In Europe during the last decades a constant discussion has been taking place about the position of science and technology in our education. European and national authorities emphasize the importance of science and technology literacy and the conditions for our knowledge-based economy. Until now the numbers of students chosing for science and technology in secondary and higher education do seem not sufficient. In our schools we feel the necessity to stimulate our students in this direction. In the two-year project SIMPLE we try to combine some research of our science and technology education and to bring concrete improvements in it in the form of some concrete innovative teaching modules. Research will be done by students; participants in it will be science teachers, language teachers, school managers, parents and representatives of higher educational institutes and industrial circles. The modules will be constructed in the form of blended teaching, which means that they consist of three elements: classical teaching, online teaching and practical implementation. In some of the modules we also try to use the CLIL-methodology, the Content and Language Integrated Learning. In this way we hope these modules will supply the growing need of a more personalized learning. Through the different tasks they will be asked to achieve, the students will take initiative, develop an enterprising mind, and learn to work with European partners. First, to set up the Science fair in each school, the students will lead experiments that will require specific equipment. Secondly, the students will investigate laboratories and/ or research centers and visit some of them in their region. These visits are necessary to make them aware of the reality of the scientific world. Thirdly, during the project-meetings students will do workshops together where they are doing some research on special topics of that region. Finally, the teachers are working on the enhancement of teaching- methods during the project-meetings in the form of blended teaching.
The “Simple“ project aimed at raising the students’ motivation for science and give to teachers a wider repertoire in teaching methods. Participants of the project were schools of secondary education: The „Europaschule Ostendorf-Gymnasium“ from Lippstadt (Ger) as coordinating school with students aged about 10 to 18. The „Lycée Alain Borne“ from Montélimar (F) with students aged about 15 to 18. The „Lyceo Il Pontormo“ from Empoli (I) also with students aged about 15 to 18. The „Almunge skola“ from Uppsala (S). Those students are aged about 10 to 16. The „Uden's College“ from Uden (NL). The students from the Netherlands are aged 10 to 16 and some of them are students with special needs. The project was based on four parts, which were meant lead to the aim mentioned above. Firstly there was the ”Science fair“, which was presented and implemented in each school. The “Europaschule Ostendorf-Gymnasium“ presented the concept to the others and all schools carried it out during the school year. At the end there was an international science fair on the last project meeting in Empoli. The winners of the national fairs presented their results and the first three places were chosen. The jury consisted of students and teachers of the different countries, who gave points using a special evaluation sheet. This evaluation sheet, with special criteria, was agreed on with the science teachers of all countries before the meeting. The second part of the project was the “flipped classroom“. The implementation was done by the French school. During the first project meeting the representatives of the different subjects agreed on some topics taught in all schools. These was quite difficult because of the different age groups of students and the different curricula in the countries. Finally, all schools produced videos dealing with different science subjects, which were uploaded and published on the project web site (https://simple-erasmus.eu) . As improvement to the original “flipped classroom“ we used videos produced by students and not by teachers. This proved to be didactically successful, as the students were obliged to know the subject very well before turning producing the film. Furthermore, the student dealt with different possibilities of producing a video such as “stop motion“. This fostered the ICT-skills of the students (and also teachers, who supported the students). The use of the videos as planned turned out difficult because of several reasons. First of all, the making of the videos took a certain time (about one year) and the possibility to use the films during the lesson is normally reduced to once in a year (when the topic comes up in the curriculum). Secondly, not all the project-related teachers had the right classes to use the films. Another problem was that the videos were in English. Unfortunately, not all students are able to fully understand the videos. For a better use of the videos, tests or worksheets were made (and uploaded) by the teachers to give students the possibility to check their understanding of the subject after the reception of the video. Even though this part of the project did not completely turn out as planned, all participants judge this part as very successful. The method of creating a video by students had a high didactical value and has thus been used very often in the participating schools. The third component was the job-shadowing, which was done during every project meeting. At the beginning we created an evaluation sheet for the lessons, but we had to revise the first evaluation sheet and also the second one. We noticed that it was very difficult to judge the lessons of the colleagues as too many components (such as equipment of the schools, age & number of students or the specific curriculum) have a big effect on how to teach a lesson. As conclusion we can say that the personality of the teacher is mainly responsible determining the motivation and the progress of the students. Some innovative teaching methods cannot be switched to another country because the different conditions or the equipment of the schools do not offer the possibility for that. The forth part of the project consists of fostering the interest for science through excursions during the school year and workshops during the project meetings. The students should come to understand the relevance of science in real life. In all countries excursions were done and presented on the homepage, e.g there was the visit to a nuclear plant (F, Ger), a laboratory for genetic engineering (Ger) or the visit to a quarry (F). Overall, we judge the project as very successful. Besides the points mentioned above the project was gainful concerning the following parts:Teachers and students improved their communicative competence in writing and speaking the English language. The insight into other school systems and other teaching methods leads to a self-reflection of one’s own lessons and encourages to try innovative teaching methods.