1. Interdisciplinary Programming with Robotics_Italy
Mobility n. 1 – Interdisciplinary Programming with Robotics
Planned as a natural continuation of all partner schools’ previous projects on coding and new technologies, the idea of our project is to make the most of our experience and our partners’ experience and to change it into a milestone for our students’ future career choices.
Short-term joint staff training events – ITALY
Event host organization: “A. Gramsci – J. M. Keynes” Upper Secondary School – coordinator
Date and place: 15th – 18th November 2021, Prato, Italy
The meeting was attended by:
– Kristina Švagždienė, Giedrė Stankevičienė, Vilma Gaubienė, Diana Kairiūkštienė, Natalija Bankauskaitė – Kauno Panemunes pradine mokykla Kariunu pl. 5, Kaunas – Lithuania
– Nicolae Dănilă, Florinel Moisă, Costina Caliţa, Daniela Sporea, Adriana Călin, Ramona Grigoriu – Şcoala Gimnazială “Duiliu Zamfirescu” Focşani, Strada Tinereţii, nr. 2 Focşani – Romania
– Sadık Sedat TEZCAN, Alp Er Tunga KÜÇÜKKAHRAMAN, Berrin ŞAHİN, Şüheda VAROL, Gamze AKAR, Pınar AKÜREK – Suadiye Barbaros Olkokulu Suadiye Mahallesi Kartepe Kocaeli – Turkey
– Dragana Andrić, Slavica Jocković, Nataša Vuković, Miroslav Mihajlović, Snežana Mihajlović Lazarević, Jasna Basarić, Sofija Živančević, Liljana Maričić, Violeta Načković, Slađana Maslovarić, Bojana Poštić, Nataša Stojanović, Vesna Rusalić, Milena Radivojević, Živan Bačujkov – Osnovna škola “Heroj Radmila Šišković” Zmaj Jovina 27, Smederevska Palanka, Republic of Serbia – attended the mobility online
Local project team and teachers involved in the activities planned for the mobility: Stefano Pollini (headteacher), Mirela Bacita (English teacher – project coordinator), Ilaria Nesi (ICT teacher), Chiara Aiazzi (special needs and philosophy teacher, head of the inclusion workgroup), Clementina Savino (Italian teacher, deputy headteacher), Davide Allori (topography, construction, design and installation teacher, deputy headteacher), Angela Scagliusi (special needs teacher), Francesca Iacopino (mathematics teacher), Carmela Prezioso (English teacher), Rosella Benenati (special needs teacher), Marco Amelia (special needs teacher), Paola Agata Bianco (mathematics teacher), Erika Boretti (special needs teacher), Gennaro Buffone (topography, constructions, design and installation teacher), Enrica Ricci (topography, constructions, design and installation teacher), Laura Burrini (administrative staff), Angelo Colucci (special needs teacher), Carmen D’Agostino (PE teacher), Roberta D’Arco (special needs teacher), Maria Laura De Lisio (chief financial officer), Manuela Malatesta (mathematics and physics teacher), Enrico Del Core (special needs teacher), Angelo Formichella (special needs teacher), Domenico Narcisi (topography, constructions, design and installation teacher), Alessandro Nenci (special needs teacher), Noemi Oliva (special needs teacher), Felicita Pradelli (Art teacher), Ilaria Settesoldi (philosophy and history teacher, head of the environmental robotics workgroup), Francesca Spadini (German teacher, coordinator of the “Hostess and steward” project), Andrea Spatari (special needs teacher), Antonio Luigi Stefano (special needs teacher) – “A. Gramsci – J. M. Keynes” Upper Secondary School – Italy
The objectives of the meeting were:
– to experiment methods involving digital tools for strengthening the profiles of the teaching professions
– to enhance the comprehension of consequences, limits and ways of making good use of human-machine interaction
– to develop the cooperation between the partner schools in terms of exchange of good practices on robotics – to experiment methods involving digital tools for strengthening the profiles of the teaching professions
– to enhance the comprehension of consequences, limits and ways of making good use of human-machine interaction
– to develop the cooperation between the partner schools in terms of exchange of good practices on robotics
Short description of the activities on the meeting agenda:
Monday, 15th November:
The first day of the project started with a guided visit of the city and its monuments organised by a multicultural group of 3 teachers and 12 students from the 3rd year tourism course of studies.
The international Erasmus+ group was welcomed at the cityhall by two councillors: Mrs. Ilaria Santi (Education, equal opportunities and remembrance councillor) and Mrs. Benedetta Squitteieri (Budget, economic development, staff, innovation and digital agenda councillor) who invited the participants to make themselves comfortable in the city council hall, presented a brief history of the building, gave a speech on the importance of international projects and their collaboration with schools.
The guided visit to the museum of the Cathedral where the delegation had the chance to admire the pulpit made by Donatello, frescoes by F. Lippi and the story of the ‘Sacred belt’ that in preserved in the chapel marked the end of the first part of the activities.
An occasion to observe our daily school life was offered at lunch that was organized at the school canteen together with the Erasmus+ team.
In order to respect the rules imposed by the health emergency the opening ceremony was held in the school library where the participants were welcomed and accompanied to their seats by the students who attend the “Hostess and steward” project, were received as honoured guests with a short speech given by the principal who expressed his and our school’s enthusiasm in collaborating, exchanging and gathering experience whilst working on Erasmus+ projects.
The presentation of our school started in the hall, where the Erasmus+ corner is displayed. The inclusion work group together with special needs students redesigned the area for this occasion with a handmade banner (by re-using scrap or commonly used materials they have built robots around the columns, decorated our school to welcome our colleagues and teachers involved in the project) that is meant to illustrate the evolution of human beings and the evolution of robots with a meeting point in our school (GK).
The objectives of the design workshop were: inclusion through teamwork and collaboration to develop and share good practices and innovative educational methods; learning from each other and experimenting new activities and methodologies; to strengthen, to improve, to enrich, to stimulate us to spend quality time together. Our team illustrated the decorations and their inclusive purpose and continued with the presentation of the classrooms and all the laboratories in our school.
Successively the teams were involved in open discussions on how to use Lego Mindstorms EV3 and in a hands-on activity – all teachers worked together to start creating a line to virtually visit all the partner countries.
The Lithuanian partners presented their school and some of the most characteristics moments in their school life, their city and country.
Dinner in a restaurant in the city center was another moment of sharing the experience, understanding cultural background and reflecting on the activities.
Tuesday, 16th November:
Throughout the second day of the meeting, the colleagues were immersed in a culturally inclusive visit of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence.
The enterprise was conducted by the Coordinator of the Education Department, Mrs. Silvia Mascalchi, who illustrated the long story of the Department, the changes in the didactic approach to art, the introduction of a special department to meet the special needs of all students, the numerous opportunities to experiment special methodologies to enhance musical skills in kids while at the museum, the activities for all level students both on site and online during the lockdown, work based learning projects to prepare students for future careers and their experience in Erasmus+ KA 2 projects.
During the second part of the workshop teachers were presented the use of digital storytelling in online teaching through the story of the Medici family, their connection to the Uffizi Galleries, the part of the museum that is known as the ‘treasure room’, the importance in modern history of the Vasarian corridor and how this method can be use in daily school life.
The activities provided a deeper understanding of the role of Cultural Inclusion in online teaching while linking art to intercultural experience, supplied opportunities for participants to gather information and realia for teaching during routine school life. Lunch at “Mercato Centrale” in Florence and a guided tour of the city offered a range of possibilities for living and tasting the Italian way of living, its cookery tradition and its cultural heritage; it gave input for open discussions between teachers with different cultural background on local cultural heritage and to improve linguistic skills.
Wednesday, 17th November
Each team observed in turn different digital workshops / lessons:
1. 3D-BIM (building information modelling) with the most updated software and VR that are used during the last 2 years of the constructions, environment and territory course of studies for architectural design, structural modelling and VR live experience. During the lessons teachers were given the possibility to interact with students, teachers and to test some VR applications.
2. 3D printing, CAD (Computer-Aided Drafting) and topography lab. The workshop provided information on technical design and drawing that is used with students during the first 2 years of the constructions, environment and territory course of studies. The participants were given the chance to observe the steps in creating the model of an object, how it is drawn, how to write the program that communicates with the 3D printer and its printing. During the workshop the organisers answered questions about the activities, the different quality materials that can be used to print 3D-objects. The lab offers a wide collection of building materials together with an ensemble of topographic instruments that are commonly used for surveying applications, measurements and their use was briefly presented.
3. Robotics lesson with Lego Mindstorms EV3 was held in the robotics lab. The participants took in some of the activities we develop with our 1st and 2nd year students from the applied sciences course of studies and observe how we gradually implement the environmental robotics methodology in our teaching and make lessons more digitally inclusive.
4. Inclusive workshop on CODING – The coding workshop is aimed at the development of analytical logic thinking and the acquisition or improvement of programming skills. Through a playful approach it can stimulate the interest and participation of students. It uses as its main tool the game “Scottie Go” together with a specific app. The game provides immediate feedback that does not necessarily require the mediation of the teacher. Students can therefore carry out their own learning process in complete autonomy and without any type of mediation, leaving teachers the possibility to choose how much and when to intervene in the process according to the observed needs of the student. This feature allows the student to experience the maximum degree of autonomy in relation to their cognitive profile.
The workshops were followed by an open discussion and Q&A session on the observed activities to prompt a deeper understanding of what it means to achieve inclusive educational practices into the Italian formal education system, strengthen teaching skills and develop the cooperation between the partner schools in terms of exchange of good practices on robotics.
The exchange continued during lunch that was at the school canteen and it stimulated the improvement of linguistic skills.
The main focus of the afternoon session was “Parents, Family and Community Participation in Digital Education” workshop on cyberbullying held by the head of the Cyberbullying Work Group, digital education, the use of ebooks in daily teaching activities, Google for education potentialities and our experience on these topics held by our Digital experts. Issues like hate speech opened the way to exchange of experiences, comments on these topics and our EPolicy document was handed in to the partners and provided opportunities for participants to gather information and realia for teaching in order to cope with the students’ misuse of mobile phones and how to prevent/avoid cyber bullying.
The Serbian, Turkish and Romanian partners presented their school and some of the most characteristics moments in their school life, their city and country.
Dinner in a typical Tuscan restaurant in the city center was another moment of sharing the experience, understanding cultural background and reflecting on the activities.
Thursday, 18th November
The last activity day was dedicated to digital workshops / lessons:
1. environmental robotics curriculum: the head of the environmental robotics work group presented its objectives, the projects implemented in our school, the interdisciplinary interactions and how topics like the relation human being – machine – robot, ethical implications of AI are tackled during lessons. The presentation enhanced the comprehension of consequences, limits and ways of making good use of human- machine interaction and developed the cooperation between the partner schools in terms of exchange of good practices on robotics.
2. robotics lesson with Arduino – the participants observed some of the activities we develop with our 3rd and 4th year students from the applied sciences course of studies and went through the implementation phases of the environmental robotics methodology, of computational thinking activities and how to connect them to future career choices.
3. developing digital inclusive methods through mind maps to meet the needs of all students – workshops held by the Work Group of the Institute for Inclusion – the use of Boardmaker to interact/communicate with students with severe disabilities and how to introduce educational games on robotics through the use of CAA cards; MateMitica software to support students master scientific concepts and compensate those difficulties that often represent an obstacle in studying subjects like maths and physics; the Magic Castle software that allows teachers to work on the reading-writing abilities, in which a magical atmosphere is the background to activities that can be modulated on levels of linguistic skills; mind map with the ePicoMaps+ software to explore, re- examine and visually pass on concepts, information and data. It’s a useful tool for all students to study and learn and for teachers to pass on concepts that are part of the topic of their lessons.
The presentations and follow-up open discussions provided opportunities for participants to gather information and realia for teaching, to experiment methods involving digital tools for strengthening the profiles of the teaching professions, to develop digital, innovative, inclusive methods and tools in class.
Last but not least the ceremony of handing in the certificates!
The last part of the day was dedicated to a tour of Pisa and its most famous monuments: the Leaning Tower, the Baptistery and the Pisa Cathedral. This trip was an occasion to review the next steps in the project management and implementation and while in Pisa the participants discovered the Italian cultural legacy, explored intercultural issues, and improved linguistic skills.
All the activities organised during the mobility were depicted in an article written by students who were involved in the activities or observed them. The article was published on the website of our school and on the Instagram profile of our school (it was appreciated by 202 Instagram users – students, teachers, administrative staff and the mayor).