WATER Erasmus Project

Project Title

WATER

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Natural sciences; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

The aim of our project WATER = Wisdom and Activity Through Enjoyable Realisation was through individual activities and transnational mobilities to develop and improve the quality of key competences and the inclusion of pupils aged 13 to 15 years of three participating schools (SK, CZ, PL) in five interdisciplinary areas – geography/mathematics, biology/physics/chemistry, language/literature/history, physical culture and work with information and communication technologies (ICT). The common element of all disciplines – water – became a starting point, means of education and learning environment in the spirit of environmental education.

The main objective of the project was to develop professional and linguistic skills (linking education and practice), reading literacy, critical thinking, manual skills and skills in ICT for all categories of students (including social / health / economically disadvantaged), and the subsequent recognition of skills and competences through European instruments (eg. Youthpass). The aim was also to create learning conditions that would allow scholastic, heuristic and multisensory method of teaching – effectively connecting the modern theoretical knowledge with practical experience in specific field conditions of 3 countries. Special attention we paid to pupils with special educational needs and pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, who thanks to graphic and illustrative teaching aids could have acquired greater opportunities for true inclusion in education.

During the project, we carried out 27 thematic project activities, which are in the Twinspace and we implemented them in the learning process in schools.
Activities were divided into 5 thematic areas:
1. water in numbers and in places
2. water – home of plants and animals
3. water – a place of memories and dreams
4. Water as an experience
5. Water in virtual reality.
During the project, we organized 2 transnational project meetings and 3 Short-term learning activities.

The project planned 6 outputs, which we also managed to realize. The joint project outputs were:
1. four language Czech-Polish-Slovak-English pictorial herbarium enriched with Latin names;
2. an interactive map of each country with QR codes, which also includes a print version along with playing cards and game rules for each school and available in the Twinspace for download in PDF format; effectively linking modern innovative teaching with practical experience and play;
3. readers’ diary, enriched with pupil’s illustrations – stories fictional but also from the lives of grandparents and other relatives – thus involving the wider community as well as local legends and stories.
4. A four language Czech-Slovak-Polish-English CLIL dictionary with plant, animal, mushroom and geographical names; which, in addition, in print form can serve as a game memory game, also available in Twinspace as a PDF game; the photographs were provided by our pupils or in cooperation with the conservation society, the drawn pictures were created during the informatics lessons by the school pupils;
5. The Twinspace website, which has become the basic platform for storing all materials, photos, videos, presentations, articles and project outputs – each school participated in the creation of the site content – both pupils and teachers; as well as the main place for cooperation and collaboration of project partners.
6. Project Chronicle – Created from photographs, videos and materials collected over two years of the project. It will serve as an example of good practice for future generations of pupils.

Our assumption that by self-examination, presentation of results, communication with partners and reflections would be achieved higher chances of students to get better jobs, to use greater initiative, to enhance self-esteem and self-sufficiency was correct. Their proactive approach resulted in higher motivation to participate in further education in multicultural conditions in the future and the acquisition of theoretical and practical experience/practice for personal and professional life. At the same time an international peer context opens a wide scope for increasing skills in the foreign language (English, German, Polish, Czech, Slovak), awareness of other cultures and specifications as well as identification of the value and importance of the EU.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 66280 Eur

Project Coordinator

Zakladna skola A. Sladkovica & Country: SK

Project Partners

• Zakladni skola Primda, okres Tachov, prispevkova organizace
• Szkola Podstawowa w Zespole Szkolno-Przedszkolnym im. Powstancow Wielkopolskich