The motivation of the coordinating (HU) and the partner schools (LT, TR, PT) to set up this project is related to an intention - to create more possibilities for teachers of Science to cooperate and carry out common projects and to tackle the problem of getting isolated and not experiencing enough professional stimuli from one another. Also, it applies to a more effective educational process where pupils should be capable to use the knowledge, they have already acquired at another lesson. On a large scale, it can also mean that they should be able to connect school-related knowledge and skills to real life. The focus on the interdisciplinary approach to an effective Science teaching and learning is of high importance for several reasons. This approach to teaching requires planning that looks at the foundational objectives of a number of curriculum areas. Connecting curriculum in the interdisciplinary approach is an efficient way to help teachers deal with the knowledge that grows at exponential proportions. One goal of this approach is to give students a more relevant, less fragmented, and stimulating experience. It also helps to focus on the content - the topics, issues, themes and problems that become subjects of learning. It is related to solving "real world" problems and developing skills, fostering thinking processes - developmentally appropriate benchmarks for students' learning, such as critical thinking, reading comprehension, and analysis. Thus the project addresses the need to get new ideas for both teachers and students on the interdisciplinarity for teaching/learning Science subjects and decrease deficiency of the relation of educational process to the real life, develop and improve educational activities related to Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and English through an exchange of good practices. The project will be related to the development of activities based on interdisciplinary approach and transnational educational opportunities for participants and provide them with the new ways to strengthen their competencies and improve knowledge as well as raise their motivation to learn/teach Science. Objectives -To exchange experiences and good practices of involving students in activities when two or more Science subjects are combined into one activity. -To stimulate and facilitate the development of new activities based on the interdisciplinary approach as well as CLIL. -To develop student learning environment and enrich everyday practice in partners schools through the activities - lessons and projects of teaching Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and English. -To give an opportunity for Science and English teachers to learn and benefit from each other. -To promote interdisciplinarity for teaching and learning Science at local, national and international levels. This will be achieved through organizing 7 short-term learning, teaching and training activities both for students and teachers (63 participants in total), creating and collecting lesson, activity plans, project descriptions and preparing for the new Science activities (at least 12 in each school) proposed by partners. In between the exchanges the schools will enrich their educational processes by incorporating and organizing the activities based on combining different Science disciplines for students of age 15-18 (involving at least 50 percent of students of this age from each school), prepare a collection of videos on the activities, lab experiments and feedback from participants as well as Compendium with partners' best practice, Instructables and create a website of the project. The teachers will participate in 4 International Teachers' Rooms on comparing and finding the common topics of the curricula, generating ideas for interdisciplinary activities - lessons (combining two Science disciplines), teaching Science subjects and English together, organizing short-term projects, and choosing assessment forms. The students will be involved in international Science Fair, Sustainability Week, Science and English Learning Week activities. This will strengthen the profile of Science and English language teachers, both students and teachers will acquire and develop high-quality Science learning/teaching skills and competencies. Working transnationally will give all of the partners access to a greater variety of solutions for an educational environment that would be perceived both by teachers and students as relevant and motivating. The opportunity for teachers and students to experience another culture's environment, people, attitudes and educational approaches raise the attractiveness of such a project for participants. With 4 transnational partners, the viability and scope of interdisciplinary activities as a pathway to better Science teaching and learning will become a lot more credible, demonstrating to a wider EU that success of such initiatives is not just limited to one country.
At the beginning of this project, the motivation of the partner schools to set up this project was related to an intention - to create more possibilities for teachers of Science to cooperate and carry out common projects and to tackle the problem of getting isolated and not experiencing enough professional stimuli from one another. We also had the intention to be able to connect school-related knowledge and skills to real life. We had learned that the focus on the interdisciplinary approach to effective Science teaching and learning is of high importance for several reasons. This approach to teaching requires planning that looks at the foundational objectives of a number of curriculum areas. Connecting curriculum in the interdisciplinary approach is an efficient way to help teachers deal with the knowledge that grows at exponential proportions. One goal of this approach is to give students a more relevant, less fragmented, and stimulating experience. It also helps to focus on the content - the topics, issues, themes and problems that become subjects of learning. It is related to solving "real world" problems and developing skills, fostering thinking processes - developmentally appropriate benchmarks for students' learning, such as critical thinking, reading comprehension, and analysis. Thus the project addressed the need to get new ideas for both teachers and students on the interdisciplinarity for teaching/learning Science subjects and decrease deficiency of the relation of the educational process to the real-life, develop and improve educational activities related to Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and English through an exchange of good practices. The project was related to the development of activities based on an interdisciplinary approach and transnational educational opportunities for participants and provide them with new ways to strengthen their competencies and improve knowledge as well as raise their motivation to learn/teach Science. Objectives of our project were: -To exchange experiences and good practices of involving students in activities when two or more Science subjects are combined into one activity. -To stimulate and facilitate the development of new activities based on the interdisciplinary approach as well as CLIL. -To develop student learning environment and enrich everyday practice in partners schools through the activities - lessons and projects of teaching Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and English. -To give an opportunity for Science and English teachers to learn and benefit from each other. -To promote interdisciplinarity for teaching and learning Science at local, national, and international levels. These were achieved through organizing 7 short-term learning, teaching, and training activities both for students and teachers (84 participants in total), creating and collecting lesson, activity plans, project descriptions, and preparing for the new Science activities proposed by partners. In between the exchanges, the schools enriched their educational processes by incorporating and organizing the activities based on combining different Science disciplines for students of age 15-18, prepare a collection of videos on the activities http://www.interest-erasmus.net/videos/, lab experiments, and feedback from participants as well as Compendium (ebook) http://www.interest-erasmus.net/outcomes/ with partners' best practice, Instructables and create a website of the project. The teachers participated in 4 International Teachers' Rooms on comparing and finding the common topics of the curricula, generating ideas for interdisciplinary activities - lessons (combining two Science disciplines), teaching Science subjects and English together, organizing short-term projects, and choosing assessment forms. The students were involved in the International Science Fair, Sustainability Week, Science and English Learning Week activities. This has strengthened the profile of Science and English language teachers, both students and teachers acquired and developed high-quality Science learning/teaching skills and competencies. Working transnationally has given all of the partners access to a greater variety of solutions for an educational environment that would be perceived both by teachers and students as relevant and motivating. The opportunity for teachers and students to experience another culture's environment, people, attitudes, and educational approaches raised the attractiveness of such a project for participants. With 4 transnational partners, the viability and scope of interdisciplinary activities as a pathway to better Science teaching and learning has become a lot more credible, demonstrating to a wider EU that the success of such initiatives is not just limited to one country.