School principal Ana Cuenca Piqueras, teachers and students from " C.P. MIGUEL PINILLA " school in Almansa in Spain were the hosts of second meeting of Erasmus + project "Coding is Fun!”. Teachers from other partner countries: Portugal, Poland, Belgium and Turkey during their stay learned basics of Spanish educational system, the rules of work with children aged 3 to 12 years and were visiting ICT classes sharing best practices.
The main purpose of the visit was to participate in trainings and activities related to the Astronomy, STEM and ICT methods. 16 teachers from partner countries and several from the host group participated in the LTTA (Learning Teaching Training Activities) workshops.
On the first training day, as a part of the "ATRO-STEM WORKSHOPS" classes, participants were introduced to the basics of coding, programming and different experiments connected with Astronomy. Teachers took part in several workshops with children:
• 3 years old class: “The Planets. Day and night”
• 4 years old class: “Bluebots in our class”
• 5 years old class: “Building constellations with plasticine”
• 1st Primary class: “Playing with Maths”
• 2nd Primary class: “Croc & Play”
• 3rd Primary class: “Building Space Launchers and learning about the Solar System with our robots”
• 4th Primary class: “Making nebulae”
• 5th Primary class: “Learning Maths with Plickers”
• 6th Primary class: “Electrical circuits and scientific experiments”
The next point was the meeting with the main coordinator of the project, Ewelina Pietrzyk, who started the meeting by presenting an action plan for the duration of the project until the new date August 31st, 2022. The project has been prolonged of 12 months because of Pandemic.
During the meeting, the coordinators discussed the activities which were done so far in schools, the rules of work for the website www.codingisfun.eu and the eTwinning platform. Teachers presented children's works that were made during the pandemic. The dates for the next workshop meetings in Portugal, Turkey and Poland have been set. The teachers proposed and planned activities for the next months of work in the project. They were also discussed how important is dissemination of the project by different types of media. We already have some articles in magazines and short TV interviews. In all schools the Astro STEM Clubs have been already set up for students who can develop their knowledge of Astronomy and ICT.
In the afternoon, all teachers were invited to the meeting with the local authorities in the Town Hall. After that a visit to the Castle was planned as an important part of the project, which allows participants to learn about the culture and history of the cooperating countries.
The second STEM-DAY was in cooperation with the Association “ASTROFOTO ALMANSA. During the workshops, students from 6th primary class were presenting scientific experiments. Then students and teachers took part in “Orientation game in the playground using QR codes”.
Members of “Astrofoto” association gave a lecture about the Sun and then all teachers were able to observe it through the telescope that they installed in the school playground.
The culmination of the workshop was the night observation of the sky, stars and planets. Teachers from partner schools were delighted to be able to observe Saturn and Jupiter.
On the last day of the Learning Teaching Training Activities, all representatives of partner schools were visiting the SCIENCE MUSEUM in Valencia. This great 21st century museum allows visitors to learn about the evolution of life, science, and technology in an educational, interactive and enjoyable way. Interaction is the main feature of the Science Museum, which bears the slogan: “It is prohibited not to touch, not to feel, not to think”. Teachers were visiting the Science Museum with an English tour guide and then the Steam workshops was organised. The participants also saw a film in the “Hemisfèric”. These experiences in the form of workshops were the culmination of training visit in Spain organised by the head master Ana Cuenca Piqueras and teachers from C.P. MIGUEL PINILLA. The meeting was perfectly organized, all the assumptions of the project were made, children and teachers took part in workshops and lectures, and they can now pass their experiences to students and teachers in their schools. Such a meeting was also a great opportunity to develop communication skills in foreign languages, the results of which are very visible among teachers.
