The project addresses the specific objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, especially the early childhood education and such important competence for Lifelong Learning (2018) as science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STE(A)M). At present children at pre-school level do not receive enough education in STE(A)M subjects due to lack of age-appropriate and at the same time binding and diverse methods. They need more support in maintaining different levels of preparedness and understanding the STE(A)M subjects. We are convinced that bringing together partners from all over Europe with a variety of performance indicators and different international cooperation experiences will bring the best results. The general aim of the Project is to foster excellence and innovation in pre-school education by increasing teachers and education staff capacity at transnational level: 1) to strengthen cooperation between early childhood education and care institutions in European countries for teaching and learning such important competence as science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STE(A)M). 2) to foster exchange of experience between educational staff to equip teacher with tools, ideas and best practices on how to use outdoor space for learning purposes. 3) to strengthen collaboration with parents to raise children's readiness for school and future life. The main target group of the Project is: Teachers and other educational staff (administration, assistants, special pedagogues) of the partner organizations. Pre-school teachers, assistants, teachers of different subjects – music, sports, language will provide in competencies-based approach. Totally 120 pre-schools teachers’ will participate in 6 LTT activities in each partner country. The project will be organized in three main activities: The first activity - “Project management” is created to ensure smooth and transparent project implementation according to the application and approved budget. The second - “Building teaching capacity” will consists of LTT activities and local events and will be aimed at strengthening cooperation, exchanging experiences and elaborating new teaching methods and approaches in STE(A)M teaching in pre-schools using outdoor space. The third - “Information and dissemination of project results” will be aimed to inform about project and disseminate the project results. Expected Project results: 1) developed, transferred and implemented innovative practices on STE(A)M teaching methods using outdoor space; 2) increased capacity and professionalism of the ECEC institutions to work at EU level, reinforced cooperation with partners from different countries. 3) fostered parents’ involvement at education process; 4) 6 Learning/Teaching/ Training Activities have taken place in 6 countries with 120 visiting teachers involved; 5) 6 dissemination events organized. 6) the educational material – summarized experience and new methods created in English and available for wider public. 5) Project report prepared. 6) it is expected that in total 109 local teachers from the partner organizations will benefit from the project activities (from Latvia – 30, Belgium – 18, Bulgaria – 12, Spain – 14, Greece – 8, Estonia - 27 teachers); 7) it is expected that in total 1075 children and the same amount of their parents attending partner pre-schools will benefit from the project results (from Latvia – 222, Belgium – 220, Bulgaria – 141, Spain – 200, Greece – 87, Estonia – 205 children); 8) in total 105 pre-school educational institutions and teacher training institutions in partner countries (in Latvia – 35, in Belgium – 18, Bulgaria – 12, Spain – 14, Greece – 6, Estonia – 20) will be informed about project implementation and results. The accumulated experience will help to build a wider network that will continue cooperation also after the project. In case of successful project implementation, the partners are likely to generate a follow-up project application to continue the working towards the outlined objectives.
The project addresses the specific objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, especially the early childhood education and such important competence for Lifelong Learning (2018) as science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STE(A)M). The general aim of the Project was to foster excellence and innovation in pre-school education by increasing teachers and education staff capacity at transnational level: 1) to strengthen cooperation between early childhood education and care institutions in European countries for teaching and learning such important competence as science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STE(A)M). 2) to foster exchange of experience between educational staff to equip teacher with tools, ideas and best practices on how to use outdoor space for learning purposes. 3) to strengthen collaboration with parents to raise children's readiness for school and future life. The main target group of the Project was: Teachers and other educational staff (administration, assistants, special pedagogues) of the partner organizations. Pre-school teachers, assistants, teachers of different subjects – music, sports, language will provide in competencies-based approach. Totally 108 pre-schools teachers participated in 6 LTT activities in each partner country in person and 3 online LTTA took place. The project was organized in three main activities: The first activity - “Project management” ensured smooth and transparent project implementation according to the application and approved budget. The second - “Building teaching capacity” consisted of LTT activities and local events and was aimed at strengthening cooperation, exchanging experiences and elaborating new teaching methods and approaches in STE(A)M teaching in pre-schools using outdoor space. The third - “Information and dissemination of project results” was aimed to inform about project and disseminate the project results. The Project has achieved such results: 1) Partner education staff have developed, transferred and implemented innovative practices on STE(A)M teaching methods using outdoor space (by participating at LTTA, by creating the STEAM outdoor methods handbook, sharing with local teachers and piloting at own organization). 2) Partner institutions have increased capacity and professionalism to work at EU level, have reinforced cooperation with partners from different countries by organizing transnational events, planning visits and making reports. 3) Partner institutions, administration and education staff have fostered parents’ involvement at education process – dialogue with parents has started regarding outdoor activities and importance of STEAM from early childhood, open lessons have been organized and special questionnaire took place toto get the opinion of the parents. 4) 6 Learning/Teaching/ Training Activities have taken place in 6 countries with 114 visiting teachers involved. 5) 17 dissemination events organized in each Partner country – project final conference in Riga, and different kind of seminars in each partner country. 6) the educational material – STEAM outdoor methods handbook (50 pages) - summarized experience and new methods created by all partners is published in English and are available for wider public at e-Twinning, Projects Results Platform and partners institutions web pages. 7) Project interim and final report prepared. 8) In total 113 local teachers from all partner organizations have benefited from the project activities – as visiting teachers and as local hosting teachers (from Latvia – 30, Belgium – 25, Bulgaria – 13, Spain – 13, Greece – 10, Estonia - 22 teachers); 9) In total 997 children and the same amount of their parents attending partner pre-schools have benefited from the project results (from Latvia – 220, Belgium – 200, Bulgaria – 140, Spain – 220, Greece – 82, Estonia – 135 children); 10) In total 71 pre-school educational institutions, associations, municipal institutions, researchers, experts, universities and teacher training institutions in partner countries (in Latvia –20, in Belgium – 5, Bulgaria – 12, Spain – 20, Greece – 4, Estonia – 10) will be informed about project implementation and results. The Project output is creation of the STEAM outdoor methods handbook (50 pages) - good practice summary on STE(A)M teaching methods using outdoor space. This material can be used both electronically and in printed form. Each partner has described the teaching methods according to a common model - describing the goals of the activity, the target group, and the activities to be performed and the necessary materials. The descriptions are supplemented with photos that illustrate the described actions. In this compilation, each partner has shared their best practices that they recommend other preschools use in the learning process. Information about results and dissemination events is published at Erasmus+ Results Platform.