Project "Cool Science for Young Scientists" involves seven primary and secondary educational institutions (two Irish, a Slovenian, a German, a Turkish, a Greek and a Hungarian school) with around 1500 participants including students, teachers, parents and other members of the local communities. Project work will be ensured by cooperation, effective communication among the partners and it will be based on new and innovative approaches to teaching Science and exchanging of good practices. This project is addressed to the following topics: -Water. We will investigate the characteristics of water, we will carry out experiments with the three phases of it, we will also be interested in water consumption, water saving techniques and purification processes. We will acquire knowledge about hydroenergy and its various usage. -Fire. We will make experiments in connection with light and shadow, fire, the Sun and solar energy. We will discover the features of light, learn about fire lighting techniques and the Sun as a renewable energy source. -Air. We will explore the components of air, the possible causes of air pollution and how to reduce them, we will carry out experiments related to air pressure, wind and sound. We will get to know about the operation of windmills and wind farms. Besides experiments we will broaden the participants' horizons by visiting power plants that produce electricity using renewable energy sources, study visits to sewage works and Science museums, celebrating elements (water, fire, air) days at schools. The main objectives are -To provide numerous opportunities for participants to understand our nature and environment we live in. -To hold the spotlight on school labs and natural surroundings so as to emphasize their importance in the acquisition of scientific knowledge. - To increase skills by actively participating in activities, like entrepreneurship, creativity, logical thinking, self confidence and communication. -To learn about innovative educational methods and practices in order to improve the quality of Science education in the participating schools - Due to the active collaboration among the participants and studying about each other European citizenship will gain deeper significance. -To use English as a common language of our project work will motivate pupils and teachers alike to improve their language skills and enhance one of the main principles of the European Union concerning language learning. Furthermore, getting to know other foreign languages will give an opportunity to participants to have a glimpse into other cultures. We have chosen this subject because we believe that teaching Science has to gain more importance than it possesses in our present educational systems as it deserves more attention. When project participants are fully involved in project activities, they have the chance to understand the world around them. We will be able to make the most of children's curiosity, their constant asking "Why", which will provide motivation throughout the project work. Moreover, we truly believe that English cannot be taught in an isolated way but integrated in other subjects as well. Students and teachers will attend three workshops where they will share good practices about the ecological issues as following: -Water topic in Hungary -Fire topic in Germany -Air topic in Slovenia We will also attend three transnational project meetings in Ireland, Greece and Turkey for project discussion, assessment and evaluation. The main products of the project will be three Science books based on the booklets of the participating schools about their experiments. Each book contains the detailed description of these experiments providing ample photo materials and task sheets with questions that help the participants analyse what is happening. We will have Scientific Fridays when we will carry out the experiments whose material will be widely disseminated so they are available to the general public and specially to teachers across Europe. With this project we are sure that our students will obtain more qualified education in Science owning to the innovative practices, their project experiences will maintain their motivation throughout the years ahead they spend in education. The Science books will raise higher interest in studying Science for the next generation of students. Since most of the experiments will be carried out using recycled or recyclable materials, we are completely sure we will be able to get environmentally responsible citizens who will be able to envisage the kind of future our Earth needs and will be able to "heal the world, make it a better place for you and for me." (Michael Jackson)
The project started off and followed the plan in a mainly consecutive fashion. Due to timing of meetings and pupil trips, some parts of the programme were brought forward earlier than originally planned. The project was launched in each school in early September. Countries were introduced and the content of the planned project was outlined and explained. This was shared with the whole school communities and also shared via social media and word of mouth with the whole local communities and further. There was a logo competition held in each school and a winner was chosen within each school and prizes awarded. At the first project management meeting, which was held in Ireland, there was one logo chosen as the winner from all the finalists and it has represented our project throughout the two years. It was a pupil from the Hungarian school who was the artist/designer. That logo is on our website and any letters and project newsletters that were sent out to families. It was also on products such as our science experiment book. The Turkey team even got official postage stamps created in the country with our logo – that was a huge achievement! There have also been hats with the logo, aprons and t-shirts! Each school got a mascot and diary and then each mascot (teddy) set off on its route to each of the other six schools at the time of the first meeting in Ireland in October 2017. There was a great reception for the visiting teachers to the Irish schools in October 2017 and this set the bar for the exchange trips and transnational project meetings that followed. There were school visits, project meetings and cultural visits. The work on the water part of the project began. Pupils in each school worked on experiments related to this and the pupils who would be going on the first trip to Hungary were very serious and hardworking about preparing to showcase their projects in for of a large audience of international pupils and educational staff. The first trip for pupils was in Hungary. We brought 6 pupils even though e only had budget for 4 pupils. There was a very good schedule for the week there and the pupils were very involved in activities connected with the water theme of our project. The pupils from all the partner schools got to present the experiments they had been working on in front of the large group. We also visited a hydro-electric power plant and a waste water treatment plant. There were other great activities such as a trip to the Eco-park and the palace of miracles which was like an interactive science museum Centre. The experiments with fire then began in our schools in preparation for the next trip. This was to Marburg in Germany. We had budget for 2 pupils but we brought 4. Bente had prepared a great week for the pupils and teachers and the experiments on fire were presented in the main school hall, There were many other connected activities all week, including, spending a day at the forest school and doing bushcraft amongst other things. The next science theme of the project was air. We enjoyed learning all about air back at school. All pupils from 4 to 13 year were involved. We visited a wind farm and had a very informative talk there. 6 pupils were chosen to go to Slovenia even though we had grant for 4. They had a great trip there and had many good outdoor activities as well as lots of games and fun with the Slovenian pupils. The ex[eriments on air were all presented to a large group and the children learned a lot by watching the experiments the pupils from the their partner schools had prepared and demonstrated. One of our objectives was to enable our participants to better understand the nature and environment we live in. We feel we have done this in man ways throughout the project by engaging in the many experiments and visiting places such as the drinking water treatment plane, the waste water treatment plant, the windmill farms the HEP plants etc. There was great communication between the participants which led to a greater development of European citizenship. We feel very confident that the work carried out over the length of the project has absolutely met with the objectives and gone beyond in many instances.