The International Involvement of Pupils in Scientific Studies and Researches through eTwinning Projects Teacher Iuliana Ciubuc, pupil Alexandru - Florin Moise “Ion Kalinderu” College, Sanatorial Gymnasium School, Buşteni, Prahova County, iulialuci@gmail.com Abstract Through European projects, pupils and teachers from different countries, have succeeded to involve in activities of study and research of some phenomena from nature (environmental factors, physical, astronomical, biological phenomena, etc.). In Romania, the same thing happened, namely both teachers and pupils were challenged, everyone spark curiosity and thus they were heavily involved. We want to share this experience to other colleagues, too, to teachers of any specialty who can form interdisciplinary collectives, achieving valuable and unusual projects. Structured and organized by European principles, eTwinning and iTeach promote, at international standards, the implementing of the modern ideas in the initial education and in the continue training, they encourage and promote the work on projects, the collaborative activities, the scientific methods and experiments, the creative thinking and intuition, argumentation and demonstration. The present article shows a few aspects of the way in which the pupils and the teachers from a school where pupils are also patients (and the school belongs to the special education) have succeeded to exceed their status achieving activities of studies and scientific researches through the eTwinning projects.
1. Introduction After traditional didactic activities, by the emergence of new methods of teaching and learning, as well as the emergence of new technologies in education, it is a challenge both for teachers and students to adjust themselves to these changes. Our experience shows that an adaptation way is that can be achieved through participation and involvement in European projects. We ventured in the „labyrinth” of the eTwinning project with enough sceptimism because it was a big challenge, by two reasons: in 2010, we registered ourselves on the eTwinning platform, although we were having many questions and many unknowns, being a first for us. the pupils participating in the projects were pupils-patients, hospitalized in a recovering sanatorium, pupils coming from the whole country, pupils with whom we form an ad hoc collective during the internment. We took courage and we became more optimistic in our capabilities after we benefited of our experienced colleagues’ guidances in eTwinning projects, of the support of the iTeach and eTwinning coordinators (NSS). Shortly we managed to adapt ourselves on the go and to participate in projects, first as collaborators, then as founders or co-founders. Slowly, we learned, both teachers in our school and our pupils under the motto "if you want, you can", so that we also can prove through performance the achievement of tasks in European projects, even if, at first, we encountered various difficulties. 2 Involvement and participation in European projects In our approach we were mobilized mainly by the pupils’ enthusiasm, by their ability to overtake themselves, to overtake their disability. Initially, we participated in projects that have interested us for the challenges that they define on the eTwinning platform. Then, the acquired
experience in the activities developed by using the eTwinning resources helped us can be founders or co-founders in studies and scientific researches projects.
Fig.1. The calculation of Earth circumference through Eratosthenes’ method [2]
Fig.2. The map of the partener countries in the eTwinning project ”The Harmony of Nature-The Harmony of Light [3]
The participation at the following projects: The project „Let’s be friends of the Earth”, in collaboration with schools from Spain, being our first linguistic and scientific competences test (period 2011/ 2012). The project „Les phenomenes geologiques-les volcans”, together with a school from Belgium, which is the founding and we paricipated as co-founders. This project put us to heavy attempts, both by the use of ICT and the financial point of view. We achieved studies on volcanoes, but especially on the mud volcanoes from Romania. This was our first project for which we have obtained the Quality Label (QL). The participation in the project has greatly stimulated the pupils, contributing synergistically to the improvement of their health state and the reacquiring of the self-confidence, which is not a minor thing. The project „The Harmony of Nature”, a project initiated by our school in collaboration with a school from Lithuania, is at the 5th eTwinning edition, winning every year numerous quality labels (QL and EQL). The project “Eratosthenes Experiment 2015” - period 19-23 September 2015 announced at the reference address [4]; this is a project of researching the astronomical phenomena and of determining the circumference of the Earth at equinox, through determining the shadow let by a gnomon and calculations made by using an algorithm. The own project "The Harmony of Nature - The Harmony of Light". Pupils followed the rare astronomical phenomena in 2015 (Phases of the Moon, Sun Eclipse of 20 March 2015, Blue Moon, Super - Moon, Perseids, Moon Eclipse, etc.). It was also achieved an infographic presenting these phenomena, followed both by our pupils and the project collaborators from several countries (https://magic.piktochart.com/output/7202295-untitled-infographic#). We followed the moon phases for a month, we made tables of values, graphs of functions. Besides, we have been drawn conclusions that we have shared within two FlashMeetings. This event was attended by 20 schools in the country, and several continents. The results were presented in April 9, 2015 within the week called „After School - to know more,
to be better� and on 5 June 2015, within the FlashMeeting for feedback, organized on the occasion of World Environment Day.
Bibliography [1] M. Ilie, R. Jugureanu, O.S. PÇŽcurari, O. Istrate, E. Dragomirescu, Manual of Training Teachers for eLearning Platforms, Litera International Edition, Bucharest, 2008 [2] https://twinspace.etwinning.net/5691/pages/page/54340, accessed 2015 [3] http://www.tripline.net/trip/The_Harmony_of_Nature_-_The_Harmony_of_Light17121037277310109631A996FCFA3424, accessed 2015 [4] ODS Platform, http://portal.opendiscoveryspace.eu/community/eratosthenes-experiment-2015-820309, accessed 2015 [5] https://magic.piktochart.com/output/7202295-untitled-infographic# , accessed 2015