Islands Diversity for Science Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Islands Diversity for Science 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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Natural sciences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

It is known that education has the power to shape the future of generations. In such a rapidly evolving world, education must accelerate its development in order to lead development wisely and with respect for nature, environment and all living beings. Teachers are gathering at a European level to learn and update their practices and are developing European networks of best practices. However, not all teachers have the same access to such innovations. Teachers and students from islands have been isolated in many levels and innovation in education is no exception.

IDiverSE was a project that focused on creating an innovative teaching and learning approach that was meaningful and accessible to teachers and students living on islands and in the mainland. It combined several innovative methodologies like Inquiry, Interdisciplinarity, Personal Geography, Design Thinking, international collaboration and innovative assessment, into one seamless learning approach that focused on Design Thinking in STEAM education. This method led students in the development of projects focusing on problems relevant to their communities locally but also globally, while learning their curricula content in a meaningful way. Through the four steps of design thinking – Feel, Imagine, Create and Share – students learned about the problems, communicated with their communities and together brainstormed, co-created and shared solutions to such problems. In other words, teachers and students became change-makers in their communities promoting awareness and development.

Several training courses were provided to teachers where they became experienced in all the methodologies and innovations and constant support was given to them during the implementation. A total of 107 teachers and 1541 students from 1st to 12th grade implemented the project, developing over 140 community projects in their islands and mainland. The projects were implemented in 11 islands and mainland of 7 countries: Portugal, Spain, Greece, Ghana, Colombia, USA and Serbia. Students focused on several local and global problems like plastic pollution, marine litter, the extinction of pollinators, the dangers and importance of UV radiation for human health, reading habits of the community, the production of hygienic masks for covid, pollution around the school, musical heritage of the Azores islands, space exploration, etc. In all projects, students contacted with their community to evaluate their level of awareness about the topics and to create something meaningful to their particular community. During the four steps of the Design Thinking, students researched the problem in an Inquiry and Interdisciplinary approach and used their creativity to create solutions. Finally, students shared their creations with their communities. Several sharing actions were carried out by the students and teachers. Some groups created posters and leaflets that they distributed in their communities, an art exhibit about plastics in the ocean was presented in a public gallery, a group of students in Azores appeared in the local TV channel presenting their work and sharing their results, an exhibit was created for the whole school community to learn about the different problems and the solutions, several temporary science trails were created and a stationary one was built and opened for the community, school gardens were planted and open for the community to visit, pollinator hotels were built and installed, conferences were organized, etc. Teachers have also appeared on local TV and radio channels presenting the project.

One additional initiative was developed by the IDiverSE team, called “Trail of Islands” that involved 4 schools from 4 islands in Greece and Portugal. Students from each island, prepared a treasure box with 6 items from their island and sent it to the other islands. The initiative included 4 additional activities related to natural disasters in the islands, however, due to COVID-19, this initiative got suspended after the boxes were sent.

By the end of the project, teachers have showed a great satisfaction with the project, reporting an improvement in their students’ engagement, motivation, skills development, attitudes in class, relationship with colleagues and teachers and final grades. Teachers also reported an improvement in their own teaching motivation and engagement, a better relationship between them and colleagues and with students and provided a very positive feedback, stating that they would remain innovating in their teaching.

IDiverSE has been a very successful and fruitful project, overcoming all expectations. All the outputs, resources, tools, activities and reports can be seen on the project website: https://idiverse.eu/. The students’ projects can be seen in the Open Schools for Open Societies portal: https://portal.opendiscoveryspace.eu/en/osos

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 173489,95 Eur

Project Coordinator

NUCLIO NUCLEO INTERACTIVO DE ASTRONOMIA ASSOCIACAO & Country: PT

Project Partners

• UNIVERSIDADE DOS ACORES
• ELLINOGERMANIKI AGOGI SCHOLI PANAGEA SAVVA AE
• Escola Secundária Jaime Moniz
• UNIVERSIDAD DE LA IGLESIA DE DEUSTO ENTIDAD RELIGIOSA
• Escola Básica 2,3 Ciclos Dr. Horácio Bento de Gouveia
• Escola Secundária Jerónimo Emiliano de Andrade
• Associação BAndeira Azul da Europa