The natural sciences are often regarded as difficult and far from relevant for our daily lives. They are isolated subjects to be studied individually, often connected to mathematical expressions that seem even more distant from real life experiences.

This project aims at involving students by applying the original concept of all natural sciences, which is observation and discovering dependencies and interactions of processes.

All participating schools have facilities for making astronomical observations either within school or in an established cooperation to observatories nearby. On the one hand we are going to use these resources and raise their relevance by joint observations and comparison of results. These results will obviously differ due to geographical location, but exactly this offers students a first very specific apprehension of the meaning of their endeavour. Then we are going to connect our findings to different cultural contexts like the concepts of the world, which were often based on astronomical observations; to scientific or technical applications like the designation of time or measurement of relative distances, which again originally used astronomical phenomena before GPS satellites took over.

Apart from the advanced equipment of telescopes or observatories we want to introduce an everyday tool to the advancement of science learning. Every smartphone has a camera and most of our students have a smartphone. Supported by an app we can use the smartphones for measuring levels of light and develop maps of nightly light pollution.

This project is based on individual and group observations and experiments which follow the lines of scientific research but cross the common distinction of classes and subjects at school. We are aiming at a development of new ways of teaching the sciences at school, partly within traditional curricula and partly by exploring additional or alternative ways of science teaching. This can involve modules within physics, biology or chemistry classes that are connected so they transcend the subjects, giving the methodology of individual observation and experiment a higher significance in all matters of science teaching, and by adding a focus to formerly distinct and isolated areas of expertise. This can also mean institutionalized co-operations within a school like seminary courses or practical courses based on equipment, methods and external contacts developed within this Erasmus project.

The concept of observation and comparison can also be applied outside the natural sciences. The social sciences often seem exacting and elitist when it comes to cultural and economic phenomena. Using the concept of “star” in a metaphorical way, students will investigate criteria that are used to assign a model character to certain people, to a “star”. By collecting and researching the image of current and historical ‘stars’ we hope to establish qualities of a leader and features that contribute to stardom in different cultures at different times. By doing so, we can find similarities and distinctions in one cultural phenomenon in different cultures. What seems very simple at the beginning can lead to a much heightened awareness for a precise methodology and cultural identity. Like in the natural sciences this means taking a closer look yourself and gaining insight by critical comparison of your and your partners’ findings. But like in the first part of the project we support individual research, connected thinking and cultural exchange, though on a more advanced level .

As this is an international project with participants of four different mother tongues, English is the natural medium of communication. This way, students experience a foreign language as a practical tool in daily life, they can gain linguistic self-confidence, which then leads to more extensive use of the language in electronic or direct exchange with fellow students for whom this is also a foreign language.