Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Applied Sciences related to Nautical Sciences and Marine Engineering

Transcription

1 Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Applied Sciences related to Nautical Sciences and Marine Engineering Co-ordinator ordinator International Relations Education Unit Exact Sciences and Computer Sciences Education Unit Applied Sciences Good afternoon and welcome to this presentation. I d like to give you some details about our Erasmus project regarding the teaching of natural sciences, mathematics and applied sciences at maritime academies.

2 How it all started First let s see where the idea for the project came from.

3 EuRopean community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students HZS Co-ordinator International Relations Promoting student exchanges Promoting teaching staff exchanges Some time ago LiesbethDe Bruynejoined the Antwerp Maritime Academy staff as our new co-ordinator for International Relations. She proved very enthusiastic in trying to promote both student and teacher exchanges between our academy and Erasmus partners, the Latvian Maritime Academy of Riga being one of them.

4 Erasmus and (Applied) Sciences q(x). x? D M D + D o M + M x O x 0 m V 0 x As a result, both within the education unit of exact sciences, mathematics and computer sciences and the education unit of applied sciences, people started reflecting on Erasmus teaching staff exchanges.

5 Erasmus and (Applied) Sciences? what could be the added value of teaching staff exchanges in the (applied) sciences? the answer is not as obvious as for maritime courses where specialised equipment such as simulators is involved For teaching staff members at a personal level it was felt that it would definitely be interesting to broaden one s horizon. But the question we asked ourselves was what would be the added value for the students and for the maritime academies in general? Since obviously no specialised equipment such as simulators is involved, the answer is not as straight forward as it is for colleagues of maritime education departments.

6 Natural sciences (physics, chemistry), mathematics and applied sciences (strength of materials) to provide students with a solid background allowing them to study specialized courses to provide students with useful knowledge and aptitudes for their future careers in general students find these courses rather hard to study students often find it hard to see the asset of these general courses It became evident that we had to look at the issue from a different angle. As teachers of sciences and applied sciences one of our major concerns is the tremendous difference between ourperception of the topics we teach and that of the student s. We try our best to provide students in nautical sciences and marine engineering with a solid background. A background which allows them to study specialized courses related to their future profession in an efficient way. At the same time we also hope toprovide them with knowledge and aptitudes which will prove extremely useful both during their careers at sea and, in the future, ashore, as the case may be. Unfortunately students often find it hard to see the practical use of these general courses. Moreover a considerable number of students are not particularly talented in sciences or suffer from a lack of prior scientific education, which means that they find these courses rather hard to study.

7 Improving student motivation include more examples and exercises closely related to daily maritime life shift from a course-based approach to case studies based on scientific issues The question is what can be done about this? Inserting more examples and exercises closely related to daily maritime life is undoubtedly a vital instrument in trying to motivate students. In the long run, we might even consider shifting from a course-based approach to case studies. Let me explain this by way of an example. We mightfor instance confront the students with a number of practical problems involving scientific issues on board of a specific type of ship. In this way it would most certainly become obvious to them that they lacked the necessary skills to solve these problems. The idea would be to subsequently teach them the necessary mathematics, physics, chemistry etc. and after a sufficient training period, allowing them to conclude for themselves that by then they would be able to solve such problems.

8 Enter Erasmus again! do science teachers at other maritime academies encounter similar problems? if so, what is their opinion regarding potential solutions? why not create a win-win situation by sharing experiences and solutions with European colleagues? Let s return to Erasmus exchanges. We asked ourselves whether colleagues at other maritime academies were facing similar challenges. If this turned out to be the case, it would be very interesting to learn about the ways in which they approached the problem. In the long term, all parties involved would undoubtedly benefitfrom sharing experiences and solutions.

9 Launching an Erasmus project Step 1: conduct preliminary survey Step 2 : involve interested colleagues Step 3 : conduct large scale survey Step 4 : organise a conference Step 5 : promote continued collaboration All our reflections finally lead to the conclusion that it wouldbe worthwhile to try and launch an Erasmus project based on these ideas. In our opinion five steps have to be taken: Step 1: conducting a preliminary survey Step 2 : involving interested colleagues Step 3 : conducting a large scale survey Step 4 : organising a workshop Step 5 : promoting continued collaboration I will now discuss each of these steps in more detail.

10 Launching an Erasmus project Step 1: conduct a preliminary survey to gauge (applied) sciences teaching staff s s interest in the project HZS co-ordinator ordinator of International Relations mails the project description to contacts at other European maritime academies this results in numerous enthusiastic reactions! We thought it wise to start by conducting a survey to check whether or not colleagues in other European Maritime Academies were indeed confronted by similar problems and whether they shared our enthusiasm to work together to solve them. So we wrote a brief description of the project we had in mind and our co-ordinator of International Relations Liesbeth mailed this to her contacts at other European maritime academies. We were pleased to receive lots of enthusiastic reactions. I am sure Liesbethwill be happy to fill you in on the details.

11 Launching an Erasmus project Step 2 : depending on the results of the previous step, encourage interested colleagues at other maritime academies to become involved in the project visit of HZS co-ordinator ordinator for International Relations and a teaching staff member to Santander Maritime Academy (Spain) The next step then was to establish contact with colleagues who had responded positively to our project proposal and to encourage them to get actively involved in the actual launching of the project. So we started by paying a visit to Santander Maritime Academy in Spain. If you like, we can show you a review of this most interesting visit after this presentation.

12 Launching an Erasmus project Step 3 : conduct a large scale survey to gauge (applied) sciences teaching staff s s interest in the project create a European network related to the project issue invitations to European colleagues inviting them to join the network involve students in the project (bachelor term paper / master thesis) The next step to be taken is to establish an information networkavailable to teaching staff in sciences and applied sciences at maritime academies all over Europe. Weare also trying to involve students in the project in the context of their Bachelor term paper or Master dissertation.

13 Launching an Erasmus project Step 4 : organise a conference to exchange points of view with colleagues from European Maritime Academies preliminary work : on board training of HZS (applied) sciences teachers, exploring opportunities for a case study based approach to scientific topics in maritime education involve students in organising the workshop (bachelor term paper / master thesis) Once the network starts to develop we plan to bring teaching staff together at a conference during which experiences and points of view can be exchanged. Here again, the plan is to involve students in organizing the workshop, in the context of their Bachelor term paper or Master dissertation. In the mean time we are trying to explore opportunities for a case study based approach of scientific topics in maritime education, by means of on board training of HZS (applied) sciences teachers.

14 Launching an Erasmus project Step 5 : promote continued collaboration and development of shared course material and teaching methods start up phase: networking and a conference final aim: to establish a more permanent collaboration between (applied) sciences teaching staff members of European maritime academies, leading to the development of shared course material and teaching methods In our minds the networking and the conference should merely be considered as a start up phase. The final aim should be to establish a more permanent collaboration between (applied) sciences teaching staff members of maritime academies throughout Europe, leading to the development of shared course material and teaching methods.

15 Any questions? Thank you for your attention. If you have any questions, please go ahead. It will be my pleasure to try and answer them.