MOVE – be a learning hero Erasmus Project

Project Title

MOVE – be a learning hero

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: Health and wellbeing; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

In the age of digital media children and teenagers spend more and more time with their game consoles, smartphones, etc. instead of doing outside activities. Lack of exercise and a large amount of media use are unhealthy and, in combination with bad nutrition, can have a negative impact on concentration and learning achievement. The project was based on the idea of “bewegtes Klassenzimmer” (classroom in motion) and had the aim to make young people reflect on their physical and mental health. In addition, they should develop new patterns of behavior which have a positive impact on their learning strategies.

These patterns of behavior were supposed to be applicable both during lessons and in everyday school life. In order to achieve this aim, they developed self-learning courses for different subjects and grades, combining learning content with moving andmedia use for an optimal result. The long-intended term effect was developing and testing new concepts for media use, nutrition and movement at all participating schools. The realization of the projects was based on the idea of a translational exchange. Each participating school has a sound concept in a different field of the project. The Spanish school provides a modern concept for the didactical use of mobile phones and focuses on media education. The Finnish school has used modern and sometimes alternative didactic methods for many years. The Europaschule in Herzogenrath offers an exemplary nutrition concept and the Europaschule in Cologne concentrates on developing self-learning courses (Lernparcours) in the fields of movement and learning, and has implemented the system of breaks in motion (“bewegte Pause”). The students who took part in the project were between 14 and 16 years old, and predominantly doing well with regard to their academic performance, as the development of self-learning courses under consideration of didactic methods required a certain amount of reflective faculty. The teachers who participated in the project all had a sufficient knowledgeof English, and most of them teach science or sports. On average, 15 students and 5 teachers from each school took part in the project.

At the start of the project, a survey was done to assess the status quo (questions about learning habits, sports, nutrition and media use). The result was that the amount of physical activity needed improvement at all schools. The first student meeting in Herzogenrath focused on nutrition, especially breakfast. The students got to know the different breakfast habits and found out about the positive influence of healthy food as energy source on concentration in lessons. Another focus of the workshops was the introduction of several activation techniques that could be used in lessons as well as afterwards. Teachers and students tried out cooperative learning methods presented by a representative of a German health insurance company (Techniker Krankenkasse). This presentation was an incentive for the realization of the self-learning courses. With regard to nutrition, it was very interesting to compare the eating habits of the participating countries and their impact on academic performance. In the course of the project, the students developed several recipes which had a positive influence on the ability to concentrate. Each school then had the task to incorporate these results in the development of learning activities. Each school prepared three self-learning courses with different learning contents. Those were presented and tested at the students meeting in Finland, and then evaluated with regard to practicability and effectivity.

In Finland the best two self-learning courses of each school were chosen, and the students then produced videos of those courses in their native language. To communicate with each other, the students used the previously established Instagram account during the time between the meetings. There they also exchanged recipes and tips.

In Spain, the videos were translated into English, and an English audio file was added to the videos, so that the videos contained two audio files each. A Finnish colleague created a blog (erasmusmove.blogspot.com), and it was filled with videos, recipes, reports of the students and a radio report ofthe project made by a Spanish local station. The participating schools published a link to the blog on their home pages,so that the videos can be used as a visual aid by students and teachers of all schools.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 73578 Eur

Project Coordinator

Europaschule Köln Gesamtschule Zollstock & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Europaschule Herzogenrath
• Paraistenseudun koulu, Paraisten kaupunki
• COLEGIO NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LOS DESAMPARADOS