W poszukiwaniu królowej nauk – rozwój kompetencji matematycznych wśród gimnazjalistów Erasmus Project

Project Title

W poszukiwaniu królowej nauk – rozwój kompetencji matematycznych wśród gimnazjalistów

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project “The Quest of the Science Queen ” was the result of a consistent improvement in the quality of teaching in our schools. In principle, for five years we have been taking part in trainings and projects that improve our teaching and language skills. ” The Quest of the Science Queen ” was another step in the development of not only teachers, but also students (present and future). We have focused on mathematics this time. We were well aware that for most students it is the most difficult subject. That is why we wanted to develop innovative teaching methods in the framework of the project that will allow young people to be interested in this difficult subject. Thanks to this, graduates of our schools found it easier on the educational market. Such pupils will find it easier to find their place in the labor market in the future.
However, the project did not focus solely on students directly involved in the project. We were more interested in teacher education. They are the tools that convey knowledge in the field of mathematics. Participation in the project allowed them to discover innovative teaching methods that stimulate students to be active. Not only mathematicians but also other teachers were involved in the project. In this way, we have made the development of key mathematical competences a large educational area. Teachers learned how to stimulate young people to logical thinking, spatial imaging or memory action on large numbers.
An additional goal was to expand language skills among students and teachers. The project involved a junior high school in Strzelno, where for six years bilingual classes have been created. The students take part in maths, geography and chemistry lessons taught in English. For a large group of students, the project activities forced more intensive work on raising competences in the field of English. This aspect of the project was extremely interesting, because the Romanian school also put a strong emphasis on the development of language competences. A significant proportion of students used several languages – Hungarian, English and German. Therefore, the youth from Poland and Bulgaria saw that you can learn well in several languages. For Bulgarians, the development of language competences was important because young people from Sofia tend not to be interested in learning foreign languages. Participation in the project forced them not only to reflection, but also more intensive learning. The development of language competences was also an important element for teachers who spoke not only English and Russian.
The partners were chosen on purpose – a Polish Junior high school with bilingual branches, a Romanian high school, where the main language of instruction is English and German, Bulgarian electronic technical school. Three partners have brought knowledge of science and high language competences to the project. Unfortunately, due to political turmoil, the Turkish schools withdrew from the project, but all their tasks were taken over by three partners from Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.
As part of a two-year project, we completed all planned activities and achieved our goals. We went beyond maths with maths. We have shown that mathematics can be an interesting subject and taught in various places. We involved many people (students, teachers, parents, officials) and many institutions, eg Faculty of Methodology of Teaching from Satu Mare, Romanian salt mine, Mill of Knowledge in Toruń, Institute of Goose Breeding in Koło, Gingerbread Museum in Toruń, House of Alchemist in Toruń, Institute of Technology Development in Sofia, Sofia zoo. Thanks to these institutions, we were able to carry out innovative mathematics classes in the background. For the purposes of the project, several original lesson and work sheet scenarios were created, which not only enriched the project participants ‘skills, but they came to many teachers during methodological workshops, academic conferences or teacher training, eg about the influence of students’ participation in competitions for the development of mathematical competences, on methods of teaching mathematics in various educational systems in the world). All published materials have been published on the internet to make them generally available. Also, some of the materials are distributed by project teachers in the form of publications (eg a book with lesson plans was published).
The implementation of the two-year project affected not only students and teachers directly involved. The results of the project activities are long-term, because the lessons learned and materials will allow teachers to use them for many years. Not only maths lessons will be more interesting for future generations of students. Schools from Strzelno, Sofia and Satu Mare also gained prestige in local communities. Wide information on project activities contributed to the popularization of not only our schools, but also the Erasmus project itself.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 58550 Eur

Project Coordinator

Szkola Podstawowa z Oddzialami Dwujezycznymi im. Jana Dalkowskiego & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Liceul Teoretic German Johann Ettinger
• Profesionalna Gimnazia po audio-, video- i telekomunikacia ”A. S. Popov”
• Kanuni Ortaokulu
• OZEL TANI ANADOLU LISESI