Today people with unsatisfactory math skills often encounter severe restrictions on the labor market in today’s technology rich society. We also witness that students and teachers are struggling in applying abstract math concepts in everyday life. The project “Don’t be afraid of math” offers all participants a wide range of tools, methodologies and strategies to improve their entrepreneurial skills, be assertive and innovative and become more independent in their later careers. Through this project we promote not only mathematical skills as very useful and necessary for an easier career choice in the future but also international cooperation as being the best teacher of independent decision making, career planning and tolerance to all participants. The main objectives of the project are: acquiring the key skills and competences, professional development of the teaching staff, stressing the importance of international cooperation and promoting tolerance and social inclusion. The project’s engine is about 300 students, aged 12-15 (59 of whom with either educational, health, economic difficulties or refugees issues) and about 30 teachers (Mathematics, English, German, Physics, Art, Geography, ICT and Science) from 6 countries with different educational systems who will not only improve their mathematical, language, ICT, negotiation, public speaking skills but also learn about different ways of applying mathematics in different areas of life. Students will take part in weekly workshops which will be divided into 6 themes (from Pitagoras to Gauss; mathematics and geography; it’s beautiful; I will be an entrepreneur; let’s have fun; from the binary system to coding). Some of them will take part in Learning-Training activities and at least one student with fewer opportunities from each partner school will participate in each Learning, Teaching and Training activity. Teachers will conduct workshops for students, participate in local project teams and both students and teachers will use eTwinning to present their works, communicate with their fellow students and teachers from other schools, disseminate and evaluate project activities. During the project there will be 6 Learning, Teaching and Training activities: 4 activities for students (Math is useful; Mathematical navigation fun, Company simulation, Math festival) and 2 for teachers (Math doesn’t have to be difficult and IT programs in teaching maths). Activities for teachers will be used to improve teachers' training and exchange good practice. The sharing of international best practices and knowledge across partner schools is an essential component of this Strategic Partnership. Furthermore meeting new people from different cultural backgrounds will prepare the participants for the life in multicultural, tolerant European community. During the project a wide range of methods will be used: cooperative learning, learning by doing, peer teaching, learning by playing, teamwork, implementing CLIL methodology, ICT tools in teaching and learning, social inclusion and integration, creating interactive maths quizzes and games applicable for future teaching and learning. It will help create a more modern and dynamic professional environment inside schools. Participants will transfer the knowledge acquired in the framework of local partnership to colleagues from all over Europe using eTwinning. After the project's end we will maintain the project open on the eTwinning platform, with collaborative tasks and activities that allow the transnational, interdisciplinary and intersectional benefits of the cooperation between the partner institutions in long-term perspective. The project will enable participants to develop critical thinking skills, the ability to solve problems, to improve their accounting skills, teamwork, ICT and English language skills, to find joy in cooperative learning; in that way learn from each other, respect each other's differences and gain important interpersonal skills, to promote school's openness to Europe and the world. In the long run it will boost young people in launching their own startup companies making them an important stakeholder on the European and the world’s market.
In today's technology-rich society people with unsatisfactory math skills are often faced with severe restrictions on the job market. We also see that students and teachers have difficulty applying abstract mathematics concepts to everyday life. The project “Don't be afraid of math” should give all participants a wide range of tools, methods and strategies to improve their math skills, be assertive and innovative, and become more independent in their later careers. In this project not only the mathematical skills, which are often very important and necessary for the career choice, but also the international cooperation between teachers from different nations and the students of different nationalities and origins were promoted. Understanding differences and tolerance towards other people are important key skills. The main objectives of the project were: acquisition of key skills and competences, professional development of teaching staff, emphasis on the importance of international cooperation and promotion of tolerance and social inclusion. The main group of the project consisted of about 300 students aged 12 to 15 years (59 of them with educational, health, economic or refugee problems) and about 30 teachers (math, English, German, physics, art, geography, ICT and Natural Sciences) from 6 countries with different educational systems who not only improved their skills in math, language, ICT, negotiation and public speaking, but also learned about different ways of applying mathematics to different fields of life. Students took part in workshops divided into 6 topics (from Pytagoras to Gauss; math and geography; it's beautiful; I'm going to be an entrepreneur; let's have fun; from binary to coding). Some of them have participated in learning and training activities, always including at least one student with fewer opportunities from each partner school. The teachers prepared and carried out workshops for students and formed local project teams. Both students and teachers have used eTwinning to present their work, to communicate with their classmates and teachers from other schools, to disseminate and evaluate project activities. There were 6 learning, teaching and training activities during the project: 4 activities for students (math is useful; fun math navigation, business simulation, math festival) and 2 for teachers (math doesn't have to be difficult and teaching IT programs in math). Activities for teachers were used to improve teacher education and share best practices. The exchange of international best practices and knowledge between partner schools was an essential part of this strategic partnership. In addition, new participants with different cultural backgrounds were prepared by other participants for life in a multicultural, tolerant European community. A wide range of methods was used during the project: collaborative learning, learning by doing, peer teaching, learning through games, teamwork, implementation of the CLIL methodology, ICT tools in teaching and learning, social inclusion and integration, creating interactive math -Quizzes and games for future teaching and learning. It did help to create a more modern and dynamic professional environment in schools. Even after the end of the project, the project is kept open on the eTwinning platform and joint tasks and activities are carried out, which enable the transnational, interdisciplinary and intersectional benefits of the cooperation between the partner institutions in the long term. The project enabled participants to develop critical thinking skills, solve problems, improve their accounting skills, teamwork, ICT and English skills, and find joy in collaborative learning. In this way, the participants were able to learn from each other to respect each other in their differences and acquire important interpersonal skills in order to promote the school's openness to Europe and the world.