EDU-Play 4.0: Connecting Students of Three Nations through Developing and Constructing a Mechatronic System Erasmus Project

Project Title

EDU-Play 4.0: Connecting Students of Three Nations through Developing and Constructing a Mechatronic System

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: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

In our modern world of work international cooperation in various fields has become increasingly important. Especially in the European work context new challenges constantly arise for our future workforce – the trainees and graduates of schools all over Europe. Given the situation, communication across borders gets more and more important to enable students and trainees to communicate effectively in the European context. Apart from a solid foundation in education and technical skills, intercultural competence and communication skills in English are keys to success – both economically as well as socially.

This project aims at preparing its participants to cope with these challenges in the best possible way: through a tri-national scholastic cooperation where specialist teams from each school cooperate in exchanging their respective ideas and expertise. The task to be managed is to conceptualize and construct a pinball machine as a mechatronic system.

These are the steps: First, the German school will provide the setting for a joint creative brainstorming in coming up with a viable concept and the necessary steps to be realized. Our school will be in charge of the mechanical components, whereas the Czech school will be responsible for the electronic components and the Polish school will be in control of the programming work. Hence, 10 participants of each school need to be carefully selected according to the respective profile tasks. Moreover, we need to ensure that all participants have a solid command of English since it is the language to communicate with one another both orally and in writing.

The success of the project relies on the students’ and teachers’ exchange of ideas and concepts about the progress as well as difficulties that may arise on the way in English. This shall be done in direct communication during the exchanges and virtually via eTwinning in the phases in between. Communication via eTwinning is of crucial importance to guarantee follow-ups and to document the various stages of the project for all participants.

The project will consist of 4 short-term exchanges in which the groups will bring in and share their competences in the fields of mechanics (German), electrical engineering (Czech) and programming (Polish). The creativity of all students is strongly encouraged and will be fostered in the methods selected to manage the tasks.

In between the exchanges the necessary milestones that the teams agreed upon will be realized in the respective schools and their workshops. Each student will be part of a project group that will meet on a regular basis to discuss and inform the others about the next steps.

The project’s reward and result will be 3 pinball machines identical in construction (but not in design) – one for each school – that can be shown and presented at the schools’ open days and fairs as a model of best practice for successful European cooperation and partnership. This will ensure long lasting and sustainable benefits for each school and will be a living proof of the motto “Together for Europe!”

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 98172 Eur

Project Coordinator

BBS1-Mainz & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Zespol Szkol Mechanicznych nr 1 im. Szczepana Humberta w Krakowie
• Stredni prumyslova skola Emila Kolbena Rakovnik, prispevkova organizace