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Discover Real Everywhere Applications of Maths
Discover Real Everywhere Applications of Maths
Start date: Nov 1, 2016,
End date: Oct 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
The DREAM project idea was conceived in October 2015 during an Erasmus+ KA1 training stage. Teachers from the three country members of this consortium (Romania, Greece, Portugal) discovered that Mathematics is a common topic of discussion. Discussions revealed that students and teachers in these countries face similar problems/difficulties in studying Mathematics. The opportunity of forming a partnership comes from the fact that the strengths and weaknesses complement each other: teaching mathematics in Romania is very theoretical, teachers in Portugal are focused on creating practical skills in students, and those in Greece are very skilled in the use of learning platforms.The needs identified and described in the project are: the lack of motivation of students to learn Maths, the lack of interactive methodology that lead to the understanding the involvements of Maths in real-life phenomena, the lack of experienced teachers that can use learning platforms and ICT technologies. As immediate consequence, the high-school graduates do not choose careers in technology.The central idea of our proposal is to develop an e-course entitled "Maths in Real-life", with 6 topics for 6 specific real-life sectors (Finance, Sport, Nature, Art, Architecture and Physics). Real-life applications of Maths will give motivation to students and will allow them to access the material anytime, anywhere. It will also facilitate math teachers to have better control of their students' activity.E-lesson implementation will be done as a mix of Moodle/LAMS platforms.The main objective is to build up a new Maths teaching/learning methodology based on real-life problems and investigations (open-ended math situations), designed by students and teachers together. The activities will involve experimentations, hands-on approach, outdoor activities and virtual/mobile software applications. The developed material will be transformed into an on-line courses and will be freely available to all interested communities, in order to produce collaborative learning activities. As less than 30% of the graduates are following a technical profile faculty, the consortium estimates that, for each of the three schools involved, the implementation of this project will increase with 25% the number of high-school graduates that will enroll in a technical, mathematics or computer science faculty. Similarly, a 25% increase of the number of teachers using educational software and on-line platforms during the teaching/learning/evaluation process is expected. An overall 50% growth is also expected in the number of secondary level students that are learning technical disciplines using educational software. Through this proposal we address to students, teachers, math teacher and training institutes. We expect to involve 300 people in the project.Activities leading to the attainment of the objectives are:A1.The project's operational managementA2.Developing on-line real-life Maths lessonsA3. Implementation of the new teaching methods and efficient tools for teaching mathThe outputs of this project are:O1. Open on-line course "Maths in Finance"O2. Open on-line course "Maths in Sports"O3. Open on-line course "Maths in Nature"O4. Open on-line course "Maths in Art"O5. Open on-line course "Maths in Architecture"O6. Open on-line course "Maths in Physics"O7. Mobile apps on-line courseO8. Evaluation of open on-line math courseO9. Guide to project practices for educatorsDREAM mobility project includes the following:1. November 2016 in Romania. Opening of the project. Meeting personnel. Training of initiation in the use of learning platforms.2. April 2017 in Romania. Joint mobility, student-teacher. Students will benefit from the workshop type activities, and teachers will experience exchange activities.3. October 2017 in Portugal. Joint mobility, student-teacher. Students will benefit from the workshop type activities, teachers will have activities and exchange of experience and training.4. May 2018 in Greece. Joint mobility, student-teacher. Students will benefit from the workshop type activities, teachers will have activities and exchange of experience and training.Multiplier event is planned in October 2018 in Romania for a total of 100 participants.The project involves participants from different countries across southern Europe, but the results of the common work will have impact not only on local level, but also on interested schools at regional, national and international level. In general, the web-enabling of the e-courses is the main step towards giving wider exposure and access to our project results, having a long term effect. The project results will be available on-line through the partner organisations’ official websites, linking to the official project website. In this way, existing and new staff, recently enrolled students and educational technologists can have access to the project outcomes extending further the project audience.