Brains at school – knowledge is power! The idea of the project was born out of the need of getting answers for the questions 'How to teach?' and 'How to learn?' in today's reality when we are flooded with information. Students often can't learn autonomously and many of them quickly feel discouraged and they take on a passive attitude. Neurodidactics seems to be the answer for this important issue. It deals with the usage of neurobiological dicoveries in practical teaching, shows what helps and what disturbs the process of learning. It also analyses the influence of ICT on effective teaching and learning. This neurodidactic knowledge is crucial for the school effectiveness that should be brain and student friendly. This approach should help students and teachers in their everyday school activities. Neurodidactics has a great potential because it gives knowledge about the power included in human brains and guidance for better development of this incredible organ. For these reasons the primary purpose of the project is searching, promoting and practical usage of the neurodidactics approach in learning and teaching in order to develop the key competents among the students and in particular their ability of autonomous learning and using ICT in practical learning as well as teaching. To achieve the main goals of the project many activities are going to be held: - getting information about brain: its structure, dynamics, factors supporting and disturbing its activity and finally compiling and disseminating publications containing factual information ('Brain ABC' and a board game), - getting information about the theory of multiple inteligences and learning styles, - preparing and carrying out a survey on the ways of spending a day / week by the students, - creating a Polish-Engilsh-Romanian-Italian dictionary with the basic vocabulary and expressions useful during the work on the brain knowledge and students' meetings, - organising a series of 'Brain friendly lessons' in every partner school according to the neurodidactic knowledge; the lessons are going to be prepared by the students and the teachers and then they will be filmed with English subtitles included; each filmed lesson will be send to the other partners and discussed during the students' meetings, - creating and running a website of the project where relevant information will always be posted, - creating and sending a newsletter (every two months) on students' email boxes including information about the project, - preparing and regular updated showcase presenting current project events, - publishing a school magazine 'Brains at School' including useful information about brain, brain friendly ways of learning and teaching, titbits, logical games and riddles and many others; each partner school is going to prepare two pages of the magazine, - a small contest organised every month connected with maths and logic, published in newsletters, a school magazine and on the website of the project, - creating motivating stickers which are going to stimulate the students' activity, - creating a guide 'How to learn friendly?' as a summary of a two-year cooperation devoted to getting knowlege and skills supporting students' autonomy in learning; - organising two workshops about time management and ICT, - organising a conference with a performance 'Brains at School', photo exhibition and promotion of materials created during the project time. The most important benefit from this project is gaining knowledge about the neurodidactics and ICT and their practical usage both by the students and teachers. We believe that it will have a great impact on school improvement so the students will learn better and more effectively and the teachers will know how to support young people in this process. Futhermore each European project needs groupwork, improves the individual development of every participant, gives openess to diversity and ecourages to learning foreign languages which are constructive lifelong learning skills.
Project ‘Brains at school - knowledge is power!’ was carried out from 1 September 2015 to 30 September 2017 by three cooperating schools: Gimnazjum nr 1 in Mosina - converted into Szkoła Podstawowa nr 1 (Poland), Istituto Comprensivo Muro (Italy), Liceul Matei Basarab (Romania). The project concerned neurodidactics, i.e. the knowledge about the human brain, undergoing processes and optimal working conditions which are essential to teach and learn brain-friendly. The general idea of the project was searching, promoting and practical usage of more effective teaching & learning methods. The main objectives of the project ‘Brains at school - knowledge is power!’: 1. Building brain-friendly schools by searching for effective methods of teaching & learning. 2. Developing and creative using ICT tools. 3. Gaining knowledge about the human brain, i.e. factors which helps and disturbs learning process. 4. Promoting self-learning, searching and selecting information and problem-solving attitude. The most important project activities and results: - gaining knowledge about innovative and neurodidactive teaching & learning methods, - creating publication ‘Brains at school’ presenting knowledge gained through implementation of the project, - preparing, leading, filming and translating into English 27 ‘Brain-friendly lessons’ showing neurodidactive teaching & learning methods, - increasing the competence of teachers and students in the application of ICT, - publishing and dissemination of the 13 issues of the school magazine ‘Erasmus+. Brains at school’, - creating and dissemination of the 6 issues of a project newsletter, - creating 3 board games about the brain, - creating and dissemination of the three leaflets: ‘Brain ABC’ and ‘Logical riddles’, - carrying out the eTwinning project based on creating a Polish-English-Romanian-Italian pocket dictionary with basic vocabulary and expressions useful during project meetings, - organizing (every month) a logical riddles competition for the students, - organizing and taking part in many workshops (for students and teachers) on time management, creativity, mnemonics, concentration, multiple intelligences, dieting, note taking, - preparing (by the students) motivational stickers using ICT skills, - organizing the final conference summarizing the project combined with the school play ‘Brains at school', photo exhibition and promotion of the project results and activities. In order to achieve these objectives, there were 3 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils and 4 transnational project meetings organized. Thanks to the project students could learn how to gain knowledge using brain-friendly methods. Participating teachers were acquainted with specific methods and tools supporting young people in learning basic abilities. All the participants practised their group work skills, developed their key competencies, especially related to the international cooperation, communication and ICT. Additionally, all the project activities supported entrepreneurship, independence and gave a positive impact on cultural diversity and European cultural identity. These competencies are crucial for lifelong learning.