Programme & action: ERASMUS+, key action 1, youth exchange
Venue: Lednice, Czech Republic
Dates: 24-31 October 2014
Participants: 4 participants + 1 group leader
Age limit for participants: 18-30
The project Connecting through Science was supported by the Erasmus+: Youth in Action grant reaching 11 508 Euros. This Youth Exchange will be held in the week of 24th – 31st October 2014 in Lednice, Czech Republic (South Moravian region) and it will connect young people interested not only in science but also in self-education, active citizenship and meeting new people from all over Europe, specifically from: Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Visibility:
If you want to know how this youth exchange looked like, visit its official blog: http://connectingthroughscience.blogspot.cz/.
Here you can download the project booklet.
Project description:
The Erasmus+: Youth Exchange “Connecting through Science” aims especially at youths who are interested in the world around them, who are interested in science, who are looking for an opportunity to experience other European countries and who would like to learn something about science as well as active citizenship. This project will also encourage participation of young disadvantaged people (special needs, learning difficulties, socio-economic status or cultural differences).
The main aims of this youth exchange are the following:
1) to increase mobility opportunities in order to discover new cultures, traditions and life-styles (learning from others)
2) to improve the level of key competences and skills of young people in order to enable them to expand their career perspectives (growing as individuals)
3) the presentation of science as a means for developing participants’ abilities and competences using non-formal and informal educational methods (I am impressed by nature + learning through game)
The project also aims at the personal development of participants: supporting them in expressing their own opinion and presenting their own ideas, views and expanding their mental horizons.
During the six working days of this youth exchange, the participants will work with the following topics: integration, sharing ideas and experience, bioethics, physical and visual impairments or disabilities, interactive genetics and active citizenship. All the topics and activities will lead to developing the key competences and to achieve all the mentioned goals, methods of non-formal education, improvising the disabilities on ourselves (in order to gain empathy) and discussion with experts in the field of science will be used.
An important part of this youth exchange is “learning by doing”. Our participants will have the opportunity to present their own work and action plans, strengthening their self-esteem through this activity. Moreover, they will have a chance to express themselves in a project booklet which will be the summary of the project outcomes, including individual activities, their main aims, methods and competences that should be improved. There will also be basic information about the programme Erasmus+: Youth in Action and about organizations taking part in this project. Furthermore, participants´ posters will be published in the booklet together with other ideas and initiative of the participating youths.
An overarching aim of this youth exchange is to spread awareness of this project topic among general public. During our youth exchange we will also have a discussion with the policy makers of our region, the regional governor Ing. Jaroslav Parolek, who will give us insight into what is being done by the policy makers on the regional level to support the non-formal education, science, young scientists and active citizenship.
When this youth exchange is finished, our participants´ competences will have improved and they will have gained new friends from Europe. The main activity of the project is Poster Fair where the participants will present their poster in a popular way followed by discussion with the other participants but also with other invited guests. This activity will take place in the city of Brno, which is associated with the famous scientists, J. G. Mendel.
Thirty-three participants from six countries will take part in our project, namely: the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Croatia and the Netherlands.
