Spretne ruke-sretna djeca

"<< Background >>During the pandemic, the way of schooling and student activities changed: students were significantly more exposed to digital content while studying and during their free time. We noticed changes in their abilities, skills and achievements: poorer graphomotor skills, illegible handwriting, clumsiness in basic motor actions, poor experiential knowledge and knowledge of basic facts.But even in the education system, there are no opportunities to practice motor skills and practical work since the number of hours dedicated to art and technical culture subjects in which work with hands is applied has been reduced. As a result, students' interest in vocational training has decreased. Research has shown that working with hands develops motor skills, trains multitasking, exercises internal control, calmness, and concentration. In order to motivate students for more active involvement in the learning process, we remembered the thought: ""What I hear, I forget. What I see is what I remember. What I do, I understand."" This was our motivation for designing a project with which we wanted to include more experiential and practical learning, movement, being in nature in the classes and thus influence the psychological well-being of the students.<< Objectives >>We focused on the necessary changes in approaches to teaching in which, in addition to the development of digital skills that are necessary, there should be more practical work and raising awareness of environmental protection. We believed that such approaches to teaching will enable greater motivation, easier learning, acquisition of basic skills and an easier transition to the next level of education. The general goal of our project is to improve the competence of students and teachers in the field of teaching and learning through practical work and activities in the field of environmental protection. Other goals of the project are to increase students' interest in working with their hands, practical, research, student learning in class; strengthen the ecological awareness and responsibility towards all living beings, the environment;through practical learning to increase students' interest in natural subjects and education in trades; to improve the key competences of teachers and school management and to incorporate the exchanged knowledge and skills into the work of schools; improve communication in English and improve the internationalization of schools.<< Implementation >>The most important group of activities were activities in TEACHING, i.e. teachers of all partner schools applied practical work in their work in correlation of several subject areas, on the topics: Healthy and balanced diet, Household and sustainable development, Recycling, Green trips, Community and nature.Lessons, workshops, lectures, fairs, exhibitions, contests, marking important dates, and monitoring the work of students and teachers were held. The second group of activities were transnational meetings held in Pakrac with the aim of creating a better relationship with partners, a collaborative climate and successful implementation of the project. The third group of activities are learning and teaching activities, a total of 6 activities. The positive effects of these activities on students are: better understanding of intercultural diversity and increased tolerance, improved interactions with other students, improved English speaking skills, greater motivation for the project and other projects.The intellectual results of the project were created from the overall activities of the partner schools, based on the practices and experiences of classroom teachers. The last group of activities were dissemination activities.<< Results >>The project results are an online platform called ""Explain to me, show me, involve me"" and digital games for students. The online platform is publicly published and contains methodical scenarios intended for teachers and challenging tasks for students. The scenarios are high-quality methodical examples of practical work with different topics with an emphasis on environmental protection. On the online platform there are 25 methodical examples and 50 tasks with the following topics: Environment/nature; Language and communication; Man and nutrition; Household and sustainable development.Another result of this project is 24 educational digital games for students. All games are made in English, and students improve their understanding of the English language as well as their knowledge, skills and attitudes about climate change, sustainable development, the relationship to nature, the environment, consumer lifestyle.Other results emerged from the numerous activities of the project: brochures about the project, a digital cookbook of recipes made from leftover food, didactic materials for classes made by recycling, landscaped school gardens, planted tree rows, ecological cleaning products, a project website that can serve as inspiration."