In October 2019 Sophianum organised a symposium on Problem-Based Learning and the way they do this in the Technasium. We invited all the schools in our partnership (ELpartnership) and the schools that we work together with in exchanges and Erasmus+ projects. Technasium, or the subject O&O is a relatively new way of working for us, whereby clients (companies or institutions) give our students assignments to work on. These assignments are usually 'problems' or issues for which they seek a new perspective. Our students have around 60 contact hours to work on those assignments and come up with a solution or product that they then present to the clients. They are given two assessments. One for process by the teachers and one for the product by the client. A couple of our partner schools were really interested in working in this way. So, on the final day of the symposium we sat together and made a raw outline of a project that we could do together. This resulted in this 'ELvis Problem Based Learning project for secondary schools' or ELvis PBL. The project consists of three phases in two years. In phase one, 5 teams of 3(max. 4) students (age 14-17) with Science oriented subjects are formed in all participating schools. These groups will get an assignment from a client. This client can be a company or (not for profit) institution. The assignment could be ‘anything’. The objective is for the students to do research on the problem, guided by a teacher and then work on a ‘solution’ or product they can present to the client at the half way stage of year one. This product should be ‘Science-based design’, without giving any consideration of ‘price’, ‘aesthetic design’ or ‘marketability’. They will make a video presentation that will be shown by a representative of the group during LTTE1. In phase two, another 5 teams of 3 students, now with Social Science and language oriented subjects, will take over. They will be given a design made by one of the groups in phase one. This design is preferably not one made by a group from their own school, so that they need to contact the other school’s students should they have questions. They will then have to work on the aesthetics, pricing, marketing and advertising of this product, so that they can present the ‘finished article’ (again in the form of a video presentation) during LTTE3. The clients will pick a winner (on the basis of the product); the teachers will pick a winner (on the basis of the process). In phase 3 (year 2) the groups will be bigger, multi-disciplined and multi-national. So, we will put 2 students from all 4 participating schools together in one team of 8. In this team of 8 there will be 4 students with Science based subjects and 4 with more Social Science based subjects. They will now get the largest part of the school year to produce a solution to a new assignment given to them by one of the clients. This work will have to be done in a virtual environment. It could be eTwinning, but if they prefer to use another safe platform, we will not object. Halfway through the process (in January) they will have the opportunity to meet up and work together face-to-face. They will have to make a video to present what they have done so far, work on their report and work on the product in three days. After that it will be back to the virtual cooperation. During the final LTTE (no.5) they will get time to finish off their product and work on their final report and presentation, which they will have to deliver on the final (3rd) day. Again, the client(s) will assess the product and declare a winner and runner-up and the teachers will assess the process and declare a winner and runner-up. The final Project Meeting, that will start on day 3 of the LTTE will be dedicated to the ‘assessment’, evaluation, dissemination of the results and final report for Erasmus+.
Updated version In October 2019 Sophianum organised a symposium on Problem-Based Learning and the way they do this in the Technasium. We invited all the schools in our partnership (ELpartnership) and the schools that we work together with in exchanges and Erasmus+ projects. Technasium, or the subject O&O is a relatively new way of working for us, whereby clients (companies or institutions) give our students assignments to work on. These assignments are usually 'problems' or issues for which they seek a new perspective. Our students have around 60 contact hours to work on those assignments and come up with a solution or product that they then present to the clients. They are given two assessments. One for process by the teachers and one for the product by the client. A couple of our partner schools were really interested in working in this way. So, on the final day of the symposium we sat together and made a raw outline of a project that we could do together. This resulted in this 'ELvis Problem Based Learning project for secondary schools' or ELvis PBL. We needed to make some changes to the original plan. Some were due to the Covid pandemic, which made the original dates for the meetings impossible and also prevented Sophianum from travelling to the first meeting in Lecce. Another change was due to the projects that were chosen during the initial training and planning session in Gulpen. After the visiting teachers had experienced the Problem-Based Learning cycle and had seen what kind of projects the students at Sophianum did, they opted to do two different types of project simultaneously in the first year: F1 for schools and Woodstock, a project suggested by the school in Merksem, in conjunction with the Port of Antwerp. For the F1 for schools project, it was crucial that the students would finish the year with 'making' their F1 car with the machine that Sophianum bought tomake a piece of polystyren into a mini racing car, based on the calculations and design that the students put into the special programme. This racing car can then be used to race another car. For every car the time it takes to finish the track is calculated, thus providing a winner, even though the race may consist of 10 different races of 1 to 1 car. his meant that the final meeting of year one neededto be in Gulpen. The Woodstock project, in which the students had to see to it that an imaginary load of wood could be transpoted form Africa to an imiginary plant in Finland, could be presented anywhere, so that was no obstacle to the plan of meeting in Gulpen at the end of year one. As we had a technical assignment (F1 for schools), which combines technical skills with some aesthetics and a more 'socio-economic' assignment (Woodstock) we abandoned the idea of doing the projects in two parts: first the technical part, then the more aesthetic and economic part and had two groups each working on a project all year round. During the meeting in Merksem the students exchanged what they had done so far and did part of the work on the Woodstock project, as the imaginary client, the Port of Antwerp, was around the corner. During the final Meeting of year one in Gulpen both projects were finished. The Woodstock project was presented and the final phases of the F1 in schools project ('milling' the F1 cars with the help of the calculations and trials done before and finishing them off with paint, wheels etc. and then racing them) was done. During the final meeting, the teachers decided what the projects for the second year were going to be. The F1 for schools project was seen as a great project, but the schools in Italy, Belgium and Germany wanted to do two projects that were not technical. They opted for 'a project on Democracy' suggested by the school in Germany and 'School is Cool' a project suggested by the school in Merksem. As both were not tchnical or 'Science-based', we were not able to do the split into two parts (first the Science part, then the socio-economic and more aesthetic part, in the final year either. For this final year, the teachers opted for splitting the year into two parts: The first part was dedicated to the 'School is Cool' project, that was presented in Freigericht. The second part was dedicated to the 'Democracy' project, which was started in Freigericht and finished in Lecce. Unfortunately there will not be a sequel to this project, for a number of reasons: 1 The school in Merksem got a new principal, who wanted to abandon most Erasmus+ projects. 2 the schools in Freigericht and Lecce worked with volunteer students who did the work for the project after regular school hours, whereas the students in Gulpen and Merksem did most of the work as part of a regular class. 3 Sophianum felt that, if the project would not have a 'Science' side, it was not possible to integrate the project into the lessons, as had been done in the first year, which was one of the reasons for taking this project on.