Creative Ways Of Teaching: Recycling Art and Entrepreneurial Attitude Erasmus Project

Project Title

Creative Ways Of Teaching: Recycling Art and Entrepreneurial Attitude

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 : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

This project was aimed to work with our Secondary School students (12 to 18 yo.) in order to present the production and introduction to the market of products made out of recycled materials, do research into the economic viability and then transform all that into a business plan.
This entrepreneurial venture was the thread which allowed us to use RECYCLING ART to connect as many subjects as possible in order to give our students a new perspective about COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION and develop the different kinds of intelligence so every pupil can be aware of their own abilities sharing the DIVERSE POINTS OF VIEW that the different countries and cultures taking part in the project can contribute to.
The project worked with RECYCLING ART from two different perspectives:
– From the entrepreneurial point of view to develop an entrepreneurial attitude,
– From a creative way connecting the different curricula
Besides, this project has brought us the opportunity to implement co-training activities for teachers based on each partner’s strongest points.

Our partnership is made up of 5 secondary schools from different countries: Spain, Hungary and Slovakia, whose schools are bilingual in English, an Italian one, which is a vocational school and has recently become bilingual and, although no bilingual, a Greek school where English is taught up to a B2 level. Each school has a strong and different ICT skill, which has been essential for the project implementation. In our schools and at a national level we do not have a specific strategy for entrepreneurship education, except in Spain. We all have highly motivated students coming from different backgrounds and in some of our schools we can find some students with minor special educational needs, who need activities aimed to develop and enhance basic skills.

OBJECTIVES:
– Foster the awareness of the importance of minimizing the harm we do to the environment
– Develop more attractive education to prevent drop-out
– Enhance teachers’ professional skills, including new pedagogies and ICT and CLIL based methodologies
– Foster positive attitude towards the European project and the EU values
– Improve the use of English as our common language to communicate
– Increase the level of digital competence
– Promote entrepreneurship education to develop active citizenship
– Promote teachers’ and students’ mobility
– Reinforce cooperation among partners from other countries
– Foster multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches
– Facilitate the validation of non-formal and informal learning and its permeability with formal education pathways
– Reinforce comprehensive education to foster the assessment of transversal and key competences
– Facilitate the use of EU recognition tool EUROPASS
– Develop artistic skills

ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY
6 Transnational Project Meetings have been held, one at an early stage of the project to make the most important decisions on working plans and the other 5 within the following two years.

4 students per country participated in 5 short term exchanges of groups of pupils where 5 open-Air Recycling Art Market, one in each country, were organized. There, the products made during the project (sculptures, videos, mechanic recycled devices, decoration products, etc) have been displayed and ready to be sold. The content was based on a collaborative methodology starred by our learners although supported by their teachers. They have taken part in every stage of the project: planning, organization and assessment.

Teachers were also a target group, taking part in 5 short-term joint staff training events, which activities were specially designed according to the needs faced during this project (web design, robotics, ICT, video editing, entrepreneurship and how to develop basic skills through artistic forms of expression) or in our daily work, either now or in the future (ICT integration in teaching and learning, CLIL methodology, integration of students with special needs, etc.).

Now our schools have more modern and motivating teaching methods to prevent early drop-out, supporting an ICT-based, holistic approach of teaching and learning, reinforcing English language and basic skills. As we worked with recycled materials, we have raised consciousness about the need of promoting a more sustainable entrepreneurial point of view in our students so that a proposal about a good waste management can be implemented in the future at a local or regional level by our authorities.

One of the added values for our schools has been their internationalization. This fact has ensured a common field to work with our partner countries and it will make us take part in regular exchanges (mobilities and on-line via eTwinning) after the project has finished, which will be beneficial for students, teachers, our own institutions and NA’s, sharing on-line resources, workshops, seminars and talks.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 135475 Eur

Project Coordinator

IES Alto de los Molinos & Country: ES

Project Partners

• ISTITUTO D’ISTRUZIONE SECONDARIA SUPERIORE PALAZZOLO ACREIDE
• Gymnázium sv. Edity Steinovej
• Magyar-Angol Tannyelvu Gimnázium és Kollégium
• Diapolitismiko Gymnasio Evosmou