According to the European Commission, around six million young people drop out of school each year – about 14% of all pupils. On the other hand, improving the attractiveness of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to young people is crucial to generate a more skilled workforce in the EU. Encouraging young people to consider a career in STEM related occupations, pursuing higher levels of study and acquiring technical skills through effective teaching and learning are important elements of any strategy aimed at addressing skills needs. Skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are becoming an increasingly important part of basic literacy in today’s knowledge economy. To keep Europe growing, we will need one million additional researchers, technologists and mathematicians in applied science by 2020 (European 2020 Initiative). This quotation from the EUN Schoolnet webpage could be the perfect motto for our project. The creativity of the international teams, sharing of own and mutual values, each school's own work in the field of STEM, mutual offline and online meetings together with development of digital content – all of these skills in one project creates a fantastic challenge not only for students but also for teachers. All the project activities, theoretical as well as practical contents will be included in a booklet which will constitute a valuable material to be distributed to schools in the regions and the countries involved via web, hardcopies and direct dissemination sessions.We also intend to promote the project outcomes within our non-school communities, because as it was stated before, sometimes the aggressive attitudes targeting certain groups/categories of people stem from the environment in which students were brought up. Therefore, we hope that students will be teaching adults in their communities a lesson, as a result of this project. There will be 4 LTT activities and there will be 4 students and 1 accompanying person from each school for each LTT activty. There will be 48 students and 12 accompanying persons for LTTA activities. TURKEY(TR)- C1 in NOVEMBER 2018 Subtopics: "Lego Mindstorm robotics" - exhibition and workshop based on Lego programming."Historical inventions" - presentation by pupils about historical inventions in their home country--Website GREECE - C2 in MAY 2019 Subtopic:"Art under microscope" - "3 D virtual science models" BULGARIA C3 in NOVEMBER 2019 Subtopic: "House full of experiments." Set of scientific experiments which will be provided by students from the host and from visitors. ROMANIA C4 in MAY 2020 Subtopic: "Programming Code": Presentation of pupils Android and Win applications. Special workshop for Google(Android) programming. Presentation of applications of students. Architecture around us" - presentation of typical architectonic styles from partner countries,partner creates a project group in Twinspace/E-Twinning. The objectives of the Project: - enrich skills with specific reference to STEM - develop the 21st century (transversal) skills: creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship - promote a learner-centred pedagogical approach - improve the attractivity of, attainment in, and lifelong relationship with, science and technology for adults and students - implement the innovative pedagogy in school and out-of-school contexts at European level and create a Europe-wide community of practice of institutions - encourage cooperation and exchange of expertise and practice between formal and informal learning institutions and professionals. -the learning of science and technology as a basis for the gateway to employment and social inclusion. These skills are increasingly important and the demand for skilled workers in Europe remains high. -to increase each student achievements and progress in the way of their involvement in learning. -to improve generic skills of students, including digital and language. -increase the use of ICT in schools through virtual learning for students and pedagogical support for teachers. Number of participants includes: students of groups 12-14,14-18 years, teachers, parents, school communities and other guests. Their roles will be given in specific time. Students will be involved in the international teams as well as teachers. A pedagogy we use encourages creativity, vision, cooperation and collaboration in every student and teacher. Project-based, child-directed learning and also peer- learning methods are used in the Project.The methodology will be both qualitative and quantitative to assess the activities and overall project success. . The long term benefits include the addressing of skill shortages through influencing and encouraging young people to choose these careers, the addressing of worklessness and dropout by improved teaching resources and a more appealing curriculum and the development of national and European strategies through learning and sharing good practice.
Our project promotes equality - in terms of gender, ethnic background, religious views, financial obstacles. They had the opportunity to participate in the selection process and were awarded extra points if they were in any of the situations mentioned above. We engaged them in the planned activities by involving them in preparing materials for the meetings - presentations of schools, countries, regions, presentations of their religions, customs and traditions. They acted with responsibility as they were representatives of their own culture. Each school developed a specific plan in order to support their participation - in the form of prizes, small incentives such as including their names as authors of materials, an aspect which was meant to help them boost their confidence and develop a sense of active participation in the school life. They also were involved in the activities according to their talents such as: singing, playing (traditional) instruments, dancing, artwork, presenting the project in the institution/community; creating Erasmus+corners; designing brochures, project logo and posters.