Dante Alighieri High School (Romania) – Project Coordinator
“Dante Alighieri” High School is a public institution located in District 3, Bucharest, with 1530 students aged 6 to 19 years old, studying here and belonging to various nationalities. The institution functions as an educational multicultural center school with a diversified offer, benefiting from modern teaching equipment and ample space for cultural, sports and social activities. Students benefit from modern laboratories, a documentation center, library, cafeteria, dance hall, semi-Olympic swimming pool, conference hall. Educational activity is provided by 94 teachers. In Dante Alighieri High School 50 classes belong to the primary level, secondary and high school, 34 of them studying Italian. There are also specialized classes in philology, natural sciences, mathematics and computer science. Our school acts on multiple plans to harness the power of the new digital experiences in the benefit of our students. Some of them are attracted by engineering and computer science and they are enjoying to use our Lego Mindstorms and Sphero robotic kits to experience using robots in real life scenarios. The primary school children are getting in touch with basic programming concepts by a set of Scratch and Python lessons which were introduced in their school curricula. This is one of the reasons of our students’ success when participating at computer science contests. Our school is involved each year in organizing the local phase of the National Computer Science contest for students as a recognition of our efforts and performances in teaching programming. Several of our pupils got prizes in the final stages of this contest year after year. We are not neglecting the practical skills required to operate a computer and we are offering a large array of training courses targeting reputable IT certifications like ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence), IC3-GS4, Microsoft Office Specialist, CISCO (IT Essentials, Introduction to Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Essentials), Oracle Academy. Over 50% from our students got an ECDL certificate before to finish their studies giving them an advantage on a competitive jobs market. One of the most valuable assets of our school is get by our excellent teachers which are very open to the new technologies and to their usage in teaching activities: 3 teachers went to training stages in USA focused on teaching STEAM disciplines in high school. The computer science teachers have experience in teaching programming including methods specific for students. All involved teachers have good computer operating skills and they were involved in cross disciplinary actions designed to illustrate the relation between mathematics/computer science and other domains for our students. Most of them were involved in other Erasmus+ programs and have experience in international cooperation. We improved our teaching methods over the years by permanent exchanges with teachers from other countries in several Erasmus+ projects.
School website: www.liceuldantealighieri.ro
Information about Romanian educational system and Dante Alighieri High School
Geniko Likeio Alikianou (Greece) – Project Partner
Geniko Lykeio Alikianou (Alikianos General Upper High School) is a secondary level high school providing general education (maths, literature, science, history, economy, ICT, fine arts and English language lessons) to students 15-18 years old. These studies are not compulsory in Greece and last for three years. Students prepare for the final national examination to enter higher education. The school is located in Alikianos, a small village 12 Km south of Chania in Crete Greece. It is a provincial, small school with almost 120 students and 18 teachers. The school was founded in 1976, has 6 classrooms, a science and an ITC lab. Although ICT courses in Greece are taught for relatively few hours, students, even those in rural mountainous areas, own smart portable devices and fast connections. They connect to the internet to communicate, entertain, shop, get informed, and soon are going to use the net for legal, tax, banking, and a whole host of other issues. In recent years in Greece, steps have been made to inform everyone about the dangers of Internet. However, developments are underway, new threats arise or change ways of action, and unfortunately individual actions and the few hours that children are taught ICT courses are not enough to hinder the safety of them and their families. Issues such as cyber-bulling, personal data theft, financial scams, gambling and gaming addiction, misinformation/fake news spread etc are all too common even in our small provincial area. Issues that could have been avoided by providing more comprehensive information and training through relevant actions, where the participation of the entire school community (students – teachers – parents – management) would be strongly encouraged. The school’s staff are working and willing to implement actions and provide information on every subject. Teachers try to emphasize the importance of formal and non-formal education, empower the personal relationship between all members of the school community and give everyone the appropriate motivation to participate in an active, pleasant and creative education. The dimension and impact of any action is strengthened through the prestige of international partnerships, such as those implemented by ERASMUS +. For this reason, our school has been able to take part in 5 ERASMUS + KA1 / KA2 programs (as partners and as coordinators as well) over the last five years and has given all our teachers enough experience (in areas such as International events organization and student exchange, Communication and cooperation between schools, Acceptance and adoption of good practices, Development of the spirit of tolerance and non-discrimination). Through these actions, the European conscience, the adoption of good practices, and the positive impact in general, have begun to be imprinted in the local community.
School website: www.alikianos-lykeio.eu
Information about Greek educational system and brief presentation of school
Adana Bilim ve Sanat Merkezi (Türkiye) – Project Partner
Adana Bilim ve Sanat Merkezi is an educational institution for gifted students since 2005. There are 31 teachers, 2 administrators and 900 students in our institution. We have two STEM, two mechatronics and two science-experiment laboratories and an innovation and entrepreneurship center. We implement project based learning approach and our main focus is to foster students’ special skills and abilities. We organize indoor and outdoor activities in regional, national and international level. We have been involved in various projects both as a partner and coordinator. We intend to sustain our cooperation through establishing strong bonds partners from European countries. We want to expand our institutional capacity and cooperation with this project. Building collaborations in European level is of high importance for our institution. Our institution have participated numerous projects about STEM so far and we would like extend our perspectives and experiences through a new project by adding European dimension. We enrolled with First Lego League and First Robotics Competition in national level. We also won First Place Award in MakeX European Competition in Poland and invited to global competition. We are confident to coordinate this project with all these experience we have. As a coordinator, our school will organize the project activities, manage project tasks, coordinate project partners, ensure effective communication among all project partners and participate in entire research, organizational, dissemination activities. Within the framework of our European mobility and cooperation plan, our institution is willing to lead new innovative model for STEM education with the help of our partners. Taking all the significant issues mentioned above into consideration, we are capable of developing this STEM project. Mustafa Serkan Pelen is the contact person of the project. He is math teacher, PhD student and Scientix Ambassador. He enrolled in several face-to-face and online MOOCs related with STEM education. He participated in national and international competitions. He has been using etwinning for 9 years and involved in numerous projects and awarded both Quality and European Quality Labels. Other key people of the project are Türker Gümüşay Science Teacher, Agah Yıldız Robotics teacher, Osman Kılınç IT specialist and Coding teacher, Tolgahan Bostan Mathematics teacher, İlhan Yüksel technology and design teacher. All of these teachers have expertise in their fields. They have the required qualifications to transfer the knowledge and experience into this project. Project team is motivated and dedicated to accomplish the objectives of the project.
School website: adanabilsem.meb.k12.tr
Information about Turkish Education System