STEM – Successfully Reaching Competences Erasmus Project

Project Title

STEM – Successfully Reaching Competences

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; Research and innovation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

STEM – Successfully Reaching Competences is a joint project of Škofijska klasična gimnazija (a coordinating school, Slovenia), Prva gimnazija Varaždin (Croatia) and Prva kragujevačka gimnazija (Serbia). The partnership was built on a foundation of previous cooperation with shared aims and a willingness to work together. In recent years, an increasing number of students from these schools have chosen natural science studies after leaving secondary school. Therefore, the teachers of all three schools have been developing new STEM contents (both as part of their compulsory curriculum and in form of extra-curricular activities) and boast many examples of good practice that will be shared within this partnership and broader.

With the project, the partner schools aim to reflect on their STEM activities, improve them and add new contents to better equip their students for further studies and help them acquire competence on a higher level. In addition, the project will also encourage professional development of teachers.

In planning the project, a great attention was paid to the definition of objectives that will lead to achieving the desired results (development of innovative teaching approaches; development of a more modern teaching environment; development of better capacity for working in the international field; development of positive impacts for participants (for students: new skills and knowledge on STEM, more qualifications, increased self-confidence, ability for individual and group work, awareness of international dimensions of their personal and professional life; for teachers: increased motivation for teaching, ability to include newly obtained knowledge and skills in teaching and share them with colleagues – influencing the development of the participating schools in the long term)).

Project objectives: increase the variety of STEM activities for students locally; engage more students in extra-curricular STEM activities; carry out 6 international events for students; carry out 10 events for teachers to promote further professional development; start cooperating with at least 2 local organisations working in the field of STEM (altogether 6); design a teacher training course and offer it as a structured course for natural science teachers.

The project strives to improve the competence of students and boost professional development of teachers. Therefore, a special attention will be given to students with expressed interests in natural science (including those with fewer opportunities) and natural science teachers (members of project teams and also other natural science teachers of the participating schools and other schools). In addition, the project seeks to reach as many other students as possible (by engaging them into an eTwinning project that will run simultaneously) and the local environment.

There will be 6 short term exchanges of groups of students (each school hosting 2 exchanges). The preparation will be done in advance through various activities on eTwinning, including both the participating students and their mentors. The Croatian school will host an exchange called From Theory to Practice (dealing with practical applications of science, participating in practical workshops, visiting technological companies), the Serbian an exchange called Science Festival (carrying out experiments and demonstrations, meeting with innovators, presenting innovators of the past from Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia) and in Slovenia an event called Physics Summer School (solving complex problems, conducting experimental work).

For teachers, two cycles of simultaneous job shadowing activities are planned to visit a partner school, observe natural science lessons, lab work, extra-curricular STEM activities, and give 2 CLIL lessons. During the visit, they will mark their observations in an observation/reflection diary to describe their observations, examples of good practice, suggestions for the sending organisation and provide feedback to the hosting organisation. Every year, each school will send a teacher to visit one of the partner schools and it will, at the same time, welcome a teacher from another partner school.

Another important activity of the participating teachers will be designing a teacher training course for natural science teachers (promotion of STEM, integration of ICT and new methodological approaches into teaching, ways to motivate students, sharing best practice examples from the project, etc.). After the first year of the project, there will be a pilot session of the course with teachers from the partner schools as participants (to test the course and receive feedback). After the second year of the project, the course will be offered to teachers involved in the Erasmus+ KA1 projects. In running the course, the project results, developed approaches and examples of good practice will be disseminated and introduced to a great number of teachers from various schools and backgrounds.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 91416 Eur

Project Coordinator

Zavod sv. Stanislava & Country: SI

Project Partners

• Prva kragujevacka gimnazija
• Prva gimnazija Varazdin