”The goal of this training event, which brought together 18 teachers from 4 countries, was choosing a short-term interdisciplinary science project involving the 4 subjects, to be carried out by the whole partnership from October 2019 till March 2020.
AGRUPAMENTO DE ESCOLAS DANIEL SAMPAIOPortugal
Before engaging into the presentation of proposals by each country, teachers attended a lecture How to make a research project in high schools, given by researcher on science (Mr José de Matos) The aim was to help teachers to build up an interdisciplinary science project in the coming workshops. The lecturer raised several questions, which would be answered throughout the development of the project design by the partnership: what will we do? who will do it? how will we do it with? who will pay for it? how will the outcomes be used? why will we do it? During the lecture some planning techniques were suggested and several examples of science projects were given.
On the coming days, after the lecture, teachers got together to present and discuss their proposals and to define and plan the one to be carried out.
Turkey presented a project about Parallax movement, based mainly on maths.
Hungary presented a project on Thermal Water, based on the fact Hungary’s best tourist attraction are thermal baths and its benefits for human health, and showing how the project would cover subjects like geology (geothermal energy and water cycle), physics (heat capacity of water, nuclear energy), chemistry (great variety of minerals), biology (therapeutic usage and ecosystem of thermal water) and maths (field work and calculations).
Portugal come out with a project called Bee INTERested, where the importance of bees for biodiversity was emphasized. 4 subjects would be involved: importance of pollination for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem sustainability; the life cycle of bees and main causes of the decrease in the number of bees (biology); honeycomb geometry; visualization of regular mosaic and its internal angles; mathematical demonstration of honeycomb construction; mathematical model that allows to determine the edge and volume of each honeycomb; ideal angle of a honeycomb; application of mathematical modeling in bee populations through the study function (math); the chemical language of bees;honey chemical composition; analysis of some physical and chemical parameters of honey (chemistry) and importance of the electric field in the pollination phenomenon performed by the bees (physics).
Lithuania brought a project about Fermentation, starting to emphasize the relevance of the project, connecting its theme to human health and healthy diet, and its utility for interdisciplinary integration, developing teamwork skills and analyzing results obtained in daily life environment. Its aims and objectives, as well as the means to be implemented and the workflow were also presented.
The project would integrate 4 subjects: biology (health eating habits and fermentation), physics (diffusion, heat and its measurement), chemistry (solution production, solution pH, acids and saline) and math (text problems of blends/mixtures, calculation of volumes, areas, densities and masses, statistics, vectors and sequences).
After some fruitful discussions, the whole group decided to choose The Bee INTERested project as the easiest to be carried out either due to its theme (bees, which can easily be addressed in any country, being the decrease of bees’ populations a global problem) but also because it already included some phases for its execution.
The program of the training event included also some visits and lectures at the Faculty of Science and Technology (Universidade Nova of Lisbon), as well as visits to The Lisbon Oceanarium and Pavilhão do Conhecimento (Science Center).
