OUT OF THE BOX Erasmus Project

Project Title

OUT OF THE BOX

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; Environment and climate change; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

This project was implemented to provide a response to a set of needs directly related to needs of the participating schools and the demands for modernisation of the educational systems in Europe. Need for key competencies in creativity and innovation, need for efficient tools to motivate for further learning, and need to generate a change in schools and teachers were addressed within Erasmus+ strategic partnership project OUT OF THE BOX.

On the other hand countries tend to promote educational policies where schools should adopt a system where curriculum is overloaded and everything should be assessed by exams or written assignments. This kind of policies create stress and anxiety to students and teachers. So with this project innovation is diffused in certain areas of the curiiculum in order to increase the interest of participants to deal with lessons that probably considered ‘boring” or “common”. The project isn’t aimimg to give more workload but on the contrary to give new and innovative techniques/ideas/methods to deal with current curriculum themes.Our motivation in order to develop this project has been the need of fulfilling a structural change that has as the starting basis an innovative and creative methodology. With this aim in mind we will provide our students with the tools needed to give answer of a changing and transformative society needs.

The project’s objectives are focused in the 3 key areas. These are digital literacy, enviromental education and sport participation. These factors are so important in modern times that need to get attention so by students but also by teachers too. So the above general objectives are separated in some minor ones by area as following:

DIGITAL LITERACY:
-Providing school teachers with the skills and competences to embed innovation and creativity in their teaching activities, responding to the needs of teachers and schools through access to creativity techniques, best practices, examples and testimonies;
-Integration of ICT tools in teaching and learning by developing a learning-by-doing environment.
-To develop students’ competencies in technology and increasing learner motivation and engagement in ICT.

ENVIROMENTAL EDUCATION:
– Raise awareness about main environmental issues that concern their school.
– Specify one enviromental issue they want to deal with and discuss possible solutions.
– Making actions to solve it. Promote green entepreneurship.

SPORT EDUCATION:
– Increasing physical activity of school’s participants for a period of time.
– Involve in new sports not so popular in school’s curriculum in order to gain more motives for more physical activity.

The first year we ll deal with digital innovation and use of ICT tools in educational process. The activities for this area include teacher’s and student’s education for using internet tools like Ebook creator to write stories, Etwinning forum for getting to know each other, coding programs to move robots, fun designing logos tools and apps, writing a story or intorducing the main country’s or region sightseeings by using augmented reality apps.

The second years activities will split into the other 2 key areas. For the enviromental education participants should detect the main enviromental issue and write down a policy. But specificly they have to track down a problem that affects their life in school area like too much litter, air pollution from cars passing by They will focus in extreme sunshine, overheating of classes or weak sunshine and the innovation here is to provide a successful solution for the problem.

For the key area 3 about sport innovation and promote activity motivation there will be a group of activities. Firstly participants will focus in sports or activities that are missing from school curriculum and would like to get to know more about these. Then a policy will be made so for a long period some participants will involve energeticly exercising in the sport/ physical activity they have chosen. Finally will try promote in a large scale the sport so more participants will involve either from school or the community.

Though these 3 key areas look different with them, they will be connected and diffused together. The digital learning factor will be used in every stage of the project as after every main activity a digital product will be produced. For example students in second year will be asked to investigate ways “how we can live better”, they will visit enviromental centres and places, collect photos and videos and create a Padlet or Gloster which are apps that present digitally the experiences of the students.

Students will deal with these 3 key areas in a playful, imaginary way. A scenario will be created that a strange/special figure is escaping Out Of a Box and asks some questions. Students will draw the figure, 3D print it and start answering its questions that refer to the 3 key areas.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 140385 Eur

Project Coordinator

DIMOTIKO SXOLEIO DASOUS ACHNAS-FOTIS PITTAS & Country: CY

Project Partners

• Limerick East Educate Together
• Osnovna skola Bilje
• 1st Primary School of Efkarpia
• KGS Thomas-Schule
• Colégio do Marítimo Unipessoal LDA