperation. In all countries, we encouraged students of various social and economic backgrounds to take part in the project. In Spain autistic children and their assistants also participated in many project activities. In this project, students developed their ability to find the information they need, work in a team and make deadlines. They benefited from the pleasure of discovering new things. They developed their computer and language skills. Teachers benefited from sharing ideas, exchanging learning and teaching materials, and learning new teaching approaches. We hope we increased a positive public perception of our schools and raised the reputation and attractiveness of involved educational institutions.