Power Tool Race Erasmus Project

Project Title

Power Tool Race

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: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

This project found its origin when PTS Boom, Belgium went onto the eTwinning Live partner forum asking for interest in a European power tool race, the simple but alluring idea being to have students build their own electric power tool drag racer from an everyday hand power tool and organise an international power tool race with it.
Three schools from across the continent were not only enthusiastic to take part but were also similar IVET and STEM schools with students aged 16 to 19 of whom a considerable number are considered to be students with fewer possibilities: ZSP Ornontowice, Poland, CFP Zanardelli Bergamo, Italy and 1st EPAL Piraeus, Greece.
All four schools very quickly felt they were “on track”: the central idea of the project was clear, they had the necessary capacity on board, the project would challenge both their STEM as their IVET students and it would create the right circumstances to involve students with fewer opportunities in a European project.

The main objective of the project is to engage the learners of our schools in an appealing and innovative challenge so as to boost certain key competences: learning by doing and working together to make a power tool drag racer in mixed VET/STEM teams in which everyone’s contribution is equally important, using English for real life communication (on eTwinning and on international mobilities) and improving digital skills to produce video reports of their work in progress and of the power tool races.
For the schools the project means an opportunity to share an experience of STEM domain education and explore an engaged form of learning where IVET learners feel just as valued as STEM learners.

The core activity of this project is to turn an everyday hand power tool such as a drill or grinder into a fully functioning power tool drag racer that can run along a wooden track. Students will need to work in teams and be creative. They will need to present their work in progress via video and conference calls on Twinspace before taking their racer abroad on a mobility to race similar power tools made by other teams. On one occasion they will build extra drag racers during the mobility in mixed international teams.

After receiving an introduction and the rules and regulations of a power tool drag race, students will use their creativity and learn by doing in a team of mixed VET and STEM students where everyone has an equally valuable input. For language support they will make their own multilingual technical glossary to be published on Twinspace. For technical support they will receive feedback from fellow students and teachers in their school and from the other schools when they present their racer to the other teams on the eTwinning platform. Every mobility will also have targeted STEM input sessions that will help to improve on the existing racers or help to build better ones by the next mobility.

A high number of STEM and IVET students will be involved in (parts of) the project: STEM input sessions, construction work in workshops and English tasks related to the project will be part of the regular school curriculum and whole class groups will perform them.
At the discretion of the school a smaller number will form a mixed VET/STEM team to build a power tool drag racer. Different students will be chosen at four different stages over the two years.
Five students per school, of whom minimum two with fewer opportunities, will be designated to participate in mobilities and perform the power tool race and the other proposed activities. Different students will be chosen for every mobility. They will be accompanied by two teachers involved in building the power tool or the organisation of the project.
Hosting a mobility will require the help and input of the school’s internationalisation teams and/or general staff.
Two teachers who are to benefit most from the proposed activities on the two teacher mobilities will be designated to take part in these.

The palpable results we envisage are a glossary of technical terms and proof of regular interaction between schools on Twinspace, successful power tool races with fully functioning drag racers in all four countries and video records of the building and racing for dissemination purposes.
The important outcomes we envisage are to improve basic skills, social, multilingual and digital competences of IVET learners and STEM learners alike, to empower IVET learners and to deliver a challenging and innovative STEM domain project that engages the students but also proves key in the schools’ internationalisation strategies.

The potential mid and long term benefits are that our IVET learners experience a boost in self-esteem, that our schools incorporate the building of a power tool drag racer into their curricula, that they get a better understanding of STEM domain education and that European cooperation gets further embedded in the organisations, possibly leading to further projects in the future.

Project Website

https://twinspace.etwinning.net/122663/home

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 103064 Eur

Project Coordinator

Provinciale Scholen voor Tuinbouw en Techniek, campus Boom & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Zespol Szkol Ponadpodstawowych w Ornontowicach
• Centro Formativo Provinciale G. Zanardelli
• 1 epal peiraia