Equipping upper secondary education units, palaces and children's clubs with intelligent laboratories

• "BOGDAN VODĂ" THEORETICAL HIGHSCHOOL, HĂLĂUCEȘTI as beneficiary, announces the start of the implementation of the project "A SMART LABORATORY FOR HĂLĂUCEȘTI HIGH SCHOOL - A STEP TOWARDS 'EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES' FOR OUR STUDENTS", with the code F-PNRR-SmartLabs-2023-1503, component of the Program for equipping upper secondary education units, palaces and children's clubs with intelligent laboratories, managed by the Ministry of Education through the Planul Național de Redresare și Reziliență - Pilonul VI. Politici pentru Noua Generație, Componenta 15. Educație - Reforma 5. Adoptarea cadrului legislativ pentru digitalizarea educației - Investiția 9. Asigurarea echipamentelor și a resurselor tehnologice digitale pentru unitățile de invățămant.
  The project has a value (including VAT) of 351,210.00 lei and will be fully financed by a grant from the European Union - Next Generation EU.

• Duration: DECEMBER 2023 - JANUARY 2025

• The overall aim of the project is to ensure equal opportunities for our highschool students through free access to advanced digital education, by setting up a smart laboratory, to improve the advanced digital skills of the young generation still in school.

• The aim of the project is to ensure a quality, modern and inclusive educational process for the students of "Bogdan Voda" Theoretical Highschool in Hălăucești by equipping it with "smart lab" ICT equipment and specific educational materials for the development of an intelligent digital laboratory. This laboratory will be used for all subjects of study and represents a modern concept of virtual learning that can be adapted for all specialisations. It will also be used in international projects that allow interaction and exchange of experience for our students and teachers with students and teachers from the European Union and around the world. The two teacher training sessions, each lasting a minimum of 24 hours, will train teachers in the use of the smart lab and its integration into the educational process.

• Main objectives
  1. To create a high quality and high performance ecosystem within the institution by providing a smart laboratory educational infrastructure containing technology and collaborative furniture through which we aim to create, develop and implement a complex STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) classroom to provide experiential learning opportunities so that students, under the guidance of teachers in all curricular areas, become independent users who can acquire advanced digital skills to embrace the opportunities offered by new technologies and the jobs of the future.
  
  2. To develop students' digital skills by providing free access to advanced digital infrastructure and advanced learning methods to all our students to constantly improve their digital skills.
  
  3. Improving the digital skills of teachers by providing a comprehensive training programme for the teachers of the institution, which aims at using the acquired digital equipment as well as applying new methods of digital pedagogy, which also integrate digital skills such as project based learning or blended learning.

• Project objectives:
  "Bogdan Vodă" Theoretical Highschool will be equipped with "smart lab" ICT equipment and specific educational materials for the development of a smart digital laboratory. This laboratory will be able to be used in all subjects of study and represents a modern concept of virtual learning, with the possibility of being adapted to the profile of any highschool. The establishment of an intelligent laboratory within the highschool which will serve the following school subjects:
  - for the real profile - natural sciences: biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science;
  - for the human profile - philology: Romanian language, foreign languages (English, French, Latin), history, geography, philosophy, logic, sociology, etc., from the common core, but also optional subjects such as financial education, critical thinking, career guidance, legal education, health education, circular economy, etc.
  Training of 45 teachers in the use of the smart lab;
  More than 184 pupils/year that will have access to personalised learning methods in the Smart Lab;
  Improvement of digital skills for min 184 pupils / year through access to advanced digital education.

• Target group

• 
  1. Direct beneficiaries
  a. 184 pupils, who will have access to a complex SIAM-type classroom, offering them learning opportunities in line with labour market needs,
  b. More than 63 pupils with special learning needs, from vulnerable groups, economically disadvantaged, parents abroad, orphans, etc.
  c. A number of 45 teachers, who will benefit from modern equipment to carry out the educational process, being trained in the use of an intelligent laboratory, using an integrated learning concept.

• 
  2. Indirect beneficiaries
  a. The local community
  b. Local economic environment
  c. Students' families
  d. Primary and secondary school students of our institution.

• Benefits

• This smart lab is specially designed for our high school, which is a theoretical one (one of the few in rural area in Romania, in Iași county there are only 2), with a human and real profile, in accordance with the level of interest and skills of our students. It is thought specifically for the needs and educational necessities of the final beneficiaries, our students and teachers, but also with the framework plan, the curriculum for natural sciences and philology, as can be seen from the endowments that have been opted for. The laboratory is structured in 5 "spaces" to work in teams, to encourage collaboration, debate, critical and argumentative thinking, etc. and to offer an alternative to the way of organising a traditional classroom.

• The existence of this laboratory would attract even more students from neighbouring localities, who cannot afford to continue their studies elsewhere, and would give everyone the opportunity to have access to a quality education, modern and connected to the realities of today's society, to its demands and would provide equal opportunities, which unfortunately often remains only a wish and not a reality.

• The use of integrated educational platforms and software in the smart lab will give teachers and students the opportunity to connect to educational realities around the world, to benefit from examples of good practice, modern, stimulating, attractive, effective teaching methods and approaches, leading to the development of our students' competences. The use of the equipment selected for this laboratory, such as the laptop, the video camera, plus all those related to the common core, will give students and teachers the opportunity to put into practice many theoretical aspects of the curriculum and to carry out experiments and projects with a high degree of practical applicability and connected to the realities of today's society. This modern approach (specific to such an intelligent laboratory), which will be applied in a space designed in a different way from the traditional classroom, with modern, integrated and specific educational equipment, will lead to the harmonious development of pupils and to increased school performance.