Math for daily life – Actions aimed at introducing students to mathematics Erasmus Project

Project Title

Math for daily life – Actions aimed at introducing students to mathematics

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

“Math for daily life” (no. 2017-1-02KA21-9036781) was a project coordinated by the Polo Tecnico “Fermi-Gadda” with the participation of “Solski Center Novo Mesto” from Slovenia and “Ventspils Valsts 1 gimnāzija” from Latvia. The project improved the quality of the teaching/learning of mathematics within the partner schools, ending last 15th Oct. 2019, after 24 months (from October 2017) of interaction, organization and cooperation among all the partners. The project focus was the development of three “Short-term exchanges of groups of pupils”:
– Activity C1 carried out in Italy and hosted, in Naples, by the project Coordinator (May 2018);
– Activity C2 in Slovenia and organized by the hosting partner “Solski Center Novo Mesto” (April 2019);
– Activity C3 hosted in Latvia by “Ventspils Valsts 1 gimnāzija” and organized to facilitate the additional mobility of the Slovenian students (April 2019).
Apart from the LTTAs, the project included 4 Transnational Meetings, which involved the representatives of each partner school and simplified the project management and the exchange of good practices.
“Math for daily life” achieved the following objectives:
– the project cooperation and activities contributed to the improvement of the teaching and learning of mathematics within the partner schools, making the subject less abstract and more connected to everyday life (music, art and architecture, etc.);
– the participation of students from different socio-cultural backgrounds in the planned activities has favoured their inclusion within the (extra) curricular life, positively impacting on the development of soft skills such as team work, mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue;
– the exchange among different student delegations had extraordinary effects on Language learning and acquisition and, therefore, allowed the improvement of students’ comprehension and expression in English;
– the project updated the teachers’ communicative approach, which became more appealing.
60 students of different nationalities (Slovenian, Latvian and Italian), between 14 and 17 years of age, and characterized by varied socio-economic and linguistic-cultural backgrounds, participated in 5-day training activities abroad, supported by accompanying teachers selected from the staff of each partner school. Specifically identified project representatives, mathematics and language teachers of different age, facilitated the LTTAs and systematized the project results within a final e-book including all the exercises and tasks developed.
The impact registered on students was measured both through ongoing monitoring actions and by means of an online questionnaire (created on Google Forms):
– 86% of participants improved their approach towards mathematics and their attitude of rejection changed;
– 86% of learners strengthened their logical and critical thinking;
– 100% of participants improved their linguistic competence in English;
– 100% of students are now more motivated towards study and their self-development.
The impact on the participating teachers was:
– improvement of teachers’ didactic skills for teaching mathematics in a modern and innovative way;
– greater knowledge of the Italian, Slovenian and Latvian school systems and different learning environments;
– strengthening of teachers’ linguistic skills as well as their ability to plan actions for school improvement in the context of European cooperation.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 71180 Eur

Project Coordinator

ITIS Polo Tecnico Fermi-Gadda & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Ventspils Valsts 1 gimnazija
• SOLSKI CENTER NOVO MESTO
• HLW Schrödingerstraße