"Information about the projectThe project ""Stimulating the active participation of young people in democratic life through the development of innovative educational tool SmileUrbo"" is with direct answer to potrzbę create angażującyh, interactive and effective educational tools designed for learning soft skills among young people. Soft skills are the social capital necessary to build informed communities that can work together and solve their problems by agreement and consensus.Project goals1.To develop simulation game which will be a learning tool supporting longer processes for training and workshops in the following areas:• active and informed participation in democracy• entrepreneurship and economic decision-making to guarantee sustainable development• building social capital and teamwork• Time management• negotiation• interpersonal communication2. Creation of training methodology educators SmileUrbo.3. Creation of facilities for educators SmileUrbo with the knowledge base, and manual. The number and profile of participating organizationsIn the project were involved two organizations - the Foundation for Support of Education and Development ""Innowatorium"" with Polish and association Smilemundo from Spain.Foundation Innowatorium specializes in creating modern teaching methods and techniques focusing in about educational games. Smilemundo Its mission is to create and implement innovative social projects, particularly in the field of education.Description of the activities carried outThe project we have created a methodology training for future educators SmileUrbo , Meeting trainer with a manual , knowledge base and wideoprzewodnikami . The game has been improved from the programming , and the design has been remodeled . Also storyline of the game have been improved and adapted to the training needs of the inhabitants of the European Union. The project conducted a series of tests and presentation of the game among young people and among educators .The results and impact of the projectThe project failed to deliver on all the purposes of the results. All the tools developed in the framework of the strategic partnership will be available in three EU languages: Polish, English and Spanish. SmileUrbo met with a very warm reception both in Poland and in Spain."

The DIGHIST project is a response to the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the field of historical and civic education.Today, young people face challenges which consist of not only of lack of contact with their peers, taking part in classes not adapted to the requirements of distance education, but also of the need to understand the difficult social processes they are witnessess of. The role of history and social sciences teachers is now more important tham ever - as it is them, who help young people to understand the world.The experience of all European countries shows the need for a radical change in the approach to teaching humanities. The pandemic only highlighted the challenges facing the system for a long time: transfer of knowledge in the form of lectures, the tradictional classes with no time for reflection, analysis and drawing conclusions and developing the ability to understand historical and social processes.Therefore, the result of the 24-month cooperation of partners will be the creation, testing and dissemination of an innovative data storytelling approach in the area of teaching about the 20th century European history. We will create innovative tools and content supporting independent reflection and understanding of social processes and, consequently, help to transform history and civic education.The project will also help equip teachers of history and social sciences with the knowledge and competences necessary to conduct engaging and valuable remote and hybrid lessons on socially important topics in an asynchronous model, based on 20th century European history.The key part of the project is to strengthen the professional competences of history teachers and their self-esteem and agency. We want teachers to become guides for their students around today's world and that respect for history teachers should be built on a good relationship with students and the use of modern digital tools and teaching aids which make use of communication generic for Generation Z (born 1997-2010)The DIGHIST project will be run by three organizations experienced in the following topics: creative presentation of complex historical and social processes, introducing innovative ICT tools to education, conducting asynchronous learning (including flipped lesson), supporting remote education, using visual tools in education and the use of data storytelling and design thinking (focusing on tailoring solutions to the needs of recipients): Fundacja Szkoła z Klasą (Poland), Asociación Smilemundo (Spain) and King Baudouin Foundation (Belgium). The profiles and experience of the organization complement each other perfectly: they are three NGOs - one experienced in teachers professional development and working with new technologies, the other in producing high-quality online support, and the third being a cultural institution dealing with innovative methods of education about contemporary European history.Within the project, we will prepare:- a map of important, contemporary historical issues, which are presented in an incomplete, cursory way in various countries.- A DIGHIS toolkit - containing methodological guidelines for the data storytelling method, methods supporting asynchronous work and specific digital tools to be used in the lesson, along with high-quality visual teaching aids prepared in the data storytelling methodology (so that teachers of various educational stages can use it).- The toolbox will be tested during a pilot, on the basis of which we will prepare methodologies for training teachers.- The project will be extended by a virtual atlas collecting areas and topics of contemporary 20th-century European history that are worth discussing with students. Everthing will also be converted into an online course, allowing in the future to create your own materials using the methodology developed in the project.Educational experts, historians, specialists in remote education, data storytelling specialists and teachers-practitioners cooperating with the project partners will work on the materials.The project is addressed primarily to teachers of history and social sciences, and to those teachers with whom historians can carry out joint, interdisciplinary projects (e.g. language, arts or geography teachers).In the pilot program we will involve min. 20 schools from three partner countries, including at least 6 from Poland). The project will involve at least 60 teachers - 30 historians, 30 teachers of other subjects and about 500 students. Moreover, we plan to train 300 teachers (from Poland, Spain and Belgium) in the developed methodology.An additional target group are also European organizations disseminating educational innovations, policy makers and school heads, educational media. To disseminate the project, social networks will be widely used, which are the basic communication tool for students and teachers.

<< Objectives >>In INVIST we will build a transnational identity and civic engagement. We want to show how migrations fit into the DNA of our continent as almost every European is a migrant or a descendant of migrants. There is no way to address the biggest challenges of our times - climate change or energy security - from a national perspective, and we want to prove it. A common identity and engagement is crucial for the safe future of young Europeans.<< Implementation >>We will build on research to create an innovative set of educational materials on migrations, using digital tools to tell history from a perspective of groups often left aside in national history narratives. The Educational Migration Toolkit, powered by teacher trainings, will help educators better navigate through fast changing and complex reality and find a way to explain often complicated, ambiguous and difficult social phenomena<< Results >>Our cooperation will result in creating, testing and disseminating a new approach in teaching about European migrations. The Educational Migration Toolkit, available in 5 languages, consists of innovative tools and content to strengthen the reflection and understanding of social processes to make a real transformation of how we teach history and shape civic engagement. We will raise teachers’ competences so they can raise conscient citizens of Europe.

"Mathematics is generally perceived by students as one of the most difficult school subjects, which is not useful at all in everyday life. For many years there has been social approval for not being good in maths. Therefore, the goal of the Added Value project was to change the approach to teaching mathematics in Polish and European schools. We wanted to show students the practical application of mathematics and set it in the context of everyday life, but above all help students believe that they can learn maths and that it is worth doing.The research carried out as part of the program (in-depth interviews with teachers, desk research etc.) shows that problems with teaching maths are a common experience of various European countries. Often teachers, due to overloaded program or lack of time, limit themselves to theoretical knowledge and imitative exercises instead of teaching how to use maths to solve real-life problems in a creative way. Despite the fact that the core curricula emphasize reasoning, argumentation and problem solving strategies, in practice lessons are often limited to duplication of patterns. Excessive focus on basic skills suppresses curiosity and creativity in students. You can also see the mechanism of dividing students into so-called ""mathematicians"" and ""humanists"", the latter - having once obtained this label feel free from a further being good in mathematics.That is why the School with Class Foundation together with partners from Spain (Asociación Smilemundo), the Netherlands (NHL Stenden) and Ireland (Universal Learning Systems), developed easy-to-use and universal tools that help teachers in conducting lessons that show the practical application of mathematics in everyday life. The materials are based on the design thinking method and show students that maths is an important element of the world around us. They emphasize the role of independent planning and cooperation of students and promote the use of many different soft skills and competences. They show the interpenetration of various fields of knowledge and encourage to strengthen cooperation between teachers. All materials have a common motto “Mathematics is everywhere”! They consist of:• A mathematical toolbox: a set of 8 ready-to-use ideas for interdisciplinary classes with an explanation of the methodology and pedagogical approach (each idea includes ready-made work cards for students and guidelines for teachers, all developed according to one coherent methodology) and open forms for creating own challenges based on program methodology. The toolbox is supplemented with films showing in practice the work of the design thinking method.• a set of interactive mathematical posters.All these materials are available on the easy-to-use website in four languages.The materials developed within the project were extensively tested in schools. 264 schools from four partner countries (261 from Poland and one from the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland) got involved in the tests. 195 teachers were involved (including 191 from Poland). Challenges have been completed a total of 442 times (438 in Poland, 2 in the Netherlands, 1 each in Spain and Ireland). 5296 students took part in the classes (including 5228 from Poland).Tests and evaluation show that the goal of showing the usefulness of mathematics in everyday life has been achieved. While solving real problems students saw maths is necessary in many areas of an adult life. The materials also effectively help change the students' negative attitude towards mathematics to genuine commitment and engagement. They give students the opportunity to make their own decisions and take responsibility. Thanks to the classed based on Added Value scenarios students could also learn self-planning. Working with the design thinking method encouraged students to test different ideas and showed that one can make a mistake for which they will not be punished. The lessons involved all students, including the weaker ones. The materials also supported classroom integration and enabled students to get to know each other better. Teacher confidence in students has also increased. The materials supported interdisciplinary learning and teacher collaboration. By extending the project to other subjects, students practiced many skills at the same time.The materials and the developed approach are and will be further promoted by project partners among schools and local authorities. The use of the proposed scenarios on a wider scale, i.e. the introduction of an interdisciplinary and problem-based approach to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and social competences by students would involve needed changes in the curriculum, a certain reorganization of student styles, but - as our research has shown - it is also possible in the current Polish reality and European schools."