Course name: STEM Education: Basic ICT Tools and Apps

Course provider: Europass Teacher Academy – Berlin

Teacher : Mr. Francesco Molinari

Course duration: 26th -31st of August 2024

This was my first opportunity to join Erasmus. The course provider was Europass Teacher Academy Berlin, and I must say they ensured we had all the necessary information well before our trip. They sent out the entire program and additional details via email on the 16th of August.

Since I traveled with a colleague who had prior experience, we were able to easily arrange accommodation and book our flight tickets on time in July 2024. We also purchased a weekly public transportation pass for Berlin at the airport.

The 5 day course which I took part in proved to be beneficial both professionally and culturally.

The course started every day from 9 till 13.30 with a 15 min break at 10:30-11.

Participants included a Physics teacher from Spain, A Physics and math teacher from Poland, A Math and Physics teacher from Cyprus, and three math and physics teachers from Greece, Six teachers in math and Physics from Bulgaria and for sure we are from Hungary.

The English proficiency levels of the participants varied, but the course was excellent, and we successfully managed all group activities.

On the first day, I managed to get the Erasmus+ documents signed by Mr. Francesco Molinari, the Academic manager.

After a brief introductory session on the first day, the teacher approved short presentations from each participant from their city and schools.

When all the participants delivered their presentations, the classroom sessions began. The topics that were taught and reviewed are as follows:

– Find the engagement between school subjects to real life

– Overview of Digital Tools for STEM

– Introduction to PhET for STEM Education, What is PhET? Why use PhET? – PhET is an online platform that offers free interactive simulations for teaching science and math. These simulations are used worldwide to make STEM learning more dynamic and engaging in classrooms.

– Interdisciplinary STEM Exploration using PhET Simulations – This activity focuses on group work to explore interdisciplinary STEM concepts using PhET simulations. Students will engage in detailed exploration of chosen simulations, brainstorm interdisciplinary application, and design a comprehensive STEM activity.

– Using the Storybird for our daily story – Is a digital platform that allows users to create, publish, and share visually engaging stories.

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/

On second day, the course start from 9 and we were taught the following subjects:

– Analyzing as a STEM teacher, what they need to know during their lessons.

– Lesson Plan for

What will the student learn? (Learning Goals)

How are the students learning? (Activities)

How does the teacher know the learning has taken place? (Assessment)

– Computational Thinking in STEM Education and enhancing problem solving skills

Find a new solution to solve the problem

Find any renovation in science

Try to create something new

We were then divided into small groups to work on a project using the PhET platform and present it to other groups regarding how to use this platform and this application in improving student education.

As a second part of our class we learned about Coding and Scratch Platform:

– What is Coding?

This is the actual set of instructions written in a programming language. It forms the backbone of any software or application.

– Scratch for CS First: Creating a Short Story with basic Coding

A program for creating educational short films that allows users to produce animations and short videos using coding methods.

Which is highly useful for creating educational and motivational films for students.

We learned how to create our own interactive stories, animations, and games. We got some ideas on how to use Scratch in our daily work.

https://csfirst.withgoogle.com/s/en/home

On this day, after our course we had a sightseeing program as a social activity. We visited Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Holocaust Memorial, Hitler’s bunker, and Checkpoint Charlie.

We began our third day of group projects by using the Scratch platform. Working together, we wrote and created a short story through coding, which we then presented to the others.

After the project we learned about:

– Data Science and Data Visualization – Transforming information into insight.

By using visual elements like charts, graphs, and maps, data visualization tools provide an accessible way to see and understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data.

The importance of Visual Learning

• Enhanced Understanding
• Improved Memory Retention
• Engaging Multiple Senses

– Introducing Datawrapper

This program has many applications for converting Excel tables into traceable and easily understandable charts, Tables and maps at a glance. By converting Excel tables, a comprehensive and clear report can be prepared for everyone.

https://www.datawrapper.de/

On the fourth day, First, we had to choose a subject and create a presentation using Darawrapper as a team. After that, our lesson continued with training in 3D design.

– 3D printing with Tinkercad:

Tinkercad is an easy-to-use software for beginners in 3D modeling. It uses basic shapes (such as cubes, cylinders, and spheres) that you can combine and modify to create more complex 3D models. We can drag and drop these shapes onto the workspace, resize, rotate, and position them to form the desired design. You can drag and drop these shapes onto the workspace, resize, rotate, and position them to form the desired design. After creating and designing the desired model, it is possible to 3D print it using specialized 3D printers.

After some practice and initial familiarization, as a class exercise, we were able to design our names in 3D, which we then sent to Professor Francisco for printing.

https://www.tinkercad.com/dashboard

On the fifth day we had our last activities include developing an integrated STEM lesson plan, presenting it to the group, and receiving constructive feedback on the plan’s effectiveness and potential improvements.
We Learned how to be able to use chatGPT and Al in our daily work. Why is the knowledge of ChatGPT important and different?

– ChatGPT is an advanced language model developed by AI that, through Natural Language Processing (NLP), is capable of answering various questions, engaging in natural conversations, and assisting with a wide range of tasks such as content creation, education, programming, and more.

Why can it be useful in daily work?

– High speed in providing answers and solutions.

– Easy access via the internet without the need for specific technical knowledge.
– Flexibility in various topics, including technical, scientific, artistic, and general matters.
– It can be considered as different sources

– Applicable in different languages (English, Italian, Spanish …)

At the end of the day, we received our certificates and had our 3D name designs printed, along with a memorable photo.

On the sixth day, we had the second part of our cultural activities, which took place on Saturday, 31.08.2024. It started at 10 a.m. and lasted for around 2 hours. The meeting point was in front of Starbucks at Hackescher Markt at 9:45 a.m. This tour included information about the Berlin Wall and the events related to East and West Germany.