Videos in physics and sciences Erasmus Project

Project Title

Videos in physics and sciences

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Natural sciences; Open and distance learning; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Our students consume videos from well-known internet platforms almost on a daily basis. A simple classroom-survey has shown that the range of videos the students watch varies from explainer videos focusing on school-related content, or tutorials to watching gamers on their quest. Additionally, parents have mentioned that our students watch online videos intensively. Hence, the wish to incorporate the students’ interest in videos into our daily curriculum has arisen.

That is why we want to use the students’ high intrinsic motivation and let them create their own videos. At first, we want to focus on explainer videos. Each STEM-subject has its own set of recurrent topics that students need to know and be able to work with. Experience has shown that some students have difficulties with these core basics of the different scientific subjects. Thus they are going to be the focus of the explainer videos. With a strong reference to the individual curricula of each subject and each country common core basics will be determined. On these the explainer videos will focus while putting an additional stress on videos dealing with physics, or very important physics videos, in short: VIP.

This “VIP-project“ tries to reach several aims. One is to improve the students’ digital competences by creating explainer videos dealing with STEM-related issues and especially physics. Secondly, to enhance the students’ general learning abilities. And, lastly, to broaden the students’ understanding, acceptance and tolerance of different European countries. By creating explainer videos based on the countries’ individual curricula, the students will have to work together and interact which will lead to a higher understanding of different ways schools run in Europe. This intended tolerance and higher level of understanding will also be reached through mutual visitations in each other’s countries.

There are three participating schools in the VIP-project:
– Gymnasium Georgianum Lingen, Germany; a public grammar school and European School with about 1300 students and 100 teachers/employees
– Gymnázium Karola Štúra from Modra, Slovakia; a public secondary school with 310 students and a staff of 310.
– Petofi Sandor Evangelikus Gimnazium es Kollegium from Mezőberény, Hungary; comprising 591 students and 60 teachers as well as a boarding school department

To start with, the teachers involved in the VIP-project are trained themselves. At a first encounter skills of film making and creating explainer videos are established as a common working basis.
Next, the students have mutual student exchanges with the project’s partner schools. Their task in small groups abroad: based on the host country’s curriculum they create explainer videos teaching fundamental contents of physics and how to conduct corresponding experiments. These videos are shot with appropriate digital devices (e.g. tablets) and edited with basic software. In a second meeting the students expand their acquired competences to other STEM-subjects.
At a final encounter the students put stronger emphasis on producing more sophisticated films including not only advanced techniques of film making but also covering various fields and topics of STEM-subjects in order to show learning progress. The specific contents during the course of this project are in part prepared by students and teachers alike using the collaborative “eTwinning“ platform provided by the European Commission. And of course the project offers numerous opportunities of intercultural exchange for all participants by doing local, regional and foremost traditional social activities in the host country.

The results of the project are explainer videos, tutorials and short STEM-related films which are published and shared via eTwinning, providing easily accessible and understandable learning units for other students.
In the methodological sense of the “flipped classroom” students become the teacher and gradually gain as well as show their competences dealing with scientific subject matter throughout the VIP-project process.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 68102 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Georgianum & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Mezöberényi Petöfi Sándor Evangélikus Általános Iskola, Gimnázium és Kollégium
• Gymnazium Karola Stura