Getting Science Closer to Students Erasmus Project

Project Title

Getting Science Closer to Students

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Natural sciences; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Teachers in the partnership realised that a lot of students did not choose science subjects for their higher education because they were not motivated and were afraid of the difficulties in physics, chemistry, biology and maths. Most teenagers do not have real ideas about their future employabilities and they are too young to understand that their career depends on their studies.

The main objective of our project was to make science subjects more popular with students and orientate them to apply to college or university where they will study maths, physics, biology and chemistry. As we can see in the job market, freshly graduated young people have a better chance to be employed with a degree in the scientific and technological field.
We also hoped to attract more young people to follow in our footsteps and want to teach science subjects in the future.

The project was implemented by secondary schools from five European countries. Szekszárdi Garay János Gimnázium in Hungary was the coordinator school. The school has a state of the art science laboratory, which makes it possible to carry out experiments in physics, biology and chemistry. The partner organisations were:
2nd Gymnasio Neas Ionias Attikis in Athens, a Middle School, which prepares students for Lyceum, a General High School. The teachers of the school cooperate for the creation of inter-scientific lessons and the application of new teaching methods concerning all the subjects of the curriculum.
Fridhemsskolan in Arvidsjaur, a lower secondary school in Sweden prepares students for upper secondary school. Half the students have their own computer which they use in the lessons. The teachers use peer teaching method and have had several European teachers job shadowing there. It was their first experience in Erasmus+ project.
IISS Leonardo Da Vinci, a secondary school in Cassano Delle Murge, Italy, prepares students for higher education in several fields. They introduced Cambridge Assessment International Education at their school. Students have the opportunity to learn biology, maths, chemistry and literature in English.
Siauliu Lieporiu Gymnasium in Siauliai, Lithuania, prepares students for higher education as well in well-equipped classrooms. The staff are committed to inclusive education and their work is helped by developmental pedagogues. They have special Arts and Science programmes which are integrated into Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Technology lessons.

Main activities:
1) After the formation of the project teams at the partner schools and distributing tasks, we included the experiments and students’ project work in the curricula. We collected data about the students’ academic results from the previous year and made a survey on the students’ future plans for their future career.
2) We had a kick-off meeting in Lithuania where we discussed the project timetable and details of short-term mobilities on 28th October.
3) Science teachers were continuously carrying out experiments in chemistry, biology and physics, from which videos were made.
4) We made a flipbook of a picture dictionary in six languages with the words and pictures of the laboratory equipment.
5) The students did their own project work in connection with the experiments and other scientific topics.
6) Students with learning difficulties were provided extra lessons regularly, but unfortunately very few took the opportunity.
7) We attended science festivals and organised dissemination days in our schools where teachers and students from the local schools and some from the neighbourhood settlements also attended. We informed the media about our Erasmus+ project and several articles were published and films were shown in the local TV.

Results and impact
There are 100 videos available to watch on Youtube made by the schools in the partnership, a flipbook with a picture dictionary, resource bank for the experiments in pdf format and students presentations in PPT. The results of the project are also available on TwinSpace, where the videos, project works and pictures can be seen under the project title: Getting Science Closer to Students.
As for the impact of the project, we could see that there was more as more interest in the Erasmus+ activities from the students and colleagues as well. Analysing the applications to higher education, there is a slight increase in the scientific field, though we cannot prove that it is just the result of this project. We can also realise that more students are interested in science than before. Participating in the Erasmus+ also attract more students to apply to our schools.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 96445 Eur

Project Coordinator

Szekszárdi Garay János Gimnázium & Country: HU

Project Partners

• IISS LEONARDO DA VINCI
• 2o gymnasio Neas Ionias Attikis
• Siauliu Lieporiu gimnazija
• Fridhemsskolan