Using the opportunity offered by the Erasmus+ Programme, the strategic partnership Robotics ON intends to provide all highschool students with the opportunity to increase their skills in STEM, to be science and technology leaders by getting engaged in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills. The project goal is to increase the number of experienced young programmers in the partner communities and the number of students enrolled in further ICT education in the context of the internationalised labour market. In this respect, 2 theoretical schools from Romania and Lithuania, 2 VET schools from Hungary and Italy and 2 Romanian NGO from private companies, address a major challenge and undertake the responsibility to provide their students with digital and entrepreneurial skills they need to succeed in life after graduation. In this regard, until the end of the project, the 84 students from the target group: -will have developed digital and entrepreneurial competences relevant for personal development and for further education and/or career; -will have an increased autonomy regarding personal and professional development, being peer-counsellors, members of a non-formal educational group- Robotics Club, competitors in ICT/ programming/ robotics field -will have developed capacity to adapt, promote innovation and exploit the potential of technologies and digital content, within Robotic Clubs, by creating at least one robot/ school, to solve a problem identified by themselves at school level. The target group of the project comprises 84 students (15 to 18 y.o.) interested in learning about and using ICTs and designing and creating robots, which will boost their personal development and enhance their employability. These students, who have very good linguistic competences in English and good skills in programming, need specific training in: communication, teamwork related project management, critical thinking, creative problem solving, robotics coding and driving. The project proposes training students by very competitive and visible trainers from the private companies for ICT, considering them to be more connected to the business environment and the challenges and needs of the IT market. The most motivated and competitive among ICT passionate students will be part of the Robotics Club in their school. In each school, after each training session, students will work together as peer-counselors and creators of digital resources/robots, autonomously using their achievements, identifying institutional needs which can become solutions to their own projects. Within Robotics Club workshops, students will develop strategies, they will identify and distribute roles and responsibilities, will develop and promote ideas and projects for their school/ communities and they will create their own robot, to solve a problem identified by themselves. Three types of activities will be carried out:project management activities (3 transnational meetings, planning, monitoring, evaluating, promoting, disseminating, reporting), activities related to the intellectual outputs (elaborating, testing, implementing and improving), 4 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils and 2 multiplier events. Two intellectual outputs will be elaborated, tested and improved during the project: curriculum Robotics ON - O1 and an e-learning web application- O2. The O1 modules/ O2 sections will be: -Communication, Coordination, Teamwork related to System Project Management -Critical thinking, creative problem solving -Computer programming -Robotics coding and driving. The curriculum modules will be available in English, Romanian, Lithuanian, Hungarian and Italian. At the end of the project, those two outputs will have the best format, related to the students’ knowledge, competences and expectations. At the end of the project’s implementation, the following main results are expected: •84 students who were involved Robotics Clubs activities will be more creative and best performing in using ICT in both school and non-school contexts, with increased competence in programming and robotics • 4 portfolios of Robotics-Clubs will prove students’ work and intermediary results • 4robots will be made by Robotics Clubs students/ one per school. Also, different types of materials using ICT tools will be made and disseminated: newsletters, movies, presentations, DVDs, banners, leaflets, panels, posters etc. The impact of implementing the project envisages the participant students, teachers, the local community and the partner organizations. All the project interventions, through their synergic effects, aim to prepare the students for international ICT competitions, to ensure the student's succeed in life after graduationand as an effect to improve schools’ capacity to respond to the changes, strengthening institutional capacity through the exchange of best practices and experience with the partners.
Using the opportunity offered by the Erasmus+ Programme, the strategic partnership Robotics ON provided the highschool students with the opportunity to increase their skills in STEM, to be science and technology leaders by getting engaged in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills. The „Robotics ON” project goal was to increase the number of experienced young programmers in the partner communities and the number of students enrolled in further ICT education in the context of the internationalised labour market. In this respect, 2 theoretical schools from Romania and Lithuania, 2 VET schools from Hungary and Italy and 2 Romanian NGO from private companies, addressed a major challenge and undertook the responsibility to provide their students with digital and entrepreneurial skills they need to succeed in life after graduation. In this regard, until the end of the project, the 84 students from the target group: - have developed digital and entrepreneurial competences relevant for personal development and for further education and/or career; -have increased autonomy regarding personal and professional development, being peer-counsellors, members of a non-formal educational group- Robotics Club, competitors in ICT/ programming/ robotics field; -have developed capacity to adapt, promote innovation and exploit the potential of technologies and digital content, within Robotic Clubs, by creating at least one robot/ school, to solve a problem identified by themselves. The target group of the project comprises students interested in using ICTs and designing and creating robots, which will boost their personal development and enhance their employability. These students benefited from specific training in communication, teamwork related project management, critical thinking, creative problem solving, robotics coding and driving. In this regard, the learning activities were conducted by very competitive trainers from the IT private companies, considering them to be more connected to the business environment and the challenges and needs of the IT market. The most motivated and competitive among ICT passionate students took part of the Robotics Club in their school. In each school, after each STEGP, students worked together as peer-counselors and creators of digital resources/robots, autonomously using their achievements, identifying institutional needs which can become solutions to their own projects. Within Robotics Club workshops, students developed strategies, identified and distributed roles and responsibilities, developed and promoted ideas and projects for their school/ communities and, finally, they created more than one robot/ school. During the project implementation, the following types of activities have been carried out: project management activities (3 transnational meetings; planning, monitoring, evaluating, promoting, disseminating, reporting activities), activities related to the intellectual outputs (elaborating, testing, implementing and improving), 4 STEGPs (learning activities) and 2 multiplier events. Two intellectual outputs were developed within the partnership: O1- curriculum Robotics ON, and O2 - e-learning web application. The O1 modules/ O2 sections are: -Communication, Coordination, Teamwork related to System Project Management; -Critical thinking, creative problem solving; -Computer programming; -Robotics coding and driving. The curriculum modules are available on www.roboticson.eu, in English, Romanian, Lithuanian, Hungarian and Italian. At the end of this experience, 84 students were certified with the Europass Mobility after attending the learning activities. They became more creative and responsible in using ICT in both school and non-school contexts and also more responsible regarding career decisions, global citizens connected to their communities. The project results, experience and outputs were disseminated inside the partner organizations, in the local community (to teachers and students from other schools in town/region, representatives from school inspectorates, universities, local authorities, private medium) and also in the wider lifelong learning community, to people in charge of European programmes and other schools or institutions involved in the educational field. The impact of implementing the project envisages the participant students, teachers, the local community and the partner organizations. All the project interventions, through their synergic effects, prepared the students for ICT competitions, to ensure the student's succeed in life after graduation and as an effect to improve schools’ capacity to respond to the changes, strengthening institutional capacity through the exchange of best practices and experience with the partners.