Smart Education: Explore CLIL by Using Robotics Erasmus Project

Project Title

Smart Education: Explore CLIL by Using Robotics

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Research and innovation

Project Summary

The idea for the project titled “Smart Education: Explore CLIL by Using Robotics” came from daily life, from observing our own children and students at school. In the 21st century access to information is easy and common that learning facts and statistical data by heart is no longer necessary as it can be acquired with no effort. Therefore, the most important skills now seem to be the ability to find specific information, understand and employ quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems, interpret and evaluate information from a variety of sources and transform information into knowledge and knowledge into judgement and action. Teaching those competences is one of the main goals of a modern school nowadays.
The aspiration for our project team was to find ways to integrate CLIL and Robotics as a foundation for future student learning.
The main aim of the teaching staff was to develop the right teaching strategies which lead to creative learning and a productive approach to making integration as a part of ongoing personal and professional development.
Our aim was to create an opportunity for our students to view integration as something that is not going away and that should be used productively, rather than be devalued in schools. Due to all project activities our students gained key competences for a successful life such as problem solving, reflection, creativity, critical thinking, learning to learn, risk-taking and collaboration. Also, they improved their English and ICT skills.
We were a team of 6 countries with similar experiences in relation to the project topic and same interests in active methods, ICT and LEGO as a tool during the lessons. But above all we wanted to share our innovative teaching approaches.
The project team consisted of teachers who were well-qualified and skilled enough. They can be called innovative and willing to experiment on new ideas, methods and approaches. They already participated in various European projects and seminars about new learning methods, activities and also took part in Erasmus+ projects. More than half of the key persons were well-qualified and skilled in ICT.
The student target group was from 12 to 15 years old. The current project aimed at enhancing the quality of teaching and education offered to this target group. Approximately 100 students from 6 participating schools attended in the mobilities of students. These young people were communicative, cooperative, social, enthusiastic, creative and able to work in a team. In addition to good social and personal skills they had good English, ICT and robotics knowledge. So 100 participants actively participated in the project. However, the teams involved the whole school community of their country to participate actively in the project.
All partners were important and provided special knowledge to the project. The German partner as coordinating school within the project had a supportive role but also provided specialist knowledge for the whole project group. The coordinating school shared new innovative pedagogical teaching materials with all partners. The Portuguese partner brought new advanced ICT technology and shared their knowledge with others. They established and kept up the project’s website. The school has a good command of ICT and participated in various trainings. The Lithuanian school provided new ideas and created new teaching materials by using LEGO bricks and active learning methods in class. They shared their knowledge and ICT experience in teaching with all partners. The school taught students to explore the world by using the Internet as a main source of information and a main channel of communication. The Polish and Croatian school provided innovative teaching methods and ideas. During the meeting in Poland for example a robot was built to collect garbage. The cooperation of all partners helped to develop a multi-faceted programme to organize and moderate students’ activities during all students’ meetings. Our international team shared good practices which were essential to create high quality project activities and results. The main products are:
– e-book with 12 lesson plans, worksheets “Smart education: Let’s explore CLIL by Robotics”
– comic books on “A child from a green future”;
– films with the main role of LEGO robots;
– 2 e-books “My fairy LEGO animal” and “LEGO machine that is ecologically clean” with the instruction on animal creation;
– book with conference material on ‘Natural Engineers’ (due to the pandemic the conference couldn’t take place but the material was provided)
– calender which illustrates all meetings
Impact on teachers and students:
During the project teachers and students improved their English language skills through communicating with the project members of the partner schools in meetings, online conferences and written communication. They also acquired new or better knowledge of ICT and robotics during the project activities and the exchange of teaching materials. In addition teachers improved their teaching through the exchange of teaching methods and their management skills while carrying out and organizing the project.
To sum up, the realization of the project enriched the schools by providing knew knowledge and teaching methods as well as improving the schools’ status.

Project Website

http://www.erasmusplus-robotics.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 147295 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gesamtschule der Stadt Hemer & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Colégio Atlântico
• Publiczna Szkola Podstawowa nr 2 im. Hansa Christiana Andersena w Radomiu
• Kauno Tado Ivanausko progimnazija
• Istituto Comprensivo 1 Taormina
• Osnovna skola “Matija Gubec” Cernik