Inappropriate waste management practices lead to declining environmental health standards. Schools are an important point of environmental information. They produce a huge ammount of waste; from paper, computers, food leftovers, food packages, plastic bottles... which are not properly sorted out. By implementing the project we want to share knowledge, to learn and put innovative theory into practice regarding ways of proper waste management, which will bring positive changes to the schools and lead to a healty environment, not only to school environment, but also broader. Let's Robot Waste! is a creative project of 3 secondary schools, from Slovenia, Hungary and Lithuania. The project is constructed through synergy of all 3 participating schools, which will each involve a local waste management compay and an automation company as silent partners to help out with the project. The participating students will be aged 16-19, direction technical grammar school (from both modules: machine engineering and computing), mechatronics and grammar scool. The project consists of 3 group mobilites (each time 6 students and 3 highly qualified teachers) to all participating countries (at the beginning of the project, in the middle and in the end), which will enable effective and high quality project work. The main objectives of this project are: 1. improving environmental consciousness and waste management at the participating schools and the local community, 2. implementing new ways of learning and teaching through the construction of the robot for waste separation, which will also have a special display to encourage people to separate waste, waste management lessons by the local waste manamegement companies, peer learning,.. 3. improvement of the ICT skills of the students and teachers through the work on the robot plus, the free common Internet platform for the project, the videos about working on the robot and waste management lessons by the local companies, a brochure about the project and tips for waste separation 4. improving teaching skills of the teachers through exchange of knowledge between the teachers of the particpating partner schools and improved communication skills (in the field of waste management and mechatronics, ICT, new teaching methods, the teachers will give Skype lessons in English to partner schools), 5. improvement of language skills, especially English-the participants of the project will communicate in English, they will work in international pairs/teams, they will hang out during the mobilities and they will make the brochure in 4 languages, therefore they will improve their language skills. All video materials and the idea fort he robot will be for free and open to everyone, published on the project's common web page and can serve as teaching material and for promotion of waste separation.
Environmental responsibility, both locally and globally, has increased tremendously over the last decade. One of the strategies of environmental policy is also to raise awareness of people, especially young people. Young people are and will be increasingly involved in green economy policy, which is why Let`s Robot Waste was a great way to face solutions on waste prevention and separation. The ultimate goal of our project was to design and make a robot with three drawers for sorting waste. In the process of creating the robot, students of different ages (16-19 years), technical fields (mechatronics, ICT, mechanical engineeering) and grammar school program learned about the technical procedures of making a robot, materials, programming a system for moving the robot, graphic computer programs for design of the brochures and stickers, recording and editing videos, setting up and editing a website and last but not least about the environment and the importance of making others aware of waste separation and recycling. The students were working with suitably qualified mentors, who hepled the students to come up with solutions for the mechanical fabrication of the robot and the programming of the software of the robot. Since the materials for the robot were gathered during the "lockdown", the students and the mentors had a lot of problems with ordering and, last but not least, with exchanging the materials and getting proper ones. All lectures, meetings and orders were held in English through ZOOM or. Skype and via E-mail. The students and mentors were confronted for the first time with teaching and with learning practical training with the help of distance teaching and learning. Local companies involved in environmental protection activities have also adapted and during the COVID-19 pandemic made their presentation possible in the videoconferencing system. The robot we have assembled and programmed can be a fun and at the same time an educational element of every school. In the new school year, the robot will meet our students in the school lobby and remind them how to dispose individual waste in a proper manner (paper, packaging or organic material - stickers with icons, of course, were designed by students)-the students should out the waste in a suitable drawer. It was during the real and virtual meetings that we found out that not all high schools are equipped with different waste separation bins. With our robot, which we named Robbin, we want to influence not only students, but also school principals and employees to be aware of their responsibilities in waste management. In the extended deadline for the completion of the project, which the schools had due to the pandemic-related emergency, we carried out two real and one virtual mobility. 6 students and 3 professors participated in each mobility from each school. All three partner schools have successfully constructed a robot consisting of a head, a central body with three drawers and a chassis. The partner school from Lithuania took care of the production and design of the dissemination material - the brochure. The students have also set up a website (https://letsrobotwaste.eu/) to which they uploaded photos of all three mobilites. Each of the partner members also carried out cooperation with a local environmental company in the form of a brief presentation of their operation and the importance of proper management of various wastes. For the purpose of the virtual activity, short videos, sketches and matrices about the origin and complications of assembling the robot were created. Without a doubt, all participants in the project (students, professors, school management, local companies) improved their communication skills in both their mother tongue and English, as we were encouraged to do so by working from home and switching between different videoconferencing tools (ZOOM, Skype, Teams). We are very proud, however, that despite being unable to work at the school, we managed to assemble all three moving robots.