Since entrepreneurs are in search of new ideas and solutions in order to be competitive and therefore successful, we believe that our students can find inspiration in the work of our national ‘heroes’, our inventors and innovators throughout history. Their experience can be our students’ guiding light into the future – they can learn from them in order to create similar projects on their own and to learn certain skills that would help them in their professional choices. Our key OBJECTIVE is to give students insight into our history and heritage through learning about inventors and innovators in history and nowadays, and then use this newly found knowledge in creating their own idea which would be an innovation on the market and the basis of a business endeavour. We want to teach our students how to recognize a possible innovation by exposing them to examples of national and European inventors and innovators, taking them to school trips where they would experience similar stories first-hand, teaching them basics of entrepreneurship and marketing, and developing their critical-thinking skills. PARTICIPANTS of the project will be secondary school students and teachers from 5 EU countries (Croatia, Greece, Sweden, Poland, Germany) from different types of school. There will be more than 100 mobilities in the project over the 2 years, and the number of students and teachers participating in project activities is estimated at around 200. Of course, several thousands of teachers and students will be indirect participants and users of our project results. Some ACTIVITIES we plan: - 2 transnational meetings and 4 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils - International Inventors’ Day – on Nov 9, school fairs / open days - 11 workshops - Erasmus Corner - visits to local institutions/factories and local inventors’ associations and museums - guest lectures by inventors and innovators and other professionals - presentations and posters – of chosen inventors and innovators - evaluation surveys - "My invention" - model companies - "the Handbook for teachers: teaching inventiveness with our inventors and innovators" - the Android mobile application METHODOLOGY During these activities students will be exposed to active learning methods which will engage them in a more attractive way of learning (research on the Internet, brainstorm, elicit important information, timelines, presenting etc). Also, we will pay a lot of attention on developing critical thinking and problem solving skills with students since these skills will be necessary especially during the second year of the project. We will pay great attention to improving students' and teachers' key skills and competences. RESULTS AND IMPACT (students) - testing and expanding students' language level and skills - developing new digital and entrepreneurial skills and competences - increase students' ability to work in international teams - learning about students' foreign peers’ culture, their own ideas and plans for the future - raising awareness of our own culture and the need to combat stereotypes and xenophobia - improving social skills, self-confidence and self-esteem - stimulate the development of one's personality while developing skills of critical thinking, organizing and producing something new - raising awareness in the context of vocational training and entrepreneurship - learning how to recognize an innovative idea, and work on its realization and market placement RESULTS AND IMPACT (teachers/staff) - enhancing the quality and European dimension of teacher training - raising awareness of the similarities and differences between other cultures - developing new skills and competences - learning how to motivate and inspire students to be innovative and persistent and be innovative themselves - creating new tools and materials to work with young people - supporting the prevention of dropping out of school by young people and fighting uneployment by motivating students to try self-employment RESULTS AND IMPACT (participating schools) - getting a European dimension - gaining new insights into national and local culture, as well as examples of good managerial work and entrepreneurial spirit - becoming an innovative school - strengthening cooperation with local authorities, businesses, various institutions, schools and social organizations RESULTS AND IMPACT (local community) - offering educators with new useful tools and ready-made material for work in classrooms - offering a fresh and optimistic new outlook on the topic of science and invention and popularize it among young people, teachers and schools - strengthening cooperation with schools - gaining a source of information about the effects of the project by unlimited access to the websites of the project after its ending - creating an opportunity to establish partnership and cooperation with local authorities of our countries - engaging in multilateral dialogue, identifying problems and expectations
CONTEXT and OBJECTIVES: When preparing the project, we wanted our students to learn from our national inventors and innovators and implement those ideas in their own future. The intention wasn't to create inventors since we are not schools which educate in that field, but to teach students that it's not impossible and give them guidelines if they do venture in this field. Also, we wanted to show students that in the digital era innovators are not necessarily people with engineering background, but people with an idea, who are also creative and brave. We wanted to motivate students to learn certain skills that would help them in their professional choices. And we believe we succeeded in this respect. Our key OBJECTIVE was to give students insight into our history and heritage through learning about inventors and innovators in history and nowadays, and then use this newly found knowledge in creating their own idea which would be an innovation on the market and the basis of a business endeavour. We wanted to teach our students how to recognize a possible innovation by exposing them to examples of national and European inventors and innovators, taking them to school trips where they would experience similar stories first-hand, teaching them basics of entrepreneurship and marketing, and developing their critical-thinking skills. PARTICIPANTS: Secondary school students and teachers from 5 EU countries (Croatia, Greece, Sweden, Poland, Germany) from different types of schools (1 experimental, 1 real schule and 3 vocational schools). We realized more than 100 mobilities over the 2 years as planned in the application, and the number of students and teachers participating in project activities is estimated at around 400, which is more than we planned. ACTIVITIES: - 2 transnational meetings in Croatia and Greece, and 4 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils (Croatia, Germany , Sweden and Poland). - 11 workshops - during mobilities and in respective schools throughout the 2 years - Erasmus corner - an information corner in all schools with updated information - International Inventors’ Day – on Nov 9, thematic days in schools with lectures and games - visits to local institutions/factories and local inventors’ associations and museums during mobilities - guest lectures by inventors and innovators and other professionals - presentations and posters – of chosen inventors and innovators - evaluation surveys - "My invention" - model companies - "the Handbook for teachers: teaching inventiveness with our inventors and innovators" - Wikipedia articles on inventors - instead of a planned Android mobile application which proved to be very difficult to create just with students so we decided to try to realize the objectives this way RESULTS AND IMPACT (students) - students expanded their foreign language level and skills (English and German mostly, but they were also exposed to national languages) and also developed presentation skills in English language - students developed new digital and entrepreneurial skills and competences - their abilities to work in international teams increased and they managed really well - students learned about foreign students' culture, their own ideas and plans for the future, which also raised their awareness of their own culture and the need to combat stereotypes and xenophobia - students improved their social skills, self-confidence and self-esteem - we worked really hard on developing skills of critical thinking, organizing and producing something new and we got great results and feedback - we also wanted to raise awareness in the context of vocational training and entrepreneurship and tried to make that training more popular among students - studens had the chance to learn how to recognize an innovative idea, and work on its realization and market placement RESULTS AND IMPACT (teachers/staff) - enhanced the quality and European dimension of teacher training - raised awareness of the similarities and differences between other cultures - developed new skills and competences - both experienced and inexperienced teachers - learned how to motivate and inspire students to be innovative and persistent and be innovative themselves - with the help of guest lecturers and foreign teachers - created new tools and materials to work with young people - supported the prevention of dropping out of school by young people and fighting uneployment by motivating students to try self-employment - Erasmus project has been very popular among students and we emphasised the idea and need of lifelong learning RESULTS AND IMPACT (participating schools) - our schools continued to work together in the 2019 Call too - gained new insights into national and local culture, as well as examples of good managerial work and entrepreneurial spirit - strengthened cooperation with local authorities, businesses, various institutions, schools and social organizations