Mathematics is one of the pillars of technical and science education. Unfortunately, it is also considered to be one of the main annoyances in the education today. This could be also the reason why young people avoid to study STEM disciplines. Attractive and modern online materials for teaching and learning mathematics can improve this situation and increase interest in this beautiful and useful discipline. The project has three main goals. The first one is to increase the mathematical competencies of secondary school students and the pupils in the last years of elementary schools. We intend brighten teaching of mathematics up with interesting and original interactive materials for practicing the curriculum. Strengthening mathematical knowledge and skills leads to higher self-confidence not only in mathematics but also in other science disciplines. The second goal is to improve the quality of the teaching process, to connect the work of the teachers and students more closely. We suppose to improve the efficiency of the work of the teachers when preparing interesting exercises and exam. We provide a framework for obtaining information on the difficult parts of the curriculum and the achievements of the students and the classes. The third goal of the project is to enable students and teachers to improve mathematical English and Spanish as their foreign language. This goal will be achieved by the fact that all the web applications and the materials will be available in five languages (English, Spanish, Czech, Polish, Slovak) and the student can easily swap between his native language and the world language. This will help to increase the language skills of both students and teachers. For the achievement of the goals of the project we are going to create • a new mobile web application "Math for Student on Bus" which will be designed to practice mathematical problems while traveling to school. The problems included in this application will be relatively simple and will be solvable without writing down any computation. The application will operate with the database of 1,200 questions. • a new web application "Clone written test" designed for preparing exams in several variations by the teachers. The main goal is to allow the teachers to choose questions from a special questions database and use these questions to build test or exam for a class. Another test with similar questions will be created automatically. Thus, two variants of the same test are created and the teachers are capable to clone their tests with a minimal effort. The cloned test will contain the same type of problems only with minor modifications of the original problems. The application will contain the database of 1,600 questions. • a new mobile web application "Interactive math class" that handles 5,000 questions in five languages (EN, ES, CZ, SK, PL). The main motivation is to treat the teaching and learning process as a continuous interaction between the teacher and the student, where the teacher reflects the current state of knowledge and insufficiencies of the students. This allows to adapt the teaching and learning process appropriately. This web application will be focused on classroom work. It will allow teachers to create tests easily, assign them to the students, and get an immediate feedback. With this workflow the students help the teacher to focus on that part of the curriculum which is the main source of difficulties. The efficiency of the teaching project is increased by focusing the teacher’s effort on the suitable parts of the curriculum. All the web applications created within the project will work on all common operating systems and all common platforms. We will also focus on other activities such as: • Exchange of experience with the implementation of the CLIL methodology (the activity contributes to increasing competencies of teachers focused on teaching mathematics in foreign languages). • Exchange of pupils (the activity contributes to improving the foreign language skills of selected students, who shall thus be able to use plenty of educational material in English and Spanish). • Pilot use of project outcomes. Materials will be tested and verified on a sample of 1,000 students. • Dissemination. We assume 30,000 visitors of the created web applications during the project. Google Analytics will be used as a measuring tool. The project team consists of partners from four countries. A team from the Czech Republic is composed of the project coordinator - VSB-Technical University of Ostrava and the three secondary schools. The other partners are two secondary schools from Slovakia and the association of secondary schools from Poland. The last partner is regional public body from Spain.
The project’s first goal was to increase the mathematical competencies of secondary school students by enlivening the math educational process with engaging, innovative, and interactive materials that would enable students to expand the practice process beyond school and home. With the new material, they can practice on the way, i.e., when traveling on a bus or a train. Acquiring mathematical knowledge and skills leads to increased confidence not only in math but also in other STEM subjects which are built on it. The second goal was to enhance the quality of the teaching process by linking the work of a teacher and students more closely and for teachers to make easier tasks such as preparing interactive or written tests, assessing students, and obtaining data on problematic parts of the curriculum or achievements of individual students and whole class. The project’s third goal was to provide students and teachers with a great tool to improve their skills in mathematical English and Spanish. Thus, students will be enabled to use a variety of English and Spanish study materials, participate in international events, and gain a base for studying abroad. Multilingual materials also help to integrate international students into a class.
Mathematics is one of the pillars of technical and science education. At the same time, it is a difficult and unpopular subject. Therefore, it is desirable to have attractive online materials and applications that increase students' interest in mathematics. According to the Digital Education Action Plan, education systems need to be transformed to be fit for the emerging digital age. That, among other things, requires developing new teaching methods and materials and promoting open educational resources. The project aimed to create a comprehensive platform for effectively acquiring and strengthening skills in mathematics. The target group is secondary school students and teachers. We perceive the teaching process as a continuous interaction between a teacher and students, where the teacher reacts to the current state of knowledge and ignorance of students and adapts the teaching process to what the students need the most. In line with the priority “Open Education and Innovative Practices in the Digital Era," the platform offers applications and materials that are free, accessible to all, independent of operating systems, without the need for commercial software, all in five languages, and available on the Math4U portal.