We are all stars Erasmus Project

Project Title

We are all stars

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 youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The idea of Transnational Youth Initiative project was born during one of the Erasmus+ trainings for young leaders. Representatives of partner organizations are willing to share their common passion for astronomy and board games with other young people. We were discussing the idea with our friends and in the end two eight-man groups of young people came to being. Most of us come from small towns, we are pupils and students aged 18-30 from Poland and Slovakia. What we have in common is interest in astronomy.

The project aim is the creation of a board game called “We are all stars,” which metaphorically refers to the fact that the matter we are built with came from the II-star population. That will be the topic of an educational tool that we want to create, test and distribute in our local areas. It is going to be an innovative board game for high school students and adults, revolving around the topic of stars evolution. Players will collect matter to build different types of stars, which will evolve over time. Game might include an element of randomness (eg. cosmic catastrophe) which will affect to the distribution of matter. Moreover, the educational tool will be a quite complex, multi-stage game, requiring interactions between players and them relying on information searching skills. Actual scientific tables, charts and diagrams will be included in the game.

We want to implement the project in purpose of popularise science among young people and create a tool that will be both educational and entertaining. We believe that the methods of non-formal education are not commonly used in Polish and Slovak schools. Free access to the complied educational tool and workshop scenario can partially change this status quo.

The project is divided into two stages: design and testing of the board game as well as dissemination of the results of our work. We start working on the tool with a training about games creation which allow us to construct the good quality final product. In the first year, four Transnational Project Meetings are planned. During the meetings we will not only intensively work on the game but also monitor the progress. We want to develop and test a prototype of the board game, print the final version, and create a workshop scenario that includes the use of our educational tool.

In the second year, each of the partners will lead at least 40 workshops for high school students. Our goal is to promote good practise of teaching youngsters, especially those in marginalized areas – schools located far from large cities. In the final phase of the project we will conduct regional qualification tournament for the game “We are all stars”, as well as the final round. This event will be combined with the promotion of the tool among the local communities. In order to increase the audience, we will prepare an electronic, printable version of the game with a description and workshop scenario. Those materials will be posted as an Open Educational Resource on European educational platforms in three languages: English, Polish and Slovak.

The result of our work will be the creation of innovative educational tool as well as gain of valuable experience in the field of international projects management. As the project outcome, we can expect the increase of young people’s interest in science and in the long term a higher number of people involved in the development of science.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 34803,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

Fundacja Antares & Country: PL

Project Partners

• MARMAJ