Our project, titled “Culture Meets Science” is developed to give high school students and teachers the opportunity to explore the intersection of science and culture in four different European schools and communities through preparation, implementation and promotion of innovative methods and techniques in project-based learning and teaching. The project entails four week-long activities in Bulgaria ( PMG "Yane Sandanski" the coordinator), Italy (I.I.S.S "S.Trinchese"), Poland (IX Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace), and Belgium (Kogeka 2) - all of them secondary schools with science profiled classes. The idea of this project is based on transferring expertise and experience in predominantly outdoor project-based learning from experienced schools (Kogeka 2) to schools at the beginner stage of implementing it (PMG"Yane Snadanski" and I.I.S.S. "S. Trinchese") and a school, which does not completely apply this method (Zespol Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych nr 1 w Gdansku)as well as exchange of interdisciplinary lessons. Our approach is strategic and innovative, because we aim to share and disseminatethe benefits of a wider exploitation and implementation of the project-based learning in natural scientific subjects, as well as transferring expertise in interdisciplinary lessons. Our priority inside the project is promoting the acquisition of skills and competences. This project aims to promote students' interest in the sciences through its intersection with various cultures throughout Europe. The two main objectives of our project are cooperation between schools in promoting, implementing and improving project-based learning involving outdoor activities and exchange of best practicies in the field of Learner-Centered Teaching Methods, exchange of interdisciplinary lessons and approaches to sustain that method of teaching in our school and disseminate to a lot of schools in Bulgaria and partner countries. By doing so, we hope to inspire students to pursue further studies in these fields, and do so in creative ways. A second objective is to acquire and share innovative teachings methods across the participating schools. By exchanging these best practices, schools will have the opportunity to raise their standards of excellence and provide exceptional learning opportunities for its students. A final objective is to strengthen the local community, as mentioned above. Through these partnerships, each community will have the opportunity to showcase itself to foreigners, strengthening community ties and improving quality of life through the process. Students participating in this project, aged between 16 - 19, will demonstrate exceptional skills and interest in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and English. These students will work together in groups under the supervision of teachers within the educational fields mentioned previously. All activities, at each respective school, will center around our theme of “Culture Meets Science.” Some activities will take place at school or inside the classrooms, while others will be held in informal settings. In general terms our project will be focused on learners-centered teaching methods and learning, inquiry- based science education, in workshops and practical laboratory experiments - a discovey science methodology will be uncluded in the experiments. We will also include interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches. Most of the activities will be based on hands-on experience and data collection on environment; swot and gap analysis. Moreover, we will use contests, games and playful quizzes to keep the students’ motivation and interest high. As for the activities to be developed, each participating school will decide time, methods and settings. Parts of them will be dealt with during lessons; other parts in extra project sessions following flipped classroom or non-formal settings, while methods, time and length will be adapted and tailored according to the interest and the results obtained during the activities, from evaluation and assessment. Some activities such as warming ups, brief history information about the host country, students’ workshop activities in mixed international groups, cultural programmes will be a part of each meeting. The expected results will be integration of the innovative project-based and interdisciplinary approach alongside with the traditional methodology into the classroom and beyond. Students will have the opportunity to see how the challenging natural science subjects can be easily and successfully learned by taking part in various, attractive learning models.Experience and ideas exchange would lead to faster and easier implementation and creation of innovative interdisciplinary data base of lessons. Project-based learning when adquately applied will result in students enhanced quality of studying compared to traditional instructional methodology. It could increase long-term relation of material as well as students and teachers motivation and collaboration.
The idea of this project was based on transferring expertise and experience in predominantly outdoor project-based learning from experienced schools (Kogeka 2) to schools at the beginner stage of implementing it (PMG"Yane Snadanski" and I.I.S.S. "S. Trinchese") and a school which didn’t completely apply this method (Zespol Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych nr 1 w Gdansku) as well as an exchange of interdisciplinary lessons. Our approach was strategic and innovative, because we aimed to share and disseminate the benefits of a wider exploitation and implementation of the project-based learning in natural scientific subjects, as well as transferring expertise in interdisciplinary lessons. Our priority inside the project was promoting the acquisition of skills and competences. This project aimed to promote students' interest in the sciences through its intersection with various cultures throughout Europe. The two main objectives of our project were cooperation between schools in promoting, implementing and improving project-based learning involving outdoor activities and exchange of best practices in the field of Learner-Centered Teaching Methods, exchange of interdisciplinary lessons and approaches to sustain that method of teaching in our school and disseminate to a lot of schools in Bulgaria and partner countries. By doing so, we hoped to inspire students to pursue further studies in these fields, and to do so in creative ways. A second objective was to acquire and share innovative teachings methods across the participating schools. By exchanging these best practices, schools have had the opportunity to raise their standards of excellence and provide exceptional learning opportunities for its students. A final objective was to strengthen the local community, as mentioned above. Through this partnerships, each community had the opportunity to showcase itself to foreigners, strengthening community ties and improving quality of life through the process. Students participating in this project, aged between 16 - 19, demonstrated exceptional skills and interest in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and English. These students worked together in groups under the supervision of teachers within the educational fields mentioned previously. All activities, at each respective school, centered around our theme of “Culture Meets Science.” Some activities took place at school or inside the classrooms, while others were held in informal settings. In general terms our project was focused on learners-centered teaching methods and learning, inquiry- based science education, in workshops and practical laboratory experiments - a discovery science methodology was included in the experiments. We also included interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches. Most of the activities were based on hands-on experience and data collection on environment; swot and gap analysis. Moreover, we used contests, games and playful quizzes to keep the students’ motivation and interest high. As for the activities to be developed, each participating school decided time, methods and settings. Parts of them were dealt with during lessons; other parts in extra project sessions following flipped classroom or non-formal settings, while methods, time and length were adapted and tailored according to the interest and the results obtained during the activities, from evaluation and assessment. Some activities such as warming ups, brief history information about the host country, students’ workshop activities in mixed international groups, cultural programmes were a part of each meeting. The expected results were integration of the innovative project-based and interdisciplinary approach alongside with the traditional methodology into the classroom and beyond. Students had the opportunity to see how the challenging natural science subjects can be easily and successfully learned by taking part in various, attractive learning models. Experience and ideas exchange led to faster and easier implementation and creation of innovative interdisciplinary data base of lessons. Project-based learning when adequately applied resulted in students enhanced quality of studying compared to traditional instructional methodology. It increased long-term relation of material as well as students and teacher’s motivation and collaboration.