Binational teams of pupils from two technical grammar schools in the Czech Republic and Germany have developed vehicles and transport units by using CAD and CNC programmes and changed their everyday school life with their project work. This two-year cooperation was funded by the EU in its capacity as a bilateral COMENIUS school partnership.
The mechatronics pupils worked together for two years in binational teams to create a model of a remote controlled transport and loading unit, a device for loading and unloading lorries and railway carriages. The project started in 2009 with 24 pupils from the eleventh grade and was concluded in the summer of 2011 with a presentation.
Two vocational grammar schools in Lutin (Czech Republic) and Wetzlar (Hesse, Germany) were involved in the project. The work on the project was integrated into regular classes and has become a model for other courses of education at the school.
The teachers and pupils from Germany and the Czech Republic worked together, from planning the project up to implementing it, on an equal footing. The joint two-week working periods taking place in turn at both schools were augmented by sportive and cultural activities.
The pupils were highly motivated, due to the degree of autonomy they were accorded and because of the targeted manner of work, and displayed an impressive performance. The joint experiences helped to create a trusting relationship and openness for other cultures and languages.
The positive experiences made during this COMENIUS project continue to have an effect well after its conclusion. Of those pupils involved, who now sit their university entrance qualification examinations, a disproportionately large number is confident to sit their exams with an "outstanding degree of learning efficiency". In the meantime, project work as a method is taken seriously also in other courses of education at the Werner-von-Siemens Schule.
Moreover, further COMENIUS projects were initiated. In Hesse, the Werner-von-Siemens-Schule managed to introduce its long-standing experience with European cooperation projects into the curriculum commission: Project work was institutionalised for the faculty of mechatronics at vocational grammar schools in twelfth grade.