MST + Culture through e-car Erasmus Project

Project Title

MST + Culture through e-car

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: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

« MST + Culture through ecar » is a three year school to school key action 2 Erasmus+ project gathering secondary and vocational schools in car automation and engineering fields from Bulgaria, France and Italy coordinated by the French school. A second title chosen during the first face to face meeting « eDay Car : Sustainable Mobility and Culture » is used for all productions that are presented on the etwinning platform – a base for the collaborative work used throughout the project. In 2014, the French school purchased for the needs of its car automotive classes and labs a real electric vehicle, a Renault Zoé which simultaneously embodies the collaborations in this projet. Participants were students aged from 15 to 19 years old, teachers in the three schools through crosscurricular activities in their vocational fields as well as in maths, sciences, technology, humanities and foreign language classes, also supported by non teaching staff. Work language is English which is a foreign langage to all participants.

Many students show a lack of motivation for subjects taught in school and prefer to learn hands on activities. Considering the needs to increase the future generation’s employability in scientific and technological workplaces, teachers want to share good practices with peers to train on embedding international collaboration in their classes. Thus priorities of developping parntnerships between companies and education on one hand and of strenghening the professional profile of teachers on the other hand are targeted in this project. Here the Zoe car is physically transported for each of the six learning events to each partner school about 2000 km apart from each other to allow all partner students and teachers to work on it. Learning activities started online on etwinning then continued during learning events with the car as a central element embodying sustainable mobility. Finally all collaborative documents reached in various school subjects were published on etwinning and also available in the car itself in embarked tablets.

Some technical activities can be seen directly on the car.
– Car body painting students follow choices made by project students through a drawing competition : plain at the start, the Zoé car shows in its visual aspect the three countries collaborating on sustainable mobility issues.
– This car was equipped with air pollution detectors on the roof to make measurements of various air pollution indicators when the car was driven all the way from France to the south of Italy or to Bulgaria. This detector was run by a solar pannel fixed on the roof. In computer science classes these measurements were used to draw an interactive map showing air pollution datas on the way from the North West of France to the South of Italy. In math classes these measurements were then worked for statistics and final conclusions increasing students’ awareness for climate changes issues. The detector itself is produced by the Italian National Research Centre as a prototype and contributed to further technological improvements.
– Once transported on a truck to reach the partner school because of low autonomy the Zoe car could be driven itself all the way to Italy experiencing a new prototype trailer turning the electric vehicle into an hybrid vehicle with long autonomy which is provided by a French company “epTender “itself supported by the EU.
– During its stay in each country the car displayed logos of local companies involved in the project. In fact the Zoé car was a part of communication events in the city centres promoting the students and teachers’s collaborations to the local population.
– The car now displays QR codes which lead to technical documentations and cultural documentations produced during the activities when you flash on them with a smartphone.
– Embarked tablets contain final documents produced together in subjects taught in school ranking from English as foreign langage to culture with traditional dances through mathematics.

The results are numerous documents in videos, posters, powerpoint presentations, video conferences, written reports of transnational teachers meetings. What teachers and schools improved was new methods of how to organise and lead student learning events in mobilities and to organise collaborative activities online in various subjects taught in school.

This project had a significant impact on more than 600 students and 100 teachers in three years. As a proof of their European citizenship and digital competences these students mention their participation in their resume when applying for a first job or entering universities right after finishing secondary or vocational school. As for teachers they gained motivation to improve their foreign langage skills in English in their subject so that they are be able to collaborate in international projects. On the long run each partner school opens up its international scope.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 206431,31 Eur

Project Coordinator

Association de l’Institut Professionnel Lemonnier & Country: FR

Project Partners

• IIS G. B. Pentasuglia
• PTG “Tsar Simeon Veliki” Targovishte