The internet revolution, the spread of PC ownership and some other factors cause “digital revolution” in education as well as in many areas. In addition, coronavirus (COVID - 19) pandemic process has also accelerated the spread of digitalization of education and distance education. On the other hand, as stated on goals of EU research and innovation policy, spreading knowledge as soon as it is available using digital and collaborative technology is a necessity of digitalization era and improving and modernizing education is a key priority for the EU and its Member States.During this time, many research and development projects and studies have been done. As a result of the impact of digitalization in education, access to educational documents has become easier and many different information and resources can be accessed in the virtual environment. This situation brought along some negative effects as well as positive results. It should not be forgotten that correcting the slightest mistake made in educational environments takes years. For this, every learning - teaching activity in this system should be prepared with great care. In addition, although students can find information to meet the theoretical knowledge in the distance education documents, they cannot find instruments to meet their practical education needs. This serious deficiency causes students not to consolidate their theoretical knowledge in practice, and prevents them from showing special interest in the relevant branch. The project aims to make up for this serious deficiency in the chemistry lab with virtual chemistry lab applications. In this way, it aims to enable high school students to make chemistry laboratory applications and to continue increasing the interest in chemistry science.The main purpose of the project is to design, develop, implement and evaluate Virtual Chemistry Laboratory Applications (VCLapps) and additional digital contents (e-books and e-learning toolkit) in order to enable high school students to conduct laboratory applications in the field of chemistry.In line with this purpose of the project, the project will be managed with the leadership of Anadolu University, which has 40 years of experience in distance education, with academic staff who are experts in chemistry and distance education. The main task distribution in the project was made according to the expertise of the project partners. The Virtual Chemistry e-book will be prepared by Anadolu University according to the high school curriculum and also, the content of the chemistry experiments that will be used in virtual chemistry laboratory applications will be prepared by Ankara University Development Foundation Private Schools and Agrupamento de Escolas Dr. Flávio Gonçalves high schools. Digital distance learning applications will be prepared by ATA Software and Asociación Para La Investigación De La Industria Del Juguete, Conexas Y Afines (AIJU). Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education will contribute to dissemination of project outputs on 40 different high schools of 39 different regions of Istanbul. According to European Commission Research and Innovation Strategies, one of the aims of the Innovation Union to make Europe into a world-class science performer. In this context, one of the major points is to develop high school students’ skills and competencies in science. At this point, the successful completion and dissemination of the VCLapps and e-book project will directly contribute to this goal in the field of chemistry. Virtual applications designed to stimulate the natural curiosity of this new generation of children, called digital natives and emphasize the link between scientific concepts and the real world, are very popular. These simulation-based applications have been revealed to enhance learning outcomes among students by making the learning experience more comprehensive and engaging. Therefore, within the scope of the proposed project, a virtual simulation of six chemistry laboratories determined by the partners will be developed by taking the high school chemistry curriculum as a reference and also, virtual chemistry e-book containing theoretical information on experiments will be designed to support virtual applications. Project partners attach great importance that VCLapps and e-book applications, which are among the intellectual outputs of the project, to reach students at different cultural and socioeconomic levels in all geographies. The intellectual output of the project that will meet this need is the e-learning toolkit. In this context, the e-learning toolkit includes digital applications that will enable students to access the e-book and the e-quizzes contents via smartphones, tablets or data storage devices. In this way, while students can access these intellectual outputs from any point, teachers will be able to evaluate their students' learning efficiency digitally.

"<< Background >>Even though technology has a considerable effect on our daily lives, the use of technology in education systems is still inadequate and this need emerged dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide due to the shut down of the schools. According to World Bank ""Across more than 170 countries, 1.5 billion students' schools have closed as part of their governments’ response to COVID-19. Now, ministries of education around the world try to ensure learning continuity for children and youth through distance learning. In most cases, efforts involve the use of various digital platforms featuring educational content and a variety of educational technology solutions to keep communication and learning spaces as open and stimulating as possible.” In line with digital learning, researches show that young people need to discover meaningful ways of discovery using technology for learning purposes and collaborative knowledge creation. Hands-on science can be defined as any instructional approach involving activity and direct experience with natural phenomena or any educational experience that actively involve students in manipulating objects to gain knowledge or understanding (Ateş and Eryılmaz, 2011). It provides opportunities for students to acquire relevant functional knowledge and skills that are associated with scientific processes needed for advancement in science and technology. This method is the most effective method to achieve today's science teaching outputs. The effectiveness of this technique increases, even more, when it is integrated with digital tools.Considering all these issues related to distance education and hands-on science teaching, the main objective of this Action shaped as establishing a “Hands-on Science Education Platform” to engage with practical and digital education to increase science literacy. To support this main aim, hands-on science education kits and the teacher’s guide will be prepared as other objectives within this project. Project partners are selected from Turkey (Özyeğin Uni, Eğlenceli Bilim, EFTA, SU/Öğretmen Ağı and İstanbul İl MEM), Belgium (EDI), Portugal (EDUGEP), and Serbia (CPN) according to their valuable experience in hands-on science education, distance learning, equity in learning including disadvantaged students and girls, networking in the field of education.<< Objectives >>The main target groups are science teachers and students at the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. To meet these objectives there are 3 IOs (LESTO Platform, Hands-on Science Education Kits, and Teacher’s Guide). There are 3 transnational meetings besides monthly online meetings among project partners to concrete the strategic partnership. Moreover, to involve the science teachers to the project, there will be a workshop where change ambassadors will be trained to be a mentor in their countries. It is aimed to ensure the sustainability of the project by training science teachers to have role in the local pilot studies. The other activity cluster for sustainability is dissemination activities at the local and national level. There are 6 dissemination activities: 3 of them will be in Turkey (İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir) and 1 in Belgium, 1 in Portugal, and 1 in Serbia.The objectives and activities within the project meet the Erasmus+ priorities as bringing innovative approaches, capacity building of teachers not only for being more modern, dynamic, motivated but also work in the international environments. These partnerships will promote networking of our project partners as well as other organizations across the EU to share resources and expertise. In specific response to the Covid-19 pandemic, this project also meets the priority of responsiveness, adaptability, and flexibility, and digital education readiness and mitigating the impact of the crisis.<< Implementation >>Within the project, the LESTO platform will be established concurrently with hands-on science education kits and the teacher’s guide. 25 change ambassadors among science teachers will be selected from the partner countries and these teachers will be a mentor after receiving training. Then, they will have the responsibility to assist the science teachers in their countries under the pilot studies. Then, these teachers will reach the students considering disadvantaged ones as well.For the long term, it is also expected to reach 1000 organizations and 10.000 individuals with the networking of the partner organizations, in specific for Turkey SU/Öğretmen Ağı andİstanbul İl MEM will take care of the dissemination with the other provincial and district national education directorates. For the project, partners will be in charge of dissemination in their countries. Another long term impact expected is preparing policy paper to involve hands-on science teaching to digital learning.<< Results >>The results of this Action can be divided into two groups as those of which will be reached during implementation and those after the completion of the project. The results expected during the project are:1. Hands-on Science Education Online Platform (IO1) will be developed2. An Hands-on science Education Home Kit Establishment (IO2) will be produced and embedded into the online platform3. An Hands-on Science Community Establishment within the online platform4. A Teacher’s Guide will be established (IO3)5. 10 trained science teachers as change ambassadors from Turkey, 5 science teachers from Belgium, Portugal, and Serbia within the scope of the Action. In total 25 teachers will attend the international staff training to shape and decide the output contents.6. 55 science teachers will be included from partner countries to test the digital platform and science education kit as a pilot study. There are already 25 teachers who attended the activities and the rest of the teachers will be 3 teachers from Belgium, Portugal, and Serbia and 21 teachers from Turkey.7. Implementation of local pilot studies with students. A minimum of 550 students (55 cohorts x 10 students per cohort) (50% girls+50% boys) various cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and from Turkey, Belgium, Portugal, and Serbia will have participated in pilot implementations. It is assumed that each teacher can reach 10 students and this calculation is made based on this. In this case, 310 students from Turkey and 240 students from Belgium, Portugal, and Serbia (80 for each country).8. An impact analysis report will be produced including the effectiveness of the online platform, analyzing the impact on teachers and students who use the platform.9. Community building will be established by including the participation of parents and mixed online activities by students.10. Three transnational meetings will be made in 3 different countries.11. Trustable and sustainable partnership will be established among 8 partners from 4 countries.12. 6 different dissemination activities will be carried out in 4 different countries.13. Cross-sectoral partnership will be encouraged among NGO, public authorities, private sector, and academia14. Membership of the international Hands-on Science Network (http://www.hsci.info/index.php) established in Portugal will be completed and this approach will be carried out on a global level.15. A minimum of 1.000 legal bodies (provincial and district national education directorates; civil society organizations in the field of education; schools etc.) from Turkey and 250 legal bodies from each partner country; Belgium, Portugal, and Serbia will be reached via different tools and channels 16. A minimum of 10.000 individual persons (teachers, students, parents, other representatives in the field) from Turkey and 1.000 individual persons from each partner country; Belgium, Portugal, and Serbia will be reached via different tools and channels17. A policy paper preparation consisting of the intellectual outputs of this Action and the discussion with project partners. The paper will be framed around the inclusion of hands-on science education in digital education"

Dyslexia is a difficulty in the acquisition of reading and writing that affects estimatedly 5% to17% of the population. Research shows that through the use of compensation strategies, therapy and educational support, dyslexic individuals can learn to read and write. There are techniques and technical aids which help to manage or conceal symptoms of the disorder. As the difficulty shows itself mostly during early years of primary school when the pupil exhibits signs of difficulty in reading related issues, most of the support is provided for the dyslexic indiviual at this period. But the problems persist into following periods like lower secondary school age, adolescence and adulthood periods and may accompany difficulties with low success rates in achieving the expected skills. When compared to the support in learning at primary level, there is still little to support the transition from primary to lower secondary (middle) school. Support is needed due to the change in institutional set-up and the new and changing demands, at both the skill and task level, made on the child.The aimed at providing support to parents, teachers and the dyslexic individuals themselves to ensure the transition between schools is smooth and they have the opportunity to reach their potential in the new learning environment.Within the scope of the project, a series of support materials have been developed under the name Transition Support Kit, which is designed to minimize the problems experienced by a dyslexic child during the transition from primary to lower secondary (middle) school and to provide the necessary support.In the first stage, a Needs Analysis study which was the basis for the preparation of these materials was carried out. The need analysis formed the basis of the Transition Support Kit which was conducted by a series of questionnaires with teachers, dyslexic students, and their parents.The Transition Support Kit includes an Individual Support Plan (BDP) Model prepared with all partners, a Checklist for identifying the difficulties experienced by the individual during this period, and a Guide for Teachers and Guide for Parents that will form the basis of support provided when they begin new school environments.All these products have been created with the contribution of 7 partner institutions from 6 countries under the coordination of Istanbul Directorate of National Education. The content provided was prepared by the teams formed by each partner institution, and its accuracy and reliability were reviewed during the Expert evaluation phase of the Pilot Studies conducted in each country. The usefulness and the aspects that need to be improved were reviewed in the final evaluation, which is the second stage of the pilot studies, and revisions were made in the light of the feedback received, and their final form was established.All the materials were made avaliable for the target audience of the project in 6 partner languages (TR, BG, PT, PL, RO, IT) and in English and they can be reached free of charge by anyone wishing to use them. The materials were introduced to teachers and specialists during the Multiplier events held in each partner country and their printed and digital versions (in memory sticks) were distributed. They are also sent to different schools, research/resource/guidance centers, regional and district directorates of educations throughout each partner country.The usage of materials will be continued to be promoted by the partners in the long term. New editions and publications will be done according to the changing needs and demands and they will all be avaliable for the use of the educationists, families and dyslexic students.

The COVID-19 Pandemic process, which has an impact all over the world, has led to a rapid increase in the digitalization of the education system. According to the goals of EU research and innovation policy, transferring information as soon as possible using digital and collaborative technology is a necessity of digitalization, and modernizing the education system with new methods and techniques is a fundamental goal. According to the European Commission's Research and Innovation Strategies, the importance of the Innovation Union in transforming Europe into a world-class digital education centre is emphasized. The most important feature of our project is to improve the design thinking skills and competencies of students with special learning difficulties. In this context, the successful completion and dissemination of Virtual Materials are directly related to this goal. Created to arouse the curiosity of 21st-century students, digital applications are very popular around the world. Accordingly, the products considered are aimed to bring the students with special learning difficulties to similar standards with their peers by making the learning experience more effective. Within the scope of the project, virtual training materials and applications supported by the partners will be developed. After developing the curriculum, it is aimed to increase the motivation of our students, teachers and parents with virtual e-book applications containing theoretical and practical information. The project partners attach great importance to the e-book applications, which are among the project's intellectual outputs, to reach students in different cultural areas. The idea output of the project that will meet this need is the e-learning toolkit. In this context, practices that will enable individuals in need in the entire education community to easily access these intellectual outputs have been determined. In this context, while students can access virtual materials quickly and easily, teachers will be able to digitally evaluate their students' learning efficiency. Every learning-teaching activity in the system has been designed with great care in order to prevent possible problems from getting deeper. In another situation, it has been determined that students with special learning difficulties have serious problems in meeting their practical education needs, although they can find the information that will meet the theoretical information in the distance education documents. This basic problem causes the students diagnosed with special learning difficulties to not reinforce their theoretical knowledge in practice and it has been determined that they have a negative attitude towards school. Based on this problem, the project aims to support and develop students with special learning difficulties. Thus, it is expected to support the theoretical and practical training of students with special learning difficulties in a virtual environment and to increase the interest in school. The main purpose of the project is to design, develop, implement and evaluate additional digital content (e-books and e-learning). In line with this purpose of the project, the project has a partnership structure with very serious experience. Institutions with very ambitious expert staff have been preferred in terms of both content creation and software. The main task distribution in the project was made according to the expertise of the project partners. Virtual e-book, curriculum development as well as virtual e-materials will be prepared per its purpose. Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education will make serious contributions to the publication of the project in 39 different districts of Istanbul.

Recent scientific reports of increasing global temperature, rising sea level trends, and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels clearly indicate the presence of global climate change. As important regions of the world for regulating the global climate system, the polar regions face the consequences of this change in an amplified way. Although the responsibility of mankind is evident for these results, basic knowledge on climate change and polar regions is limited in the public. Therefore, education and raising awareness on these subjects are essential to overcome this global challenge. This proposal aims increasing the awareness on polar regions and global climate change and fostering the recognition of related research and researchers in the public (especially young people) by presenting the conducted studies and results in an appropriate language, demonstrating the impacts of these studies on our world and daily life, and introducing researchers and their professions to create role models for the younger generation in a fun environment. To this aim, science workshops, stand activities, exhibitions, seminars, and concerts will be organized in İstanbul and Gaziantep cities. With the awareness campaign to be carried out before/during/after the events, an element of curiosity will be created about the polar regions, global climate change, and scientific researches on these issues by using digital platforms, as well as social and visual media. Planned activities will increase the public knowledge on basic principles and methods of related research on polar and climate science, improve the understanding of the impacts of climate change and related research on our daily lives, explain the importance and key benefits of these research to the public. In addition, the proposal intends to increase the interest of young people in polar and climate research, break the stereotypes about the researchers and give information on European Union and related opportunities.