STEM Workshop 1 - Webinars in Finland (Jan. 2020)

  • Before the first student mobility, the participating students from each school split into different groups according to the different science subjects, that is biology, chemistry, physics maths and information technology. And these so-called home groups, the students analysed the curriculum is of each subject and prepared a list of stem topics in the project common language which is English. The teachers at the different schools helped their students to translate the different topics into English. Then the students uploaded these lists of stem topics from the stem curriculums into our E twinning twin space. Additionally, the students from each participating school got in touch with the students of the host-school for this mobility.
    In this mobility, four students from each travelling school took part plus one accompanying teacher - each student was part of a different STEM subject group at home. From the host school 24 students and five teachers participated. At first, students got to know each other better with various icebreaker activities in the school. Then the different groups met according to the STEM subjects they worked on at home in order to work on the respective STEM curricula. Here, the students benefited from the lists of the STEM topics they prepared at home together with all the other project participants of their schools. The internationally mixed groups compared the STEM curricula of their schools and came up with a list of STEM topics that are taught in all the six schools. Then they prepared themselves to present this list of STEM topics. Here, the students chose to create mini advertisements for the different STEM topics which would show why it is useful and interesting to study the respective STEM topics as a student. All of this work was group work in the so-called expert groups. The students organized their progress without much interference of the teachers. The teachers only provided the students with devices, space, schedules, and offered their help in case it was needed. 
    In the last two day of the mobility, the students presented their mini advertisements about the STEM topics in subject specific webinars. Each webinar lasted about 25 minutes and students and teachers at home participated in watching the webinars. Then the success of the webinars and necessary improvements were discussed in the host school.
    Back home, the students filled in an online survey about which topics of these presented in the webinars should be dealt with in the next webinars. The survey was carried out with the help of suverymonkey and the results were published on our etwinning page. 
    How did the participation in this activity benefit the involved participants?
    Apart from the project work, the students got to know Finland and its culture, especially Pargas and the bilingual region. They improved their intercultural and language skills by working on the project and staying with the Finnish host students.
    The students and teachers become aware of the similarities and differences of the STEM topics taught in the different schools and of the popularity of STEM topics with students. The students learned how to organize their work’s progress cooperatively and efficiently after having been given a deadline for the different tasks they had to fulfill, e.g. comparing the lists of STEM topics, combining the lists to filter the topics taught in all schools, preparing mini advertisements about the filtered list of topics, etc. Here they learned a lot about negotiating and agreeing/disagreeing with others especially in English. As they were not working together with students from their own school, they had to find a language in which they can communicate effectively. Sometimes the students switched languages as some rather spoke French, German or Spanish with each other instead of English. 
    Furthermore, they taught each other how to present the mini advertisements in an interesting way using PowerPoint, Prezi, or other presentation softwares. Additionally, they carried out the webinars with the help of the teachers. Before and after the mobility, the students were supposed to upload their results into etwinning. Thus, they improved their ICT skills on many levels. At the same time, their presentation skills and connected with this their self-consciousness and self-conscience was trained and imporved: how do they present the topics and how do the other students react to their presentations. 
    The students at home also learned how to participate in webinars via AdobeConnect on their smartphones, computers, or tablets. They had already learned how to use etwinning to share and work on files together and the students traveling would also show them how to conduct a webinar after they came back from the mobility. 

  • STEM Workshop 1 at Pargas svenska gymnasium, Pargas, Finland

    The project group in January 2020
    Presentation of the Project at PSG