MareMathics is an Erasmus+, KA2, Strategic Partnership project with the aim of supporting the creation and implementation of innovative practices in mathematics education for students of maritime studies across Europe, promoting cooperation of respective institutions, peer learning and exchange of experience among teaching staff. In contemporary mathematical classrooms at maritime universities, students learn early on that study of mathematics is realized by sitting still, filling out worksheets and by following mathematical procedures that are rigid and set in stone. Mathematical problems and procedures presented to students are mainly oriented to solutions of mathematical problems that are in general unrelated to the student's later seafarer profession. Consequently, the perception of mathematical education by many students at maritime universities is that knowledge of mathematics is not essential for advancement of their future seafarer careers. This fosters the lack of students’ interest for mathematical education, and is characterized by low success rates at mathematical exams, sometimes as low as 8% success to fail ratio. Furthermore, because many of courses at maritime universities rely on prior knowledge of mathematics the lack of fundamental knowledge of mathematics is the main cause for low success on these exams and it is the cause of high drop-out rate of students at maritime universities. For example, in 2017 about 50% of first year students dropped out from the study of navigation at Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Split where most of the drop-out students listed the mathematics as the main cause for the failure. The similar problem is reported by maritime universities in Croatia, and partners' countries: Poland, Estonia and Latvia. In previous cooperation among higher education maritime institutions involved in this project, it was agreed that the students of these study programmes have shown difficulties in completing their tasks within this subject and statistics, showing therefore both low success rates, as well as learning outcomes below expectations. Motivation is not showing high levels either and consequently, teachers of mathematics are willing to search and explore new teaching tools and methods to change these trends. As a result, project envisages support for teachers of mathematics at maritime study programmes, in the form of innovative teaching methods, using contemporary IT and communication tools. Project Partners: P1 University of Split (Faculty of Maritime Studies), Croatia P2 Tallinn University of Technology, Estonian Maritime Academy, Estonia P3 Latvian Maritime Academy, Latvia P4 Polish Naval Academy, Poland P5 Toni Milun– Independent Microenterprise, Croatia
The consortium wanted to produce innovative tools and methodology and introduce it into teaching mathematics at maritime institutions. Besides this, there are the second level achievements from the project like: widening and strengthening international cooperation, exposing to international peer reviewing, advancements in technological aspects, meeting personal self-affirmation challenges of project team members, internationalization for the institution, team members and students, acquiring external funding for the needs of development, etc.
Having previous contacts, academic institutions involved in this project have always expressed their dissatisfaction with the ability of students to apply mathematics in maritime subjects. It was due to their poor knowledge they carried from high school, or poor results in mathematics subjects at their higher education institution (HEI). Moreover, all partners knew that the results students achieve at the exams from mathematics were not satisfactory, and even the drop out rates were related to this ''problematic'' subject. On the other hand many maritime subjects, like navigation, ship construction, thermodynamics, etc. needed mathematics knowledge in order to teach students necessary topics from these fields. All HEIs had previous attempts in their efforts to solve this problem, but without considerable success. The leading institution - Faculty of Maritime Studies of the UNIST suggested the idea to use innovative and effective methods of online learning, already proven to bring results, and that is prof Toni Milun's methodology that he had been applying for years. Therefore, all partners agreed that the need to solve this problem would be effectively addressed by applying this innovative method through common Erasmus project.