PROmoting MATHs in EUropean Students Erasmus Project

Project Title

PROmoting MATHs in EUropean Students

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

According to several studies, the lack of interest in the study of scientific and technological subjects is due to the distorted view of the scientific discipline par excellence, Mathematics, often proposed as a sterile set of rules and theorems, totally detached from common practice. The “A.Volta” Institute of Pescara in Italy, leader, Szkola Podstawowa w Psarach in Poland, Liceul Teoretic “Grigore Moisil” of Timisoara in Romania, Daugavpils Valsts Gimnazija in Latvia are educational institutions always involved in the promotion of technical culture and scientific in their students and in their territories, therefore they wanted to establish the Pro.Math.Eu.S. partnership with the following objectives:
• increase the motivation to study Mathematics in the students involved
• improve their key competences (Communication in foreign languages, mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology, digital competence);
• broaden the knowledge and understanding of people, places and cultures;
• contaminate vertically and horizontally in the classrooms;
• create a successful method in the years to come by encouraging pupils and teachers to continuously improve.
The age range of the target students involved was 12-16 years.
In the first year of the project the students produced videos that showed in captivating forms how to apply Maths to problems of everyday life.
Different tools and languages ​​were used in each mobility. Starting from the scripts written directly by them, the boys were the direct protagonists in the videos made in Poland, they made animations in Romania, they used robots to talk about Maths to their peers in Italy. In each meeting, the teachers were committed to raising the quality levels of the project. In Poland, the Symposium of Maths teachers and training in video-making for students were organized. The Symposium produced a common syllabus of Maths skills on which all schools could compare. The Romanian school organized training on animation software, transforming scripts in a fast and fun way. The IIS A.Volta hosted the robotics training with the support of many experienced students.
A dedicated online e-learning platform in Moodle was also built in English, used to test the didactic effectiveness of the videos.
The second year of the project was unfortunately marked by the pandemic and it was not possible to implement the planned activities. The extension of another year gave way to organize the “Promatheus Contest”, an online competition in three challenges that saw the teams of students from the partner schools compete against each other with the production of videos according to the Maths themes chosen by the Project Team.
The final should have ended in the mobility in Latvia, but this, unfortunately, also due to the pandemic did not take place. Alternatively, the partnership decided for a virtual mobility in which the Latvian school organized workshops, seminars on Mathematics and student presentations, online logic games and the last challenge of the Contest in which spectators were able to vote for their favorite videos and elect the winning team of the Contest.
Through the e-learning platform,120 students from the partnership’s schools watched the videos produced in the project and Math tests on the same topic as the videos were administered before and after the viewing. Comparing the results of the tests before and after, an increase in performance from 5.3 to 6.7 points was found, demonstrating the effectiveness of the videos with statistical significance p<0.01 Given the profitable results, the partners will continue to collaborate on new projects and the teachers of Maths have discovered new strategies to motivate their students to study by contaminating their knowledge with other disciplines. The students, both producing and watching the videos, have enjoyed new aspects of Maths, the ones writing scripts or being selected for the mobility have disseminated their new passion for mixing different subjects, the desire to know new cultures, experimenting with their language and customs has infected many students of the partnership and the aim of European students more aware of the importance of union has certainly been achieved in the partnership. The e-learning platform will be open to schools who want to consult it. The didactic paths developed thanks to the video-lessons are available to the pupils and Maths teachers of the partner schools also in the years following the project, as well as the tests used to verify the training effectiveness. A dedicated YouTube channel hosts the videos made, and a website summarizes the characteristics of the project and illustrates the activities carried out in detail. The "Promatheus Contest" competitions will be promoted every year in the partner schools and in the other territorial schools. In addition, research institutions of Mathematics teaching will be involved in order to validate the effectiveness of the method.

Project Website

https://www.promatheus.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 81483,3 Eur

Project Coordinator

I.I.S. A. VOLTA & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Liceul Teoretic Grigore Moisil Timisoara
• Daugavpils Valsts gimnazija
• ZESPÓŁ SZKOLNO-PRZEDSZKOLNY NR 3 W PSARACH