Scince&Future is a collaborative initiative that seeks to blend scientific research on climate change and natural disasters conducted by leading universities (Sakarya University, Kocaeli University, and Düzce University) with the involvement of local authorities (Sakarya Governorship and various participating organizations) from three neighboring provinces, all while engaging the broader public. Within the framework of this two-year project, the plan involves the orchestration of educational events such as competitions, workshops, presentations, and science nights, each hosted by our project partners. The goal is to foster a connection between scientists and the general public, encouraging young individuals to actively engage in scientific endeavors and pursue careers in these critical fields as a direct outcome of the year-long activities. Throughout all these activities, the project also aims to disseminate the European Union's science policies, with a particular focus on climate change and environmental policies, to the diverse layers of the local community.

<< Objectives >>The general aim of this project is to support individual with intellectual disability students’ (ID) education through supporting teachers candidates competencies in special education. Proje kapsamında, bir yüksek öğretim müfredatı ve e-learning module hazırlanacaktır. Proje sonucunda ID students “disabilities and health problems”e bağlı eğitim ortamında karşılaştıkları potansiyel barrierlerin etkilerinin azaltılmasına katkı sunulacaktır.<< Implementation >>Two main results will be prepared in the project. These are the higher education curriculum and the e-learning module. Curriculum and e-learning module will be prepared collaboratively. During the project development process, five transnational meetings will be held with the participation of all partners. Four local panels and an international conference will be held to get feedback on the project and disseminate results. The effectiveness of the project results will be tested through piloting<< Results >>As a result of this project, special education teachers' knowledge of health protection and health promotion and their ability to serve the group (students withID) will increase. Students with ID, who work with teachers who are qualified on the subject, will also be competent using health resources and showing health protection behaviors. In addition, basic and advanced digital skills of teacher candidates will improve through technology-based teaching materials (e-learning mod.) in this project

<< Objectives >>The aim of this project is to use educational technology in training given to adult learners. Today, when we say technology, internet-based information technology comes to mind. Due to the recent coronavirus epidemic, information technologies have gained more importance. In addition, it has become important for learners to learn by themselves. Because learners now have to learn alone and use distance education technology. The main effect of this project is to help spread distance education prog.<< Implementation >>The distance education programs used in each country and institution are different. The impact of these programs on students is also different. For this reason, each of the 5 participating countries will introduce the distance education technology programs they use in their own countries and institutions, and a user guide will be prepared. The following activities will be done: Lecture, brainstorming, demonstration, question and answer. A guide will be prepared by showing the studies.<< Results >>We hope to achieve the following results.-Learning to self-learn.-Developing a positive attitude towards technology.-To be able to use distance learning programs.-Being able to participate in measurement and evaluation activities remotely.-To be able to correspond with teachers via internet technology.-Being able to choose and use the most suitable one from different distance learning programs.-Ability to interact with other learners, take and send lecture notes.

Early childhood is a critical period for the child's development and education. The support provided during this period allows the child to live the rest of his life as a healthy individual. In this process, besides the child's learning, playing games has a vital role in his socio-emotional, cognitive, physical, and brain development (Chudacoff, 2007; Regina et al., 2012). When children play games in outdoors rather than indoors, they get the opportunity to explore the environment. There is a striking need to increase the exposure to outdoor activities in early childhood life in the light of research indicating the importance of outdoor activities in early childhood education (Clements, 2004). However, there are many reasons why children do not spend much time on the street but stay indoors or spend most of their time at home in these days: Increasing number of programs or channels targeting children as audience Misuse of technological tools Distorted urbanization Financial situation Safety Many research results reveal that technology negatively affects cognitive and socio-emotional development in childhood (Kraut, 1998; Plowman, McPake & Stephen, 2010). It is clearly stated in studies that over-users of technology are younger users (Young, 1996), and this exacerbates personality disorders and loneliness (Hardie and Tee, 2007). Another study also found that participation in outdoor activities alleviate the potential of internet addiction in children (Park, 2011). Thus, the OPIECE project's main objectives are: - to design a child-friendly educational street - to raise awareness of in-service and pre-service pre-school teachers by informing them about the importance of outdoor activities and providing implications for their implementations. - to raise awareness of other stakeholders by disseminating project results, for example, at a multiplier event or with booklets -to enhance children's socio-emotional and psycho-motor development, and cultural awareness by providing them a real-life like environment as an educational context -to design appropriate pedagogical activities for children to take part and for teachers to get an opportunity to apply for outdoor-oriented education To achieve these objectives, following project outputs are aimed: O1-Educational Design of the Street O2-3D Street Modeling O3-Compiling an E-Book for Outdoor Practices O4-Online Training Modules O5-Designing an Outdoor Practice Course for Teacher Education Programs With these, it is aimed to have pre-service and in-service early childhood teachers, parents, school principals, municipalities, researchers, and curriculum designers as participants of the project. The project activities will enable the target group participants be aware of the importance and ways of implementing outdoor activities for children. The location of the project (Hendek province) hosts 10669 children between the ages of 0-8. Also, 171 parents and 7 in-service teachers will receive detailed information about the outdoor practices and will be urged to implement these and keep reflection journals of the implementations. The pre- and post-tests will reveal to what extent the project results will have been effective. The OPIECE includes 6 partner organisations: Sakarya University, Hendek Belediyesi (Municipality), Stitching Drio, University of Evora, Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, and Hendek Yenimahalle Kindergarten. All partners' tasks and responsibilities have been mutually decided and they are informed about the tasks expected from them. Each partner will reflect their expertise in the project activities. The 24-month project will include constant monitoring and management activities, and dissemination activities will be prioritized. The international collaboration will be kept alive with the help of online platforms (Google groups, Whatsapp, Hangouts, etc.) in addition to the transnational meetings and online meetings. Each team will be responsible in the filing of reports for the conducted activities; thus, the time and budget control will be ensured. As an external auditor, SAU Quality Management Unit will regularly keep reports on the project activities in an objective manner. Upon reaching the desired results, the project is aimed to impact stakeholders, researchers, parents, teachers, teacher educators, and school principals at various levels; local, regional, national, international and European level. To ensure the continuity of the project impact and results, open sources will be provided, and project activities with the help of partner teams will be conducted. The project activities will be sustained after the completion of the project. The website will be kept active, and the to-be-designed street will be free and open to access (the Municipality and Faculty of Education will continue providing their contribution to the street in the following 5 years of project completion).

"<< Background >>Speaking, which is the mainstay of the project, is the most difficult skill to develop, although it is widely used in daily life. The basic elements of communication are the speaker and the speech. Developing “speaking” for learners of Turkish as a foreign language depends on practice and exposure to the target language.Today, the need to learn Turkish has increased due to various reasons, especially immigration. Various materials have accordingly been produced to meet this need. As of the beginning of 2020, the use of digital materials in the teaching process is an essential need. In the pre-pandemic period, digital materials were developed in the teaching of Turkish as a foreign language. Learn Turkish, Turkish in 3 Minutes, and the studies of Yaşar University and Anadolu University are a serious step in the field. There are also apps like Mondly, Duolingo to teach various languages. Unfortunately, although these materials improve reading and listening, they are insufficient in the development of speaking. These applications are only pronunciation exercises that repeat the sentence heard by the learner from the system. While proper pronunciation is important for speaking skill, it alone does not improve speech. Therefore, it cannot meet the needs of its learners in daily life.Speech modules planned in the Language Tree project are different from the these applications. The Language Tree does not only practice pronunciation. The learner is in touch with authentic space simulations created through videos. The learner has the opportunity to answer the questions asked by the system in the videos, and to speak interactively thanks to the dialogue maintained by the system according to the answers given. In the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), it is written that the individual should be “social actors” who perform tasks in different social environments. The individual, who is a “social actor”, is both active and in interaction with other individuals. The application meets the definition of ""social actor"" recommended by the CEFR, as it offers users the opportunity to practice speaking interactively in different social environments.Immigrants are the ones who have the most difficulty in becoming social actors. In the last 10 years, Turkey has been one of the countries receiving immigration for various reasons. Considering the density of immigrants in Turkey, Syrians are at the forefront of these, and there has been intense migration from Afghanistan to Turkey recently.At the same time, there has been an intense migration of workers from Turkey to Europe since the second half of the 1900s for various reasons. Children of Turks who immigrated to these countries by being included in the labor policies of European countries face various language barriers. These individuals, who have difficulties in mastering two languages at the same time, shift the code and create a new communication language of their own. This prevents them from mastering both languages. If the people concerned cannot develop their mother tongue sufficiently, they are defined as ""incomplete bilinguals"" because they have a deficiency in using the language of the country they live in. Due to the fact that these individuals, defined as deficient bilinguals, failed in learning a second language and that those whose mother tongue was not developed had low academic achievement. Bilinguals were selected as the target group in the project in order to eliminate these inadequacies and failures.Within the scope of the 'Language Tree' project, bilingual Turks and immigrants in Turkey constitute the focus groups of the project. In the project, it is planned to develop the speaking skills of immigrants in Turkey and bilingual Turkish youth outside Turkey by progressing interactively and pedagogically through the themes to be determined. The digital material to be developed in the project will assist learners in completing their language deficiencie.<< Objectives >>Speaking skill cannot be developed without interaction. It is known that especially immigrants have difficulties in integration due to their social status and financial opportunities, and that the most important reason for this is the language barrier. In the preliminary needs analysis, it was revealed that the immigrants have the fear of being ridiculed while speaking Turkish, and that they have problems arising from embarrassment and lack of self-confidence. Motivation for the target audience has an important place in language learning. In gaining language skills, the learner's belief that s/he can learn triggers the person and affects the learning process.With the Language Tree, it is aimed to provide learners with the opportunity to develop dialogs in the target language. In the project, it is aimed to develop Turkish speaking skills through dialogues created depending on the themes that will meet the basic needs of the learner at A1 level. Individuals who have increased motivation at the basic level, developed self-confidence, reduced language anxiety, and broken the language barrier will express themselves more easily in the target language and accelerate their language development. In the Language Tree, which will be prepared in 3 different modules, learners will first learn sentence patterns with both visual and written clues, pronounce words and sentences correctly, and thus develop a dialogue. In the second module, only visual clues will be given and the learner will be able to continue the dialogue by creating their own sentences. In the third module, the learner will be asked to answer the questions presented audibly by the system without visual and written clues and to continue the dialogue. The learner who successfully passes all three modules will move on to the next theme and continue their speaking practice. The system will return the unsuccessful learner to the beginning and enable him/her to improve his speaking skills through repetitions.Thus, learners' fear of making mistakes and being ridiculed by those around them will be minimized by means of the digital material to be prepared. Through this material, the learner will be able to repeat until he/she feels sufficient. In addition, the presence of real people in the videos prepared for each dialogue will allow learners to observe the accent, intonation and mouth movements of the target language, while also providing the opportunity to observe the body language of the target language.Immigrant learners who improve their speaking skills will adapt to the target society, gain social status by gaining a place in the society they live in. And bilinguals, who are a second target group, will increase their academic success by eliminating their shortcomings in their mother tongue with the Language Tree project. All this will also support CEFR's multilingualism and multiculturalism policies.The main ultimate output of the project is to help immigrants and bilinguals to improve their speaking skills in Turkish. Another focus group of the project is young language teachers. Particularly the diagram of the project results, will be shared as a guide for young language teachers. They will have the opportunity to learn how to prepare and apply interactive digital materials for their future classes, and thus will be able to produce their own materials. The guide will be shared both in print and electronically, and how the diagram system to be used will also be presented as a video.<< Implementation >>Within the scope of the project, three transnational meetings will be held so that the relevant project results can continue in accordance with the schedule. In addition, all stakeholders at local and national levels will periodically organize seminars and workshops on digital transformation in language teaching. These dissemination activities will include the following topics: - digital transformation in language teaching,- the methods of improving speaking skills interactively via digital tools,- problems in speaking skills of young immigrants in Turkey, - problems in speaking skills of bilingual Turkish youth in Europe.Additionally, two international symposiums were planned as multiplier events within the scope of the project. The main theme of these symposiums to be organized in Belgium and Turkey has been determined as ""the digital transformation in language teaching."" However, papers will be accepted under the headings related to the project results. In addition, interest group sessions on project results will be held at these symposiums.These dissemination and multiplier activities will cover all language skills but will focus particularly on speaking skills. In these activities, the priority will be to bring together language teacher candidates and field experts and to discuss digital transformation opportunities in language teaching. In addition, these activities are also important in delivering the project results to young immigrants and bilingual Turkish youth in Europe. To summarize:1.What are digital materials for language teaching? a.Which ones are effective for the development of speaking skill? How do they affect?2.Are the available tools sufficient for teaching speaking skills? a.What are the shortcomings of these tools? b.How can they be developed?3.Do the speaking skills developed with digital tools support the speaking skills in real life? a.To what extent? b.What are the positive and negative aspects?4.How do the needs of speaking skills differ among young immigrants in Turkey and bilingual Turkish youth in Europe? What should be considered in the digital materials to be prepared for these groups?These are the questions to be answered, and the answers obtained in the results of the project will be delivered to those concerned with these activities.LTT activity will be held for young language teachers and language teacher candidates, the third target group of the project. The aim of this activity is to increase the creativity of these tutorials so that they can develop digital speaking materials and to inspire them to use and develop what they have learned at LTT in their professional life.Education and training activities will be about how to improve the speaking skills of young language teachers and language teacher candidates, especially with digital materials. This LTT activity is to be hosted by “Lehrerverein Ruhr e.V.,” Germany. Participants of the activity will be a maximum of 7 people (4 students, 3 researchers or 5 students, 2 researchers) from each partner institution.In this activity, there will be academic courses, social activities and practices in order to increase the knowledge and application skills of participating young language teachers and language teacher candidates in preparing digital materials. Researchers from each partner institution will conduct seminars and workshops. In addition, young language instructors and language teacher candidates will make some practical applications, especially about the diagram system, so that they can use their creativity.<< Results >>The targeted results of the project will be as follows according to the project calendar: 1.“Speaking Skills Needs Analysis for Bilingual Turkish Youth in Europe and Young Immigrants in Turkey"" The speaking skill needs analysis to be prepared will be a detailed analysis on bilingual Turkish youth in Europe and young immigrants in Turkey, unlike the needs analysis conducted before the project writing phase. A curriculum will be created for the preparation of interactive speaking activities by the researchers according to the identified needs. 2.The Curriculum of Interactive Speaking Activities: The curriculum that will be developed as a result (output) of this project will determine thematic structures based on needs analysis. The sub-headings required for the two target groups that the project focuses on will also be determined as a result of this project. Many variables such as vocabulary, grammatical structures, speaking environments will also be determined in this output. The result of this project will form the basis for the ""diagrams"" together with the result of the 1st project. 3.The Diagram: Diagram is the most important part of the project that will enable the development of students' speaking skills. Thanks to the probable chain of speech presented with diagrams, learners will have the opportunity to speak interactively according to various possibilities, unlike the existing applications. Thus, the dialogue will continue with different scenarios according to each answer given by the learner.4.The Pre-Dialogue Videos, Dialogue Videos and Activities: After the tutorial videos that will be prepared according to the topics in the themes, the learner will switch to the video chat application with dialogues. Thousands of videos will be shot in this context in order to provide a dialogue opportunity that can respond to as many different possibilities as possible. Thanks to these dialogue videos, the learner will gradually improve his speech by practicing on the subject. These videos, which are planned as modular, are discussed in 3 titles ""written, visual, and audio"". Those that have completed a module will be able to move on to another."