The project „The quest of the science queen” results from the partners schools’ needs and it’s the outcome of earlier actions. During the last years we were trying to improve the quality of our teaching methods and make the final exams results better. We took part in various language and methodological projects. The next step is the obvious consequence of these actions, namely we want to rise the attractiveness of Math education by implementing innovative methods. Simultaneously, the innovation will satisfy the individual student’s needs and change the general perseverance of Math as a boring subject fulfilled with understandable rules. This time the most crucial aim to us is to rise the mathematical competence among youth and make the final exam results better as well. We believe that well, scientifically educated youth will have better opportunities in the labor market. That is why we as teachers need innovative and modern teaching methods in order to achieve the goal. Only a competent and open-minded educator is able to encourage the students to take new challenges. The project “ The quest of the science queen” will help to educate international teachers who use math in their everyday work. Possessing mathematical skills is crucial in understanding other subjects. Arousing logical thinking, as well as three-dimensional perseverance and brain based calculations are important tasks which each teacher should face their students with if they wish to take up higher education in the future. The additional, motivating factor in the process of creating our project is reinforcing the language competence among teachers and students as well. Our school possesses bilingual classes with the extended usage of English, nevertheless it isn’t enough for our pupils to use the language in everyday real life situations without teacher’s feedback. This unconstrained usage of communicational skills will be very useful for each partner school. The issue of partner schools selection was naturally intentional. Thanks to the eTwinning tolls, we have invited the schools which have revealed similar needs or offer the innovative methods of math teaching to take part in the project. After exchanging some ideas by using the internet, we have established the rules within the project team and introduced the variety of offers and expectations which are supposed to be attractive for the teachers and the students who are taking part in the project. We are going to work by using activating methods of teaching which arouse abstract imagination and three-dimensional one. The activities are going to take place in unusual places ( workshops in factories or touristic destinations) so as not to associate learning math with a school desk and a blackboard. Throughout several on-line conferences the partners came to the conclusion that working out and putting into practice the range of innovative methods at the European level will definitely help us all to gain better results. We are also planning to publish a catalogue of lesson scenarios, workshops and trainings. Their aim is to support the teachers who take part in the project and other educators from different schools. There are going to be organized specialist conferences throughout which the project products will be introduced. Moreover, many local organizations and institutions are going to be involved in the project. We would like our project to be a local event that is why we want to include teachers from other schools, students’ parents, local governments, the nearest companies and resorts into the project realization. We assume that one project partner should have the influence on minimum two thousand people. In this way we wish to encourage to get involve as many citizens of our small town as possible. Our foreign partners reveal similar aims according to their locational conditions. Our school is situated in a small town so the realization of the international project will give the society the opportunity to open themselves to other culture, religion and mentality. Pursuing the goal together leads to level the differences and accustom to incomprehensible and unknown issues. Working on the project will increase the interest in the scientific subjects, ICT, technology and foreign language as well. It will also let the whole society understand the world with all its uniqueness and diversities. The far-reaching aim of the project is to rise the level of teaching effectiveness. A well educated teacher, equipped with innovative teaching methods, is becoming more effective. Future generations of students will get a huge advantage of the results of the project.
The project "The Quest of the Science Queen " was the result of a consistent improvement in the quality of teaching in our schools. In principle, for five years we have been taking part in trainings and projects that improve our teaching and language skills. " The Quest of the Science Queen " was another step in the development of not only teachers, but also students (present and future). We have focused on mathematics this time. We were well aware that for most students it is the most difficult subject. That is why we wanted to develop innovative teaching methods in the framework of the project that will allow young people to be interested in this difficult subject. Thanks to this, graduates of our schools found it easier on the educational market. Such pupils will find it easier to find their place in the labor market in the future. However, the project did not focus solely on students directly involved in the project. We were more interested in teacher education. They are the tools that convey knowledge in the field of mathematics. Participation in the project allowed them to discover innovative teaching methods that stimulate students to be active. Not only mathematicians but also other teachers were involved in the project. In this way, we have made the development of key mathematical competences a large educational area. Teachers learned how to stimulate young people to logical thinking, spatial imaging or memory action on large numbers. An additional goal was to expand language skills among students and teachers. The project involved a junior high school in Strzelno, where for six years bilingual classes have been created. The students take part in maths, geography and chemistry lessons taught in English. For a large group of students, the project activities forced more intensive work on raising competences in the field of English. This aspect of the project was extremely interesting, because the Romanian school also put a strong emphasis on the development of language competences. A significant proportion of students used several languages - Hungarian, English and German. Therefore, the youth from Poland and Bulgaria saw that you can learn well in several languages. For Bulgarians, the development of language competences was important because young people from Sofia tend not to be interested in learning foreign languages. Participation in the project forced them not only to reflection, but also more intensive learning. The development of language competences was also an important element for teachers who spoke not only English and Russian. The partners were chosen on purpose - a Polish Junior high school with bilingual branches, a Romanian high school, where the main language of instruction is English and German, Bulgarian electronic technical school. Three partners have brought knowledge of science and high language competences to the project. Unfortunately, due to political turmoil, the Turkish schools withdrew from the project, but all their tasks were taken over by three partners from Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. As part of a two-year project, we completed all planned activities and achieved our goals. We went beyond maths with maths. We have shown that mathematics can be an interesting subject and taught in various places. We involved many people (students, teachers, parents, officials) and many institutions, eg Faculty of Methodology of Teaching from Satu Mare, Romanian salt mine, Mill of Knowledge in Toruń, Institute of Goose Breeding in Koło, Gingerbread Museum in Toruń, House of Alchemist in Toruń, Institute of Technology Development in Sofia, Sofia zoo. Thanks to these institutions, we were able to carry out innovative mathematics classes in the background. For the purposes of the project, several original lesson and work sheet scenarios were created, which not only enriched the project participants 'skills, but they came to many teachers during methodological workshops, academic conferences or teacher training, eg about the influence of students' participation in competitions for the development of mathematical competences, on methods of teaching mathematics in various educational systems in the world). All published materials have been published on the internet to make them generally available. Also, some of the materials are distributed by project teachers in the form of publications (eg a book with lesson plans was published). The implementation of the two-year project affected not only students and teachers directly involved. The results of the project activities are long-term, because the lessons learned and materials will allow teachers to use them for many years. Not only maths lessons will be more interesting for future generations of students. Schools from Strzelno, Sofia and Satu Mare also gained prestige in local communities. Wide information on project activities contributed to the popularization of not only our schools, but also the Erasmus project itself.