15 guest teachers from Estonia, Finland, Greece, Poland and Slovakia, as well as participating teachers from Spain, started the day by visiting Marchena Town Hall.
The Mayoress welcomed the group of teachers
and Ms. Agata Dutkowska, the project coordinator, together with the school headmaster, Mr. Pedro Ortiz, and the Spanish coordinator, Ms. Raquel Álvarez, were interviewed on the local t.v.:
After that, the group took part in a guided tour around the city center.
In the afternoon, the teachers were shown the school around by the Spanish students who belong to the STEAM Club. The teachers were divided in small groups of three and two students per group played the role of tourist guides.
Among other things, the students showed and explained them the project board, where they had the opportunity to play three different interactive games related to Chemistry, Technology and Biology, prepared by both the teachers and students.
Then the group of teachers attended the lecture/workshop ’The Galaxy of Women’, presentation of past and current famous and significant European female scientists and technological industry professionals. This workshop was conducted by the students from third course of seconday education: Julián Baco, José María Jiménez, Elena Guisado, Silvia Ponce, Lucía Núñez and Elena Melero.
In the evening teachers took part in the workshop ‘Builders of Dreams’ on how to foster and support development of young people’s interests and competences in STEM areas. It was led by the manager of the company OPTIMUS Educación Stephanie Schneeberger, specialist in robotic and STEM education. Basically, Stephanie gave the teachers notions about Scratch. Teachers could use Scratch to teach the principles and programming of mobile robots (including cars and walkers) to Middle School-aged kids. Teachers were also taught about Augmented reality which can breathe new life into the classroom, bringing extra creativity, interactivity and engagement to any subject.
In the evening, the coordinators had their 1st Project Management Meeting where they had to:
– review the general schedule of the project (in case of necessity changes to the schedule might be done) and task distribution.
– the project coordinator (acting as an evaluation monitor for the project) will present and assess the evaluation criteria concerning project management, implementation of activities, dissemination of results and its impact.
– clarify the main objectives of the project and the process of their achievement;
– set effective and efficient ways of the project implementation;
– review and confirm distribution of the tasks among the partners;
– discuss all the activities planned for the project and the means of the dissemination;
– discuss the setting up of the STEAM Clubs in partner schools, their activities, obligations and outcomes;
– assess possible risks and the way of preventing them;
– confirm the communication channels.
The day ended with a welcome dinner at ‘La Alcazaba’.