Stirling Engine Group Erasmus Project

Project Title

Stirling Engine Group

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Energy and resources; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

Background
All participants in this project want to collaborate with their European partners, want to get a deeper insight into the topic of sustainability and gain key qualifications. Further, they want to use means of communication which are state of the art in industry and commerce. Soft skills like improving language/communicational skills and the development of social contacts can be seen as further benefits for both students and teachers.
The idea of a common project was developed at a meeting in Leuben in spring 2018. All four participating schools decided to take part in the “Stirling Engine Group”.

Goals
The participants want to rebuild a Stirling engine. Starting point is an enginge called ST 05 G, developed by Dieter Viebach (Germany). This engine is a technically rather demanding construction – especially when it comes to manufacturing – and redesigning it will be challenging for all partners.
In the first step construction drawings will be made by using already existing technical documents. Based on these drawing each school will manufacture the parts needed for building their own engines. Assembling the engines, testing them and analysing the performance data will complete the project.

Number and profile of participants
All four participants are technical schools from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Norway and Austria, which offer their students a rather similar technical education in the fields of industrial production, material science and building and energy technologies. All four schools put an emphasis on practical training in their own workshops, have a close cooperation with local companies in the different regions and have already gained some experience in carrying out European Erasmus+ projects.
The students are between 15 and 19 years old and for each individual step students of one class or of the whole schools will be selected to take part in the project. The Czech school will hold a competition in spring 2019 in which the students have to develop their own Stirling engine.

Descripiton of activities
During the project 5 mobilities are planned to be carried out – one visit to each partner school and a final event in Austria.
Activities taking place during the visits:
• getting to know the partner schools
• presentation of the host country
• social contact between the students of the different countries, if possible stay at host family
• working on the project and comparing the experiences and results
• technical excursions related to the topic
• sightseeing
• scheduling the next work steps in the Project

Methodology to be used in carrying out the project
The project will be carried out according to a pre-defined work plan in which the single steps are scheduled in advance.
The following tasks have been planned:
• realising the construction drawings on a CAD-system
• producing the various parts for the engines
• assembling and testing the engines
• measuring and comparing the performance data of the four engines
During the whole process all partners will be connected by digital means of communication (e.g. eTwinning).

Results
Each school will have its own Stirling engine which can be used for further educational purposes.
Potential long term benefits
• support the students‘ creativity and motivation, develop different skills needed in the future
• the students are engaged in designing, constructing, producing, assembling and testing a real machine
• in this processes knowledge gained in the classroom has to be put into practice
• by putting this project into practice both students and teachers will develop their creative thinking
• team spirit and a sense of responsibility will be developed
• both students and teachers have to collaborate with their European partners and to take responsibility for their special tasks
• improvement of language skills in a technical environment (CLIL), as all students communicate in English in written and spoken communication during the whole project
Practical possibility for dealing with sustainable energy production
Although Stirling engines have been known for a long time, the way they work has become more popular in the last years. As there will be a scarcity of fossil fuels in the future alternative ways to power machines will become more important. The Stirling engine might be one of these solutions for some applications.
Getting a closer insight into this topic might raise the students’ awareness concerning sustainability and ecological sense of responsibility.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 106341 Eur

Project Coordinator

HTL Vöcklabruck & Country: AT

Project Partners

• Robert-Schuman-Institut
• Stredni prumyslova skola, Obchodni akademie a Jazykova skola s pravem statni jazykove zkousky, Frydek-Mistek, prispevkova organizace
• Leksvik videregående skole