Developing an innovative electonics and programming curriculum for school education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Developing an innovative electonics and programming curriculum for school education

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Project background:

Basics of electronics and programming are appearing in more and more fields, the need for experts is constantly increasing. Universities are trying to keep up with the demand, and in many cases, education already starts in high school, usually in the form of extra-curricular activities. High school students interested in engineering often build electronic circuits on their own and try to master the basics of electronics and embedded software development. Unfortunately lacking a step-by-step guide, the learning process usually reaches a dead-end very quickly.
Although similar guides exist that teach the basics of programming, these are built upon complex hardware and therefore are not suitable for understanding the inner workings of the hardware and the interaction between hardware and software.
The strategic partnership finishes the Erasmus+ project “Crystal Clear Electronics” (project number: 2018-1-HU01-KA201-047718) in August 2020, in which the results and the reception of the unique intellectual product is exceeding expectations. By continuing the curriculum, the partnership wishes to teach embedded programming on ARM microcontrollers completing the electronics themed material intended for high school students.

Participants:

The coordinator is a Hungarian professional electronics design company, whose main responsibilities are creating the multilingual curriculum, and disseminating the results. The other members of the partnership are two high schools, and a foundation of a high school (1 Slovakian, 1 Romanian, and 1 Hungarian institute). The number of 9-12th grade students in the institutions of the partnership is 1343, 68 of which have expressed interest in the curriculum.

Goals and activities:

A needs assessment has shown that there is a need in the public education sector for a second curriculum partially based on the first Crystal Clear Electronics, that leads high school students in an easy-to-understand manner from the theoretical basics to using file systems and operating systems on microcontrollers.
The goal during the two and a half years long project is to create a 24-part multilingual electronics curriculum aimed for high school students. A preliminary table of contents forming the basis of the curriculum, and a list of electronic parts and tools have already been completed in advance. An innovative property of the curriculum is the focus on practice and the usage of digital tools, and a mobile application.
During the project, the curriculum will be tested by high school students with the supervision of the partner institutions.
In the first 16 months the Hungarian version of the curriculum and the accompanying mobile application will be completed and will simultaneously be tested by the students and perfected by revisors. In the second, 14-month long period the English version will be completed.
The full curriculum will be available for free on the project website, which the partnership will continue to maintain after the project period.

Project management methodology:

The partnership uses the “critical path method” (CPM), and has a precisely defined project plan (tasks, timing, responsibilities, expanses, etc.). Most of the tasks consist of planning, creating, and detailed testing of the curriculum and the mobile application. The project can be considered a classic “product development” process, thus the partnership uses the “V-model”, which is commonly used during technical development. The steps of this model give a well-defined framework for the tasks, helping the completion according to plan.

Results, expected effect, possibility of long-term utilization:

The most emphasized output of the project is the innovative electronics curriculum teaching ARM microcontroller embedded programming and the accompanying mobile application. Other results are 8 complex multiplicative events (consultation and information days, exhibitions), two summer teaching activities and their reports, numerous dissemination materials, webpage, Facebook page.
As an indirect outcome of the project the skills and knowledge of the students will expand. Not only the project partners, but all educational sectors will also have access to the curriculum. The multilingual nature creates the possibility for usage throughout the European Union. The curriculum will help students make an informed decision about their career choices. More students will choose a profession related to the field of electronics, and fewer students will leave their profession of choice during or after higher education.
According to the calculation based on the needs assessment, there can be more than 6200 students per year in demand for the Hungarian, and up to 248 thousand EU-28 students for the English curriculum.
At least 90% of the curriculum will contain general, basic knowledge which will be relevant in the next 15-25 years making this modern curriculum useful for a long time.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 367061 Eur

Project Coordinator

XTALIN Engineering Limited & Country: HU

Project Partners

• BOLYAI FARKAS HIGH SCHOOL
• ELTE Bolyai János Gyakorló Általános Iskola és Gimnázium
• Nadácia Pro Ratio