What is SMART WASTE MANAGERS?

SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT

    Our main objective of this project is to make our students aware that we can do something to make things change, at least in our immediate surroundings. We will work on the concept of waste and how “less” means “more”, that is, less consumption means more life. We will design a humble road map for people in their everyday life in terms of consumption. We are going to deal with the topic based on STEAM ( Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) education design principles, that is, through STEAM workshops we will analyze different types of waste: water waste, food waste, cloth waste, time waste, and energy waste. With this project, we will make our students improve the quality of STEAM applications in the light of shared experiences by observing practices in their natural environment. Moreover, their knowledge of the foreign language and ICT tools will be also highlighted and we will improve essential values among citizens such as the concept of saving (saving energy, saving water, saving cloth, saving time) because less can mean more. STEAM represents a different model from traditional philosophy, based on standardized test scores, to a modern ideal which gives importance to the learning process as much as the results. Basically, in STEAM education, model students dare to be wrong, try multiple ideas, listen to alternate opinions

and create a knowledge base that is applicable to real life as opposed to simply an exam. We will promote collaborative and integrated learning as well as autonomy and self and peer evaluation. We will make students aware how through STEAM subjects we can solve daily problems and improve our way of living. Working transnationally will enable us to see all the topics from a wide range of points of view, and learn to work in collaboration with other people. As the language of communication will be English, we will increase competence in a foreign language. Using apps, TwinSpace, ICT tools we will enhance ICT-based methodologies, so students as well as, teachers will be mainly working through ICT collaborative tools, such as prezis, triciders, apps, padlets,canvas, picktochart, google docs and other apps that can be shared by different people and enable us to work in a collaborative way. We also want to use more innovative teaching methods: the Project will be student-centered and problem-based active learning, using multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches and through fostering critical thinking skills. We want our students to be

responsible citizens making them aware that little changes together can become big changes, that is, working together we can make things change. Working on the topic of waste we are building up concepts such as recycling, reusing and reducing, so we are collaborating in the improvement of our environment. We will also be working on energy and resources and see that if we waste them it can mean the disappearance of life on our planet. Therefore, following STEAM methodology, based on scientific research, making rigorous statistics studies, creating technological apps, constructing simple machines, such as one to make compost or a water-waste plant, and integrating art compositions such as posters and leaflets to inform the rest of the community, we will engage students to make little changes in their lifestyle to be able to make big changes in the life of our planet. Short-term teachers meeting at the beginning of the project will enable teachers to know more about the STEAM methodology to be able to transfer it to the students and deal with the topic in an innovative way. In the short-term students' meetings, students and teachers will be able to see the

practical side of the project, so during the previous months of the mobility they will be dealing with the most theoretical side and in the mobilities, they will do the practical one. In the mobilities, they will also evaluate the project and give feedback to it.

1.         ISTANBUL –   STEAM WORKSHOPS  – NOVEMBER  2019

2.         PORTUGAL -  TIME WASTE             -  MARCH  2020

3.         POLAND-         FOOD WASTE            - MAY       2020

4.         SLOVENIA-     CLOTH WASTE          - OCTOBER  2020

5.         ROMANIA –    ENERGY WASTE        - FEBRUARY 2021

6.         İSPANYA –       WATER WASTE          - MAY      2021

  

      Dissemination of the project will  always  be guaranteed distributing booklets at the end of each moblility about how to reduce a concrete waste and inviting the different local media to the open workshops and presentations. A summative evaluation will be carried out along the whole project, having pre during and post evaluation of the different aspects of the project ( tasks, implementation, time-table, participants, results) and from the different points of view ( students', teachers' and parents').

     The project sustainability will be achieved through the results: the ecological garden in each school with its own compost machine, the waterwaste plant in each school, the different booklets on how to reduce the different waste types studied, the posters, wikis etc.

To sum up, thanks to this project students will be able to appreciate more the importance of STEAM subjects in their learning process, so they can deal with daily problems such as the concept of "waste" and help to improve the environment and become better citizens.