The 21st century is the time when access to information is so easy and common that learning facts and statistical data by heart is no longer necessary as it can be acquired with no effort. Therefore, the most important skills now seem to be the ability to find specific information, understand and employ quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems, interpret and evaluate information from a variety of sources and transform information into knowledge and knowledge into judgment and action. Teaching those competencies is one of the main goals of a modern school nowadays. With our project "STEM activities as the key to success in young people's education" we want to achieve these goals by showing the participants other innovative ways of looking at and understanding maths and science. All the workshops and training sessions organized during the partnership aim at developing both students’ and teachers’ skills in terms of teaching and learning. Among the project products there can be listed a website, eBooks with LEGO designs, scientific experiments YouTube channel and a multi-language dictionary of scientific terms. Moreover, thanks to virtual and real mobilities, student exchanges and transnational meetings, online communication and social media all the participants will learn to overcome cultural, social and mental barriers between European citizens. Both teachers and students will not only improve their language skills but also work on the ability to deal with difficult situations in terms of human relationships. It is worth mentioning that all the activities are complementary to school curricula in each partnering country. Among the positive effects of the project getting to know cultural aspects and promoting each participating country can be mentioned. Thanks to such activities we have a chance to educate modern sophisticated citizens of Europe who are self-confident and open-minded and respect others. Thus it can be said that not only key competences are to be improved but also personal and social ones as well.There are five countries involved in the project are approximately 100 will be involved directly in all project mobilities which means a greater number in case of dissemination on local and regional levels. Apart from already mentioned effects several others can be listed: increasing the quality of what the school has to offer to potential students and the improvement of school curriculum what will bring positive effects even after the project is over. The teachers will become more motivated to incorporate new methods and techniques into their everyday work and the students will see maths and science as interesting subjects. Finally, schools will be promoted on international level along with EU programs.
“STEM- the Key to Success in Young People’s Education” was a School Strategic Partnership project financed by EU, which main goal was to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics among school community as well other interested groups. Five primary schools from Poland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia and Romania were involved in the project. The partnership included several tasks and activities covering the most characteristic features of STEM approach. The project participants worked with LEGO Mindstorms Ev3. robotic designs and applications, Scratch programming, science experiments and maths application making use of Internet applications, film editing programmes and various educational resources available to all browsing the Internet. The two years of project activities resulted in a manual of robot designs, several screencasts presenting step-by-step procedure on using and creating internet applications, scientific videos introducing experiments on physics, chemistry and biology, a list of Scratch applications, lesson plans and other electronic publications available on the common website to all interested in the project.