The European Chain Reaction

Project Location

Country: 
Italy
City: 
Belgium

Organization

Organization Name: 
Qworzó, primary school in Merksplas - Belgium
Organization Type: 
School
Specify: 
Nothing, this project is totally free! It runs on teachers enthusiasm!

Website

http://www.ecr2015.blogspot.com / http://www.ecr2014.blogspot.com / http://www.ecr2013.blogspot.com / http://www.ecr2012.blogspot.com / http://www.theeuropeanchainreaction.blogspot.com

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Project Type

Education up to 15 years

Project Description

Description Frase (max. 500 characters): 

In the arty science project The European Chain Reaction primary schools all over Europe work, compete and cooperate at the same time building ONE BIG CROSSBORDER EUROPEAN Rube Goldberg machine.

Project Summary (max. 2000 characters): 

In 2010 my pupils were absolutely thrilled about participating in their first eTwinning project! They absolutely wanted to create an eTwinning project on their own. In the same period they had to execute a science task the children loved very much. Mixing them up was easy and an exciting new arty science project was born!
In The European Chain reaction primary schools all over Europe try to create, film and upload an as astonishing as possible Rube-Goldberg machine to a common blog. When all national chain reactions are online the children may judge the entries of the other schools and a final country-ranking will be published to the blog.
Apart from the competition this project is a European (international) cooperation at the same time. All chains from all the different countries will be combined into ONE BIG EUROPEAN CHAIN REACTION so this is a true joint piece of work. You can have a look at the European Chain Reaction newsflash 2015 here: https://vimeo.com/118343746
Our school is the organizing country. We search for more schools to join the project, send information to all participating schools and help all teachers who could use some advice. We make no profit from this project. The only thing we want to gain is the childrens’ interest in science.

How long has your project been running?

2010-08-30 22:00:00

Objectives and Innovative Aspects

In The European Chain Reaction primary school children are challenged to build the best rube-goldberg-machine. In this arty STEM-project children's CREATIVITY is put to the test. Problems that WILL arise have to be tackled in the best possible way. Children have to think in steps: What is the problem? / How can we fix it? / We execute! / We evaluate! ... and we start this process over and over again until things work as originally planned. Children are obliged to COOPERATE within school because the chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Teachers who are in the project can achieve a lot of goals in a very short period of time! Of course there are the goals in science. Almost every goal in the Belgian science curriculum is integrated into this project! Children have to THINK CRITICAL about the technical process, examine why things don't work as they should, think about the character of the materials they will be using, ... At the end of the project children have to reflect on technology: how have children in other countries created this? Why does it work or how could it be even better? Besides the obvious science goals children learn a LOT about social skills. It is very easy to get mad at someone who didn't succeed at making a working piece of the chain, but children have to learn how to COMMUNICATE with each other in a crisis situation (when things don't work and the deadline is approaching). And of course they learn about ICT when recording the video, writing comments on the blog, watching the other chain reactions, ...

Results

Describe the results achieved by your project How do you measure (parameters) these. (max. 2000 characters): 
The children are always extremely excited about this project. This is a project they ABSOLUTELY LOVE and children learn most by doing things they love. And it is a real STEM-project in which all of the 21st century skills (collaboration, creating and innovation, ICT, communication, finding and evaluating information, problem solving, analytical thinking) are integrated. We motivate children to improve their skills on ALL areas, not only language and mathematics. Most important, children improve their CREATIVITY which isn't a subject in school, but should be integrated in each subject as much as possible! A teacher in Bulgaria told me a pupil in her class asked her parents not to buy her a tablet for Christmas, but to buy her materials so she could go and create a chain reaction. Some pupils from Iceland mailed their teacher little movies of chain reactions they made in the parents' bedroom. The results can be watched at the blogs mentioned above. Especially this entry in the first edition of this project is real eye-candy and a true example for all rube-goldberg-machines to come: https://vimeo.com/18713502 Our project attracts kindergartens too! This year a kindergarten from Germany won the ECR2015 competition with this fantastic entry: https://vimeo.com/117489474 In the 5 years that this project has been running we have never seen the same chain reaction twice so it proves children can be very creative in thinking about new ways of creating chains and the standards of the rube goldberg machines have risen to whole new levels so - we think - not only the children are learning but the teachers do too! BUT what motivated us most to continue this project is what school inspectors told us: Scotland: "The European Chain Reaction is the very best example of cross curricular work in International Education that we have witnessed in the four years that we have been touring schools, looking at International Educational projects!" SEE ATTACHMENT
How many users interact with your project monthly and what are the preferred forms of interaction? (max. 500 characters): 

In the beginning we only had 13 countries participating, but we attracted some more countries as we gained some more visibility while winning some awards: MEDEA-award 2011: Best European collaboration in the creation of educational medea / UK eTwinning award: cross-curricular integration of eTwinning / Lithuania Best eTwinning school / Belgium network-award / ...
This year 32 countries participated in the project but we aim at – one day – gathering all eTwinningPlus countries (41 countries). In all editions each year a couple of hundreds of children have participated.

Sustainability

What is the full duration of your project (from beginning to end)?: 
Less than 1 year
What is the approximate total budget for your project (in Euro)?: 
Less than 10.000 Euro
What is the source of funding for your project?: 
Other
Is your project economically self sufficient now?: 
No
Since when?: 
2015-04-29 22:00:00
When is it expected to become self-sufficient?: 
2010-08-30 22:00:00

Transferability

Has your project been replicated/adapted elsewhere?: 
Yes
Where? By whom?: 
A French school couldn’t participate anymore since we already have a French partner, so they asked us if they were allowed to copy our project and make an alternative edition. Of course we agreed as we are honored by the thought that other teachers see the beauty in our project too! And in Iceland some children have taken over their parents bedroom because they wanted to create a Rube Goldberg machine in it. Does this count as copying our project too? ☺
What lessons can others learn from your project? (max. 1500 characters): 

This is an excellent example of a STEM-project that is totally free of charge! No expensive robots have to be bought as children have lots of interesting materials at home and a camera for filming the chain is on all modern phones. Children absolutely adore this project too! First thing on Monday they ask their teacher is “When will be working again on our chain reaction?”

Are you available to help others to start or work on similar projects?: 
Yes

Background Information

Barriers and Solutions (max. 1000 characters): 
Most teachers communicate well and fast through mails. Sometimes however teachers promise to participate and – in the end – they don’t upload their chain. That’s a pitty
Future plans and wish list (max. 750 characters): 
This year was the 5th edition of the project and I had hoped to gather all eTwinningPlus countries in this years’ edition. Unfortunately 8 countries didn’t upload. Next year we keep aiming at building a REAL EUROPEAN chain as I want to have all eTwiningPlus countries participating in upcoming our sixth edition. Winning a Junior Challenge Award would surely help us find some more countries and it could be a fine opportunity for the participating teachers to meet-up in Rome and actually meet each other after cooperating for 5 years already in cyberspace…
STEM science rube reaction problem solving machine Innovation goldberg creation communication collaboration chain analytical thinking 21st century skills