The first project mobility - Ivanec, Croatia

https://www.skole.hr/kad-ucitelji-budu-ucenici/

Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski Primary School hosted the first international meeting of the Erasmus + KA229 “Green Energy Saves the Earth” project.

The school organized the first international project meeting held live after the partner meeting was postponed for one school year due to the corona epidemic. The first mobility of the project was held from 25 to 27 October 2021. This was an important part of the project, which was slowed down due to the epidemic and started last school year. The meeting was held live, taking into account the epidemiological measures, with a relatively favorable situation as well as the weather conditons.

Teachers and principals of the five countries met to present and evaluate what has been done so far, plan joint activities, announce separate school activities and improve their skills. The training was led by Candan Kafali, a science teacher, and Erhan Yaşar, a technology design teacher. Both are members of the Turkish team of the private high school Fernur Sözen Ortaokulu from Küçükkuyu, Ayvacik, Canakkale.

Other schools in the project are, in addition to the two already mentioned, Jordan Jovkov Elementary School, Varna, Bulgaria, 1st High School Kalampaka, Meteora, Greece, Holboca Vocational School, Iași, Romania, and Istituto Comprensivo “Anastasio De Filis”, Terni, Italy, who could not join this time due to epidemiological conditions. Also, student mobility was not planned in this meeting. In total, at the 1st international meeting, with 15 guests, there were 24 participants

Upon arrival, participants evaluated the activities of the first year of the project, discussing the difficulties in project implementation at the level of each school and at the level of joint school activities. The project has been given another year to implement, and all activities can be followed on the official project page and on the Facebook page. Printed copies of the Renewable Energy Guide and the first issue of the Project Magazine in English were then presented. The digital version is available for use on the mentioned project page. During the three-day meeting, the project logo was selected based on the works of students from all schools. The authorship of the selected logo belongs to students from the Romanian Vocational School Holboca.

In the working part of the meeting, Candan Kafali gave lectures on the importance of STEM education and how to prepare a learning and teaching plan, and shared with teachers her example of good practice - making solar beetles. Participants then made specimens of beetles powered by solar cells. Led by Erhan Yaşar, teachers also made wave-powered electricity generators and solar panels in the workshops. Then both lecturers introduced the participants to online tools for teaching and learning about green, renewable energy and pollution and showed how to use each tool.

During the exchange of good experiences and plans for further joint and separate work, the Bulgarian representative Julieta Mihaylova showed the way in which they work on the teaching plan in their school, the so-called a circle of technical design consisting of a phase of questions in which technology and worksheets are used, then in the planning phase blueprints are made, knowledge of mathematics and other areas of STEM is used, in the creation phase solutions are made, solutions are made, parts are made, in the testing phase, it is checked how everything works and in the last phase of improvement, the higher productivity of the created work is still considered, thus returning to the initial phase of the question. Each participating school presented its specific plan for further work on the project.

In the optional part of the meeting, educational experiences, information on school equipment, educational regulations, Croatian science textbooks were reviewed and analyzed, and compared with those from the participating countries. The free time of the participants was used to visit the museum Dvor Trakošćan, Friščić's mill in Prigorac and a tour of Zagreb with a tourist guide.

During the meeting, it proved extremely important that teachers gained new colleagues from the international environment and strengthened their social and teaching competencies, as well as a handful of new teaching ideas.

Author: Draženka Stančić