HOBOS Beebox Erasmus Project

Project Title

HOBOS Beebox

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 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Natural sciences; Open and distance learning; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

In 2006, HOBOS was founded at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Wurzburg. A single beehive with a great many sensors and a value of several hundred thousand Euros was at the heart of the interactive concept of HOney Bee Online Studies. It was the aim of “HoBeebox” to design a simplified and lower-cost “eHive”, a small number of which were to be produced and installed in schools all over Europe creating an eHive network with access to all data collected. Being quite literally closer them, the object of study becomes easier accessible to the students and triggers more interest in them than a beehive in remote Wurzburg.

The participants of a practical seminar at Deutschhaus Grammar School in Wurzburg constructed the eHive prototype. Thirteen eHives were set up and populated with bee colonies in eight European countries. After finishing school, the team, which were to become BeeBIT e.V., installed more powerful circuit boards and developed the eHive into a commercial product. They have already managed to sell more eHives thus broadening the network. All data collected on the behaviour of bees and the environment are sent to and stored on the BeeBIT servers. The BeeBIT interface on www.beebit.de allows retrieving all or filtered data as spreadsheets or graphs.

This project also developed learning units, presentations and videos that use eHive data. The learning materials are designed for STEM as well as interdisciplinary classes and were tested and evaluated by partner schools in Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Sweden, Poland and Slovenia. On careful consideration of national curricula, selected units were translated into the respective languages. In addition, the German and English versions were used for CLIL. All products of this project are available for free online in BeeBIT’s learning managing system; everyone has access to all learning materials, teaching resources become available to teachers upon registration. Links to BeeBIT on the Science on Stage Europe platform facilitate and enhance international dissemination.

All participants in the project were coordinated by the non-profit organisation “europafels”, which, for more than ten years, has built European-wide networks for educational institutions and provided high-quality teacher training on an international platform. To ensure a long-term effect of the project outputs, an eHive teaching unit is made available through School Education Gateway and also by the “German Department of Education Bozen”. Moreover, an ECTS-Moodle course has become an essential part of the teacher training program at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. Other teaching assignments are being discussed. Some project results will be published in a pedagogical journal. The success of the project – even surpassing predefined goals and expectations – was made possible by the high level of commitment, often on a voluntary basis, of all participants.

On BeeBIT’s website, real-life observation and electronic information technology unite to create new forms of smart-object-based teaching potentials that are fully accessible to everyone. The eHive learning materials promote thinking beyond disciplinary boundaries and enhance both students’ independence and intercultural competence: Mirroring the complexity of the data, they are designed to create tasks which transcend simple fauna observation (e.g. mathematical temperature analysis, geographical climate studies) to not only deepen comprehension of ecological correlations within the differentiated living spaces [biotopes] of Europe but also encourage hands-on approaches: from playfully investigating the honeybee in kindergarten to carrying out complex chemical analyses of honey on the secondary level. Using foreign-language materials, learners broaden their understanding of the foreign language. Beehive installation and maintenance increase students’ as well as teachers’ practical, digital and organisational skills and their sense of responsibility. The hands-on design of the teaching resources motivates students with learning disabilities. The project brings scientific thinking and research skills into the school thus reducing, especially for educationally marginalised students, barriers to STEM-based educational and professional fields. It is these academically disadvantaged students that strategies of curriculum development focus on in particular. In a new project, europafels and BeeBIT plan to not only contribute to broadening access to education across all levels of society but also to take the next step in standardising STEM qualifications and mobility across Europe by translating the brand-new Common European Framework of Reference for STEM subjects into practice.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 258780 Eur

Project Coordinator

europafels e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Mikolaja Kopernika
• Engelbrektskolan
• Deutschhaus-Gymnasium
• JULIUS-MAXIMILIANS UNIVERSITAET WUERZBURG
• Friedrich-Koenig-Gymnasium
• Wiedner Gymnasium/ Sir Karl Popper Schule
• II.gimnazija Maribor