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Nominees 2018: See the final twenty contestants of the International LUMA StarT Awards!

The LUMA Centre Finland is proud to share the nominees for the best educational practices and the best projects carried out in learning communities across the world in 2017‒2018. The videos of these twenty nominees introduce educational practices worth noting and suggest inspiring ideas for carrying out project-based learning in schools and kindergartens. Have a look and let the videos of the top contestants of StarT inspire you! 

We are proud to announce that the StarT jury has chosen the nominees for the International LUMA StarT Awards 2018 as follows:

 

The International LUMA StarT Education Award Nominees 2018 (best practice nominees):

  1. Preschool group Puuhiset Satulaiva, Kirsi Rehunen, Finland
  2. Innovation for Creativity Development Association, Suraaya Ayyad, Jordan
  3. Junior Karasin University; ”Club 2×2″ from Children and Youth Center for Creative Activities, Halyna Hodovana, Ukraine
  4. Kulosaaren Yhteiskoulu (Kulosaari Secondary School), Hanna Huhtakallio, Finland
  5. Team Chimera, Richard Spencer, the United Kingdom
  6. MEF Middle School, Simge Sohtorik, Turkey
  7. MTA-SZTE Science Education Research Group and Arany János Primary School Szeged, Erzsébet Korom, Hungary
  8. S.O.S Project Schools, Nilgün Erentay, Turkey
  9. 1B NMS Stromstraße, Katharina Rettenmoser, Austria
  10. Ylämyllyn koulu (Ylämylly school), Pekka Tarva, Finland

The International LUMA StarT Award Nominees 2018 (project nominees):

  1. “EcoChange”, Agrupamento de escolas de Alcanena (Bárbara Correia, Catarina Naia, Guilherme Santos, José Coutinho and Maria Farinha), Portugal
  2. “Grab group versus shovel group”, Automatic parking robot plan (Xu Mohan, Zhang Shuqin, Han Xinxue, Wang Jieting), China
  3. “UV Alarm”, Clube Ciência Viva ESDMII Braga (Francisco Toldy, Filipe Santos, Raquel Moreira), Portugal
  4. “The Galaxy”, Curious Astronauts (Sabahat Demir, Nergiz Demir, Irmak Acar, Şiyar Atak, Cihan Güngör, Oktay Demir, İsmail Atan), Turkey
  5. “Oma peli ohjelmoimalla (pragramming your own game)”, Jyväskylän normaalikoulun alakoulu  (Primary school of the Jyväskylä teacher training school) (Class 3C), Finland
  6. “Tom Yam Kung Project”, National science and technology development agency (Kindergarten school of Thammasat University), Thailand
  7. “Baret_Care”, Turkey
  8. “Hyppy kivikauden elämään: Talvi” (Jump into the life at the Stone Age: Winter), Day Care Center Piilometsä, Finland
  9. “Lemna grinder”, WASTE BUSTERS (Zeynep Sude Çetin, Bora Özkan, Zeynep Eyüpoğlu, Berfin Elçin, Kerim Berber, Umay Eskialp, Melike Damla Özdemir, Aslıhan Eşkin, Gizem İdil Tunçbilek, Bilgesu Gökçenur), Turkey
  10. “#biopolku” (#biopath”), Äänekosken lukio (Äänekoski Upper Secondary School) (Elina Aaltonen, Arttu Hytönen, Liisa Pulli, Linda Savolainen, Santtu Sällinen, Sofia Turunen), Finland

The nominee videos convey exemplary educational practices that take use of an interdisciplinary approach, and promote collaborative learning and active learning in general. By watching the videos everyone can benefit from the pedagogical innovations formulated across the world, and make use of the exciting ideas and quintessential methods for carrying out project-based learning.

We want to congratulate all the groups that have been chosen as the nominees for the International LUMA StarT Awards 2018, and thank everyone else for their contribution to StarT! It was incredibly difficult for the StarT jury to make the decision of the nominees of all the impressive videos you submitted. Hopefully you all have had a great and inspiring time both doing your own projects and watching the videos of the other groups!

 

The final winners will be announced at the International LUMA StarT Gala

 

Next, the international honorary StarT jury will make the difficult decision as to which of the twenty nominees will be awarded with the grand prizes of StarT. There will be altogether three projects winning the International LUMA StarT Award and three best educational practices winning the International LUMA StarT Education Award. These six winning groups will be awarded with the trip to Finland to receive their awards at the International StarT Gala 2018. As such, please note that even though being named as a nominee is a remarkable achievement and genuinely something to be proud of, it does not mean that the group has won the grand prize (the International LUMA StarT Award or Education Award).

 

We welcome everyone to participate the gala at their own cost! However, attending the gala itself is free. If you cannot make it to the gala, remember to watch the livestream of it to find out the final winners! Read more about the gala and find a link to the livestreaming later here.

 

“Waste busters” and “StarT Day in S.O.S Project Schools” are the public’s favourites!

The international public voting has now ended and we are proud to announce that the public’s favourites are…

 

  • The project team “Waste Busters” from Kocaeli, Turkey with their exciting project “Lemna grinder”! Congratulations to the students Zeynep Sude Çetin, Bora Özkan, Zeynep Eyüpoğlu, Berfin Elçin, Kerim Berber, Umay Eskialp, Melike Damla Özdemir, Aslıhan Eşkin, Gizem İdil Tunçbilek and Bilgesu Gökçenur! See their video below:

  • The best practice “StarT Day in S.O.S. Project Schools” from Istanbul, Turkey! Congratulations to S.O.S. Project Schools for their amazing collaboration! See their video below:

“Waste busters” are a group of upper secondary school students from Kocaeli, Turkey who wanted to do something about the pollution of wetlands. In their brilliant video you can see the students taking advantage of the aquatic plant Lemna minor and its’ capability to act as a bioremediator that removes heavy metals from the water. The students collaborated with each to create an innovative water purifier from trash cans, net and solar panels. During the course of their project, the students learnt about water pollution, heavy metals and they also conducted experiments to decide which energy source and which plant would be the best option for the water purifier. Amazing work!

“S.O.S. Project Schools” is an impressive voluntarily coordinated project in Turkey that has truly shown the power of collaboration: they have successfully activated 74 project teams across Turkey to create projects around the theme of endangered species and wetlands! The S.O.S. Project Schools had a common theme, endangered species and wetlands, and they activated learning communities around Turkey to work around the theme by different means. For example, participating schools had sister schools which allowed the students to exchange and discuss the results and ideas they got from their projects. The project teams collaborated also with local municipalities, associations and universities. The project groups across Turkey then created their projects which included for example drama, exhibitions, interviews, scientific designs, experimental projects, posters, art… All of these creations were then presented at the StarT Days, which was organized in each of the S.O.S Project Schools. Congratulations to S.O.S Project Schools on your inspiring work!

Also the rest of the videos gained an admirable number of views and likes, and we at StarT are really happy to see that the public voting is serving its’ purpose: sharing the discoveries and innovations created by both young people and passionate educators around the world! Hopefully the videos have helped you by offering plenty of ideas and inspiration for carrying out project-based learning in your own learning communities!

Once more, a big thank you for everyone for sharing your great pedagogical innovations and wonderful projects with us and the rest of the world!

 

The winners of the LUMA StarT Awards will be published in the International LUMA StarT Gala

Next step in the StarT 2017–2018 is the announcement of the twenty nominees that continue on to compete for the main prizes of StarT. The StarT jury consisting of several people is now busy making their decision on the nominees, and they’ll consider your votes when making this decision. On the 16th of April 2018, we will announce the 10 best project nominees and 10 best educational practice nominees. From these 20 nominees, the honorary StarT jury will make the final decision as to who will receive the awards of the international StarT 2017–2018.

As such, please note that even though being named as the public’s favourite or a nominee is an incredible achievement and truly something to be proud of, it does not mean that the group has won the grand prize (the International LUMA StarT Award or Education Award). The International LUMA StarT Award will be given to three project teams and the International LUMA StarT Education Award for three best practices, and these six groups are the ones that will be winning the trip to Finland to receive their awards in the International LUMA StarT Gala.

The International LUMA StarT Gala is on the 5th of June 2018 in Tampere, Finland. The gala is free of charge and everyone is welcome to participate in it. Unfortunately, we can only cover the travel costs of the six  teams receiving the International LUMA StarT Awards, but everyone can watch it livestream via the internet . Read more about the gala and find the links to watch it here (the link to the livestream of the gala will be added later). Also, remember to register as a learning community to the StarT 2018-2019 from May onwards! By registering you will receive additional information and support for carrying out StarT projects in your learning community, and the registration does not bind you to anything.