success story – description of the dissemination events
However, apart from the products we designed, the most important were bonds of friendship and the inspiring environment we were able to create. Thank you for being with us.
A collection of rules for traditional games still played, from time to time, in our countries, was prepared as a common product, presented and tried out during a students’ exchange in Portugal. The students explained the rules of the games their parents enjoyed playing outdoors when they were at their children’s age and they had fun together.
The objectives of the activity:
encouraging children to spend time outside
developing language skills while delivering instructions
acquiring social skills and peer-to-peer relationships
improving physical health
boosting creativity
strengthening motor skills
learning about other cultures
showing respect for traditional games as cultural heritage.
As the project intended to develop activities concerned to the well- being of students, such as doing sport, developing strategies to manage stress in their life and having a right diet, the activities in Portugal, more specifically in Amares, were focused basically in sport and mindfulness. All activities were based in an expository, questioning and active methodology, which means that students tried a practical experimentation most of the times. During the short-term exchange of groups of pupils, Portuguese, Polish and Spanish students, 38 in total, presented their traditional games and shared their features using ICT tools. Next they developed creative writing creating haiku poems and learned some strategies for relaxing, making specific noises and movements. The day after, students visited the Stadium, the Museum and Sports City of Sporting Club of Braga, a very important team in Portugal. They had the chance of taking photos in the VIP room, walk around the pitch and sit in the ends. While at the Museum, students were able to be acquainted with the club history as well as admiring the cups the team has won through the years. Then, they walked to the club Sports City, whose aim is to prepare young boys/girls to become successful footballers. The students visited the facilities and enjoyed a fantastic view of the city, from the building terrace. The club provided a guide, who kept the students’ interest in the visit, by informing them of some fun facts and curiosities about the club history, football players or even about the building. The students also visited INL (International Nanotechnology Laboratory) a highly considered laboratory
After this visit, students observed how water can be an element that helps to move a funicular by pushing it up and down on the hill of Bom Jesus. On Thursday, students went to the mountain of Gerês and tried traditional games developing a competition, photo paper (a kind of game of adventure and hunting of the picture inside the nature), Adventure camp (tree climbing) and visited the museum of Gerês, where it was explained all the specific areas of Gerês as well as all biological species and different rocks.
How did the participation in this activity benefit the involved participants?
Participants benefited from a very comprehensive experience in the field of sport, well-being and health. In fact ,experimenting mindfulness practices, as a strategy to manage stress in everyday life, exploring and performing simple traditional games, which are suitable for family time and nature, learning about the techniques of vitamin improvement in food processing, finding out about writing and painting strategies aiming relaxation, allowed them to realize they have a wide range of activities to choose from, as a means of managing their well-being, whether in their school or family life.
During mobility C3 students were taught how to practice mindfulness and encouraged to do it. They were invited to listen to a song and read its lyrics as a mindful moment. After that they made two groups and danced with the orientation of a Physical Education Teacher, who is an expert in mindful activities. Students had the opportunity to learn some strategies for relaxing, making specific noises and movements. They also learned how to paint Mandalas, as a relaxing technic, and created a colourful panel.
The objectives of these activities:
improving a sense of well-being
learning how to focus your attention
being more able to observe one’s own thoughts, emotions and physical sensations
understanding the causes of the stress and learning how to be able to manage, stress, anxiety and low mood
benefitting from informal mindfulness practices like mindful colouring, walking and listening
One of the objectives of the project was spreading awareness about the impact of the proper diet on people’s health. In order to learn more about research, during mobility C3, hosted by Agrupamento de Escolas de Amares in Portugal, students visited INL (,) a highly considered laboratory all over Europe because of its goal in the research and technology activities specially focused on six clusters: Health, Food, Energy, Environment, ICT and Future Emerging Technologies, which complement each other, and provide a base for interdisciplinary interactions among researchers. The full-fledged nanotechnology laboratory enables leading research of the highest international standard. The more exploited cluster was the food one and it was explained to students how to increase and protect vitamins and minerals in comestibles. Therefore, students could see how nanotechnology can help in creating Nano capsules to preserve vitamins to be integrated in aliments/ food/ people’s diet.
During the mobility C3, hosted by Agrupamento de Escolas de Amares in Portugal,as a reflexive activity, in order to develop their creativity and communication in the language of the project, the students created Haikus, that is, small poems, based on a Japanese technique, related to well-being and nature, creating thematic posters using the web tool 2.0 „Canva”. These posters were printed and exhibited in the school by the end of the activity.
The objectives of the activity:
improving language skills. The process of writing poetry can build vocabulary. …
Not only did students benefit from the project, the teachers did either. We learned a lot since for some time we had to quit all the traditional methods and learn how to deal with the virtual reality. We managed to do it and, moreover, we decided to share our finding with other teachers. Gathering all our findings, observations and experiences gained during virtual meetings we decided to develop our own guide over tried-out solutions and IC tools which were applied for different activities. It is not a ICT guide sensu stricte. Some tips for using tools are included, but it is supposed to inspire rather than be a manual.
The objectives of publishing this guide:
encouraging the wide spread of ideas
sharing good practices
disseminating information about some tools to the community
encouraging virtual collaboration
disseminating results produced throughout the duration of the project
extending the frontiers of creativity and imagination
inspiring those who want to organize virtual or blended mobilities but don’t know how to start it.
Finally, after two years we could meet again. The schedule of short terms exchanges of groups of pupils was turned upside down though, because we restarted the project from the last planned mobility C8 in Alquerias. Apart from that, everything went according to the plan. The superior topic of the mobility was food and influence of a right diet on our functioning, our lifestyle and achieving life goals. The activities which the students took part in involved:
presentations of the schools
introduction games
cooking workshops
sports routine
visit to a local manufacturer of citrus fruits
studying healthy dietary habits and making presentations about common diets
a visit to open-air marches and talking about food typical in the area
creating a Kahoot game
Apart from the activities planned in the frame of the project’s objectives the students visited also the most famous places in the area to learn about Spanish culture and history and their paid a visit in the town mayor office. They did enjoy their stay in Murcia and Alquerias.
Learning the basic yoga rules in two hours’ time seems impossible and it is impossible as it usually takes years. However, it is good to try, understand what it is about and find out what benefits of yoga are:
better flexibility
gaining peace of mind
building strength of muscles
improving one’s posture
preventing spine diseases
increasing heart rate and blood flow
helping you to concentrate and focus your attention
improving consciousness
The students, taking part in a short mobility in Alquerias in Spain took part in yoga workshops during which they learned some simplified yoga poses for beginners and they were encouraged how and why they can do it on their own.
