Project Description
Since the time when ancient man recognized himself as a thinking creature and directed his eyes to the sky, he awarded the greatness of the Universe and asked questions about relationship of celestial events with natural phenomena and their influence onto life on Earth. Addressing such possible connections, ancient people have started regular observations of the sky luminaries, attempting to explain and to predict future events and their development. Thus, the astronomy was one of the first and most important sciences in the ancient world. The sky, our common and universal heritage, forms an integral part of the total environment that is perceived by mankind. Including the interpretation of the sky as a theme in World Heritage is a logical step towards taking into consideration the relationship between mankind and its environment. These material testimonies of astronomy, found in all geographical regions, span all periods from prehistory to today. There are lot of stories that can be considered traditional myth stories about astronomy and lot of art creations inspired from Astronomy too. This project is a model network of schools in delivering comprehensive outreach program which can inspire and attract as many school students as possible and reach a point where a large group of young future scientific generation is going to be created, geared and attracted to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) by incorporating Astronomy as spice under the school network. We will focus on the triangle: Astronomy – Tradition – Art and we will give our students the possibility to discover by themselves the connection between these three different studying fields. It would be very useful to explore how traditions differ between several cultural environments around the globe and to what extent they influence the local folklore. Our main objectives will be to:-enhance the transversal key skills in students from European schools through collaboration and exchange of best practice.
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-develop skills of teachers from European schools for using innovative approaches in learning, based on using ICT and focused on creating a more active learning environment, enhance the quality of education and enrich the school-offer of the European schools, by developing innovative didactical materials based on interdisciplinary approaches.
-draw Connections to Real Life. When will I ever need this? This question, often heard in the classroom, indicates that a student is not engaged. If a student does not believe that what they’ relearning is important, they won’t want to learn, it’s important to demonstrate how subjects relates to them.-improving the language level of the students and the staff - results and outcomes elaboration in English. More than 120 students at age 13-15 will be involved in the project and more than 40 teachers .Except them all school communities and local authorities will be informed about the project activities and results.
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All participants will:
-visit archaeological sites related to astronomy-have lectures from experts-prepare presentations;
-work on art creations. All the project activities, concentrating on collaboration and communication, critical thinking, problem solving, peer learning, concern the development of transversal soft skills in students. The activities proposed for testing the methods by creating a more active learning environment involve actively students in all the project phases. Through project methodology we will:-motivate pupils, by stimulating interest and enjoyment-teach laboratory skills-enhance the learning of scientific knowledge
-give insight into scientific method and develop expertise in using it developing scientific attitudes', such as open-mindedness and objectivity-learn European traditions-express feeling with art as a vehicle-make them understand that our differences are less than our common interests. A booklet with all activities, methodology and questionnaires will be created at the end of the project except that, all the above will be continued uploaded in twinspace and our school websites. Dissemination will start from the very beginning of the project implementation by designing the dissemination strategy and the dissemination plan with measurable and realistic objectives, the timetable, target groups, resources, responsibilities, expected results and indicators on partnership and local level. This will be done inside the partnership, in our local communities, in the wider public, in Facebook groups – monthly, in the target group outside the school communities. At the end of 2003, the UNESCO Centre of World Heritage (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has announced the beginning of new project directed to reveal and preserve the objects of archaeoastronomical and astronomical nature of historical and cultural
9 value all over the world and the strategy of thematic program “Astronomy and World Heritage”.