Aims • Exploit Geocaching to make lessons more effective and appealing • Motivate students to approach to difficult subjects (e.g. Science, Maths, Physics, Technologies, Geography, Foreign Languages) • Devise new learning patterns in order to facilitate the learning process • Reduce school drop-outs • Develop soft skills like team work, resilience, mental agility, problem solving • Implement communicative competences starting from the basic understanding of all the partners' languages • Design teaching modules for Art, Geography, Technology, Music (subjects that have been officially cancelled or remarkably reduced from some national curricula) • Show the importance of biological and cultural environment, not only as a place for enjoyment and entertainment but also as a source of economical wealth that we must protect, promote and publicize outside the regional boundaries • Put people on the move: encourage them to be active on the web, move around and explore the place where they live, be curious about the places they do not know (move from a passive to an active approach)
Work process Students are divided in five teams and they create transnational groups. Each group investigates a different key area. Group A: Tourism & Geography, Group B: History/Art, Group C: Food and Sports , Group D: Maths and Science, Group E: Outdoor activities. At first teachers will learn how to devise effective Trails exploiting each partner’s expertise and background, and students will try, test and validate the trails. In a second phase of the project, students will learn how to produce geocaching experiences by themselves and they thus will be involved in peer-to-peer activities, inside their schools, but also for the sake of their local communities and, during some Blended Mobilities, with their international friends. On a regular basis, students will have to take part in communication activities in order to exchange information about their findings and design common activities. Students will mainly work on Twinspace. We will work in the context of our Erasmus + project and according to our agreed timetable where all the activities have been set and programmed. Transnational project meetings will be held in our countries: Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Poland. Our work will have 5 Short-term joint staff training events for the teachers involved and 5 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils where Geocaching trails will be developed and implemented. Between meetings, video conferences and eTwinning communication will be the main way of supporting our work and keep team building alive.
Expected results The students will make new friends from other countries and cultures and they will improve themselves for becoming European Digital Citizens. By the end of Geocaching –Minds on the Move (MoM) Project, 1) a website will be created: a) to host students' work: pictures, videos and research about their partner countries b) to project guidelines to produce a learning module based on the geocaching methodology c) to present Geocaching Tours/Trails with a focus on Tourism/Geography, Art History, Food & Sports / Outdoor Activities, Science, History and Languages Maths and Physics with targets in each partner's region 2) an Erasmus plus Couchsurfing network and database will be established - students travelling individually to visit partners.