Unveiling Our Project’s Vision
With the introduction of the European Green Deal, the Commission set out an ambitious plan to transform Europe’s economy and make it the first climate neutral continent by 2050. One of the priorities of the plan is preserving and protecting seas, oceans, and environment in a way that they continue sustaining us in the future.
Fighting climate change as well as promoting sustainable societies require, among others, STEAM-driven solutions. Therefore, our Partner Consortium developed a project that addresses one of the pressing environmental issues, water pollution.
As a center of the project, teams of 13-19 year old students constructed and used radio-controlled boats for data collection.
Our concept offers a multidisciplinary, hands-on, collaborative, and real-world approach to strengthening STEAM competencies, which are essential for success in the 21st century.
The project also provided an opportunity to educate students and teachers about sustainable development.
What we wanted to achieve by implementing the project?
Develop an innovative methodology for implementing research performed by robotic boats.
Provide teacher competence development in order to ensure the sustainability of the methodology in partner organizations
and beyond.
Engage 13-19 year old students in learning activities that stimulate creativity, develop technological, personal and social
skills and enhance interest in STEAM.
Disseminate the project results at local, regional, national and European levels and across a variety of sectors.
What results did we achieve?
An innovative, highly adaptable and transferrable methodology, validated in 4 countries, was delivered delivered.
more than 600 students gained multidisciplinary knowledge and important personal, interpersonal and communication skills by
taking part in the pilot course.
more than 20 teachers from partner organizations and more than 255 teachers from other schools have obtained new knowledge related to the produced methodology and the application of student-centered pedagogies.
Activities of the project
Development of lesson materials
An innovative learning content covers 48 hours of classroom and field study. The developed materials comprise a guidebook for teachers, presentations to be used in the classroom, instructional materials, and other resources. The materials was translated into national languages (Lithuanian, Romanian, Italian and Estonian) and the languages of involved national minorities (Russian and Polish). Adapting the methodology to the national curricula allows an easier integration of the course into the educational process while adaptation for non-formal education provides possibilities to bring benefit to a larger range of students.
Teacher training
Teacher skill development was the cornerstone of the success and sustainability of the project. Over 20 teachers from partner organizations developed their competencies during a 4-day transnational training activity. In total, 255 teachers and stakeholders from outside the partner organizations gained theoretical and practical knowledge about the project’s methodology during national seminars and were able to adapt this knowledge to the needs of their students. This added to the project’s impact and sustainability. Teachers acquired skills in implementing a multidisciplinary, hands-on, collaborative, and real-world approach. The newly gained competencies were sustained by ready-made lesson materials.
Stakeholder involvement
The associated partners involved in the project:
1. Educational institutions.
2. Private companies engaged in shipbuilding.
3. Local or regional administration authorities.
4. Local museums, libraries, tourism offices, and other municipal institutions. 5. Chemical laboratories
6. Non-governmental organizations working actively in the field of environmental protection, to provide consultations and promotion to the results of the students’ projects.
Piloting of the Methodology
The students’ practical project work was based on a radio-controlled model boat. Students built and programmed add-ons (sensors, grippers and containers) to robotize the boat and enable it to collect waste from water. The methodology also involved research of water quality parameters of natural water resources (lakes, rivers and seas) and the introduction of ecological concepts. These activities were implemented within the pilot course with more than 600 students. Students’ and teachers’ competence development was assessed using structured research tools (pre- and post-questionnaires for both groups), allowing evaluation of the quality and impact of the produced methodology.
International hackathon for students
Students, accompanied by teachers, built new competencies during an international hackathon. They validated the knowledge and skills gained in the pilot course and experienced the role of innovators by designing, building and presenting innovative solutions to a real-life problem. In total, 8 student teams from 5 countries developed and presented their projects. Throughout the activity, students developed technology-related, personal, interpersonal and communication skills.
Dissemination activities implemented within the project included:
– creation of tools for the project’s representation and visual identification;
– development and maintenance of the project website;
– publication of content on web pages, social media and in local media;
– dissemination through local partner networks;
– organisation of various dissemination events;
– preparation and publication of press releases;
– publication of project results on the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform;
– informal dissemination through word-of-mouth;
– organisation of national seminars for teachers in 4 countries, reaching 255 teachers and stakeholders.