STEMI ROUTE

The project with the our working name STEMI ROUTE within the Learning from extrems project brought to our school something completely different and new for our students.

For the first time, our students had the opportunity to take in their hands the materials from which they assembled the hexapods. The project was implemented according to the stages of implementation, more precisely according to the implementation time plan from the very beginning to today. 

First, we conducted a survey of students who wanted to join the project. After the collected data and interested students who signed up to the online application by filling out the survey, the first introduction begin for the Learning from the extremes project. The first meeting with the students was held in school during which the students were introduced to the way of working in the project, the activities expected of them, and during the first meeting it was agreed that a small part of the activity hours will be carried at school when they are free from classes and the other part online from home via the Teams platform. As the desired number of hexapods for students was ordered in the project application itself. We identified issues that we need to made in future and dead line by calendar of our outside leader from the Carnet, also we identified possible barriers like lack of internet when we were planing to learn online and have communication so we have some strategies to over come that problems in the way that we h always have earlier online meet in calendar (7 days before the dead line so everybody have enought time to finish job). 

The order was awaited due to compliance with the order rules and the central method of payment that schools have through the payment system in Croatia. When the materials arrived to the school the students finally breathed a sigh of relief. When it arrived, we opened everything together in the cabinet, and there was a mutual agreement between the students who would work in pairs and who would work independently on connecting the hexapods. A whatss app group was also created for communication and help.

Before the merger itself, there was an education that I, as a teacher, listened to online by experts from team of Learning from extrems and Stemi. Employee from Stemi who explained everything to me as a teacher and answered on all my questions in such a way that it was much clearer to me as a technical layman what and how to do in order for that little hexapod to work as it should. The recording was distributed to the students before the spring holidays, and the students took the materials home with them. During the holidays, we had two online meetings through the Teams platform in which the students showed what they had done, how far they had come, how they were doing and how long they still needed to finish. In the meantime, they sent me messages, videos through the whats ap group for help, and if someone didn't know how to solve the problem, we speak together try to find solution. If we don’t know to handle with problem I ask employee from Stemi, who would promptly answer the student's question. I didn´t have nobody in school to ask some information in beginning of project, nobody didn´t want to participate and this barrier changed through the project while he was going on so today I have one colleague that is interested in all this and she wants to implement next school year with new generation in our school. 

The students' task was to take small snapshots of their work and photos of what they did, and I placed them in a presentation for the CUC 2023 conference: Era of Digital Maturity. The education went online few times because we are from a rural area and our students have one bus with which they come and go from school, so in the afternoon if they wanted to, they could not come to school if they wanted to do activities related to connecting and programming hexapods at school. The method of monitoring the students live and online gave results because everyone connected the hexapods and after that the programming had to be done via mobile phone.

The same procedure was applied as in the first step, first the online education of me as a teacher, after that a recording for the students that they watch and follow the steps of what to do in order to successfully complete the task to the end according to the activity plan. So far, most of the students have shown their dexterity and the ability to solve tasks, and some of them need additional help.

The final part of our activities through this project is planned to be realized these days, more precisely next week, when we have the county meeting of student cooperatives in our town, where at our small stand, students will show in public what they did and how their hexapods work to elementary school children with the main goal to get them interested in the field of robotics.

This project helped to me as a teacher to involve pedagogical innovation creating a more effective learning experience for my students and it help them to develop skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the 21st century. We adopted new and innovative methods and practice in everyday education. Even it is small group of students involved in this project together we move some barriers like limited training and development opportunities, resistance of change, limited resources (LFE give money to buy heksapods), lack of institutional support we change in small but strong steps and finnally we change resistance from students. The strategy was simple:

•  create vision of final product in eye of students - real functional heksapod, 
• encourage student with collaboration in school and out between different classes and directions of education sharing knowledge researching 
• embrace new technology without fear
• prioritize development 
• start with small steps who will lead to bigger one.

The project was integrated into the school's innovation plan by being integrated into the school curriculum where one part of the education and project activities of the project took place during regular classes and the other part online. With the condition that these are high school students who have learned hybrid classes, the implementation of the project did not have any major difficulties. As already defined in the project application itself, the goals of the project are the application of innovative technology related to robotics and artificial intelligence, the reduction of inequality of access to digital devices, tools and content, the improvement of the economic and social status of students, the development of students' technological and presentation skills, and the strengthening of students' competitiveness on the labor market. The strategy for the development of student competencies of vocational schools, in this case the direction of economists and electrical technicians, was realized indirectly and in different subjects that they attend through regular classes.

The STEMI ROUTE project contains innovations that are key to the continuous improvement of education, that is, the development of skills based on competencies and learning outcomes. Innovations in vocational education and training are very important because this is the only way to increase the value of the educational process nowadays. The possibility of active implementation and participation in this project through the application of innovations in this case of creating a hexapod result in:

• improvement of vocational education for our students
• improving resources regarding the acquisition of new equipment, in this case a hexapod for our school
• improvement of learning and teaching methods - active learning and teaching and project teaching
• professional training of teachers
• supporting equality and excellence in rural schools
• supporting our school as a community and educational space i
• establishing partnerships with stakeholders in the community.

Through all the above-mentioned activities that we carry out through the Learning from the extremes project working name STEMI ROUTE for the Secondary school Ivan Meštrović Drniš, all the goals of project, which has been accepted by the European Commission, are realized in the true sense of the word, namely:

• the possibility of applying innovative technology related to robotics and artificial intelligence,
• reduced inequality of access to digital devices, tools and contents,
• improvement of students' economic and social status, development of students' technological and presentation skills and
• strengthening the competitiveness of students on the labor market.

The impact of the project on students is great. The plan is to profile a couple of students from the group of 2nd and 3rd graders who will transfer the acquired knowledge to younger students in the next school year. When the hexapods are connected and programmed, the plan is to take them apart again and let a new generation of students put them together and thus pass the first engineering steps of connecting the robot and programming.

In fact, we have a vision and this is the beginning of something wonderful, that's why we called it STEMI ROUTE because we believe that our adventure ride will continue and will not stop with the activities that have been started and financed from this current project. Now we are working to include the international company Alu-flex pack 4 generation factory which has a production facility in Drniš, in our activities. According to the first talks, the representative of the company expressed a great willingness to cooperate and donate funds for the promotion of robotics and artificial intelligence. As they themselves said, they want students from our school in their company, but those who will know the basics in that area and be able to work for them in the production facilities they have in Drniš.

In order to promote the project, news was published on the school's web portal and the EU Parliament school's Facebook page. The news are also published in the web portal for all county Šibenik in and in the local tv station Šibenik and on local radio Drniš where student in radio emission speak about the project.  After that, an article was published on the portal www.srednja.hr, and at the CARNet conference in Rovinj CUC 2023: Era of Digital Maturity April 25-28, 2023, the project Learning from the extremes was presented on behalf of the Secondary school Ivan Meštrović Drniš working name STEMI ROUTE together with representatives of eight other schools from Croatia, which is financed by the funds of the European Commission PPPA Program number No.LC.-01760255/10105266 Lfe. 

With this project, we did the four steps that were plan of project: feel, imagine, create and share. With the arrival of the material parts of robots the students felt that they are part of something new, seeing the parts, they began to start imagine that they will be engineers who will create something functional, creating it that happened and they shared their joy of new knowledge and acquired skills with others in the school and the community and will continue to share with younger students who will come in school next year.