The project “Find Yourself in the Heart of Nature” is coordinated by an Italian school and its partners are schools in Poland, Portugal, Greece, Turkey. The duration of the project is 24 months. A total number of 120 students aged 12 – 15, accompanied by 40 teachers, will participate in transnational learning activities. Our natural world is not only a source of beauty and admiration, but it also provides unique opportunities to teach students the fascinating world of STEAM and other twenty-first century skills. The natural environment motivates students not only to learn and to pay attention, but it also awakens their imagination while developing their Math, Science, Technology, Engineering and Art skills by employing their five senses. This strategic partnership among schools will boost excellence in education and get students ready for global competitiveness while teaching them efficient strategies to relate STEAM to nature. It will also encourage our students to relate to nature as a guide which helps them to observe, question and research, while offering them new skills and knowledge on an international, European level. The objectives of the project are: to encourage students to integrate knowledge from several school subjects, to give students opportunities to become twenty-first century creative, innovative, solution-generating critical thinkers who are interested in science while cooperating with others, to increase the students’ interest in STEAM education and careers, to create new content and to encourage the integration of STEAM skills in the school curricula, while enabling teachers to teach STEAM subjects in a different and more appealing manner. The activities of the project include: making an insect hotel, making figurines out of natural materials, making solar cells by studying plant leaves, designing a terrarium, making sundials to tell the time, designing bird feeders, designing simple bridges and machines, designing ecological and natural houses made with natural materials, designing solar ovens, designing aircraft models inspired by birds, poetry-writing inspired by nature, pottery design workshop, sun prints, creating musical instruments from natural objects and playing them, nature collages, painting with flower petals, redesigning/ restoring the school’s grounds, creating a maths center, discovering fractals in nature, revealing mathematical structures through origami, making 3D shapes with natural materials, designing a weather station, using the stop motion technique, the design competition, the STEAM Fair, the eTwinning seminar, the entrepreneur pitch, the speaker events, or using apps such as Audubon Bird Guide and iNaturalist. Contact persons in partner schools, coordinator in the whole project are responsible for the project management. All schools meet once a month, fulfill the duties and responsibilities according to the 24-months work schedule and inform the coordinator from the result. The results of the project are: students will acquire STEAM skills inspired by nature, they will understand how subjects like mathematics, sciences, technology, engineering and arts work together, they will learn to improve critical thinking and problem-solving skills, they will become more aware of STEAM and its applicability, while they will improve their ability to apply an interdisciplinary integration. At the same time, resources on teaching STEAM will be much improved, teachers will improve their skills of teaching STEAM, the educational process will be improved, while the new curriculum will ensure the integration of knowledge and skills in the everyday lessons. At the same time, cooperation among partner schools and other key stakeholders will be strengthened. The European dimension of teaching will increase greatly, improving the students’ chances to be much better prepared to pursue a scientific career. The exchange of best practices in nature will be included in the curriculum of all partner schools. Therefore, every school will make use of the new knowledge and skills which result from the project and continue to develop them after the project ends. Students will make use of the newly-acquired twenty-first century knowledge and skills in the following educational stages and be even more successful due to them. Key staff in the schools involved in the project will share the project outputs and results with other teachers in local schools. The latter will be encouraged to use the output materials and to take advantage of the shared experience.
The project “ Find yourself in the heart of Nature” started with the idea that learning has no longer need to be confined inside the classroom. Our world needs young people who treasure science. Our natural world provides unique opportunities to teach students the fascinating world of STEAM and other twenty-first century skills. The natural environment motivates students not only to learn and to pay attention, but it also awakens their imagination while developing their Math, Science, Technology, Engineering and Art skills by employing their five senses. Our partnership among schools encouraged students to relate to nature as a guide which helps them to observe, question and research, while offering them new skills and knowledge on an international, European level. Students gained experience in mathematics, science, technology, engineering, and art while cooperating with students in other European countries. To reach our goals, the schools partners had to elaborate activities according to the following plan: - Portugal: Science in the Nature/ Poland – Engineering in the Nature / Turkey: Arts in the Nature / Greece :Mathematis in the Nature / Italy : Technology in the Nature. During the various mobilities, the host school took steps to plan itineraries and activities according to the theme assigned to it. Each activity has been designed to encourage creativity and enhance the natural context of the host city.In Portugal, the students created terrarium with natural materials - In Poland they designed and built bridges - In Turkey and Greece, they created artistic drawings using materials found in the wood - In Italy, they recognized plants and birds with the Audibon app. The mobility had a huge impact on participants because they could improve their knowledge about the customs and history of the host’s country; they learned about a different school system and underlined differences and similarities. They obviously had to use English to communicate, so they improved their communicative skills and became more confident and independent. They could understand how important is to experience and act in a multicultural context. Our aim is to continue exchanging ideas and materials that allow us to work around our basic idea, that is, that of combining the modernity of new technologies with the basic commitment to protecting and living healthily in nature. The results of our work were made known to the educational institutions and communities in which the individual schools are located through meetings and publications in local newspapers and on school websites. We disseminated the results of our project in school communities to show teachers and students, the main interested parties, the added value of activities that combine scientific concepts with the care and protection of nature. -