A total of 53 projects were nominated for the Generation 3.0 awards, mostly from non-governmental organizations, but also from elementary, secondary or high schools. The professional jury made up of Advisory Council of the Generation 3.0 and external judges recommended 15 projects to be shortlisted. “During the selection, we took into consideration the focus of the projects, their opportunities of the further spread and innovation, in order to fulfill the goal of the Pontis Foundation – to appreciate those who shape the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for life in the 21st century,” explains Jana Kontúrová, a member of the Advisory Council of the program Generation 3.0.

Finalists

Organization: AJ Ty v IT (“You too in IT”)Project: AJ Ty v IT (“You too in IT”)

Civic association AJ Ty v IT responds to the low number of girls studying IT at universities (about 3% to 6% at various technical universities). The reason is the stereotypical perception of IT as a male sector or the perception of mathematics as a “difficult” subject. The Association organizes practical workshops focused on basic IT skills (basic programming in HTML, CSS, networking, server installation, algorithms, scratch, 3D modeling, etc.) at secondary schools. In addition to workshops, they also prepare an event during which girls can visit various IT companies (Girl’s Day), a programming competition (ScratchMatch), or a 4-month course Junior tester.

Organization: Archimedes

Project: Controlled Active Learning – a positive change for the future

Authors of the project formulated principles of controlled active learning based on their own experience (from the point of view of teachers, authors of textbooks and books about personal development, lecturers). Using this method, teachers are no longer those who „deliver knowledge“ and students are no longer only “silent sitting part” of the process. The project shows how to choose teaching methods in any subject in order to activate and develop students’ thinking, promote research, and enable to develop originality and creativity. All teachers actively apply these methods into practice to extent and intensity they recognize as appropriate. The aim is to inspire teachers to modification, based on their own decision and conviction.

Organization: Association for youth, science and technology

Project: How to win a science contest

Civic association AMAVET prepares pedagogues of science subjects to become lecturers for a creation of students’ pundit projects. Creation of such projects encourages curiosity and pleasure from discovery, activates young people and their own thinking and their ability to learn throughout whole life. By presenting their own pundit projects, pupils will improve their communication skills, idea structuring, arguments and discussion skills. AMAVET makes science subjects more playful and develops the individual creativity of primary school pupils.

Organization: C. S. Lewis Bilingual High School

Project:Program of character development and transformation of the C. S. Lewis Bilingual High School into inclusive community

C. S. Lewis Bilingual High School offers a pilot program of character education throughout the whole period of study. Character education consists of several modules that are organizationally independent, but they are still interconnected and mutually complementary. The main goal of the value education program is to ask the students (in various forms) questions about motivation (What does success mean?), identity (Who am I?), life mission (Why was I born?), faith (What do I believe in?), and the use of acquired skills and attitudes in the future (What will I do with all of these skills in the next 50 years?). Character education program is an integral part of the whole curriculum of the school. It is being achieved thanks to the pedagogical team, tutors and the principal. One of the aims of the program is also to find ways to spread it to other schools and educational organizations.

Organization and project: Center for the Physics Popularization, Grammar school of Viliam Pauliny-Tóth

The Center for the Physics Popularization is an integral part of the Grammar school of Viliam Pauliny-Toth  in Martin. It elucidates science to pupils, students and lay public by physical experiments using tools commonly available in households. It describes and explains physical phenomena of everyday life. The concept of physics popularization is based on a verified model that has been running in the Center for the Popularization of Physics since 2006. It takes place in the attractive, specially designed areas of the Astronomical Observatory of Milan Rastislav Štefánik at the Grammar school of Viliam Pauliny-Tóth in Martin.

Organization: Edulienka

Project: Edulienka – educational model

Civic association Edulienka offers educational model for homeschooling children. It is based on homegroups of 6-12 years old pupils. They apply approaches such as child-oriented education, respect and partnership approach, freedom and responsibility, and immediate feedback. Edulienka makes the education model accessible to people who are interested in setting up their own learning groups and helps them to successfully apply it. Support is provided by a team of experienced educators and co-workers. Edulienka is an alternative to a classical school. Fulfillment of the compulsory state education program is a part of its program.

Organization: EDUMA

Project: Online living library

The non-profit organization Eduma helps to form critical thinking in youth through personal and online storytelling. The online living library is an educational portal featuring authentic testimonies of socially excluded people. The project promotes solidarity towards disadvantaged people, shaping attitudes towards vulnerable and “non-lucrative” groups in society, such as refugees, homeless people and Gypsies. The program also provides methodological tutorials for teachers. Its specific aim is to deal with interdisciplinarity of subjects and cross-sectional education at primary and secondary schools, in order to develop youngsters‘ critical thinking associated with languages, humanities and science.

Organization: Grammar school 4 Študentská Street, Snina 

Project: MOBILIZATION – linking study with practice as a direct consequence of the mobilization of the internal forces and potential of students, teachers and employers of the Horný Zemplín region

Thanks to the MOBILIZATION project, students are learning simple management techniques and recognize the project management tools required by international standards. In the first phase, all students will learn basic information and methods of mobilizing their forces. Next meetings will take place after the class. The methodology is based on the principle of voluntarism, not obligation. The most ambitious students will be given the opportunity to take part in a 2-day workshop in an extracurricular environment. The result of their teamwork is the proposal and defense of school or community original projects. For successful defense and passing a test, they are awarded a certificate and then contacted with local institutions and companies. As a result, students gain experience and transform their ideas into reality. The project is designed for older pupils of elementary schools and secondary school students.

Organization: Civic association Divadlo oProti

Project: EDUdrama – Drama education in schools

The civic association Divadla oProti has been implementing educational projects aimed at using the methodology of drama education since 2003. These projects are equally theatrical as well as educational projects. The association seeks to awaken the ability of thinking, assessment, and taking responsibility for the actions, and develop the social and emotional intelligence of primary school pupils. Through fictitious situations, participants – spectators – have the opportunity to test the impact of their decisions in safe. The key mission of the EDUdrama initiative is to create a national platform for drama education.

Organization: Pomáhame druhým (“We help others”)

Project: Create & Control

The Create & Control project is a student initiative. The structure is created by two high school students, in cooperation with experts in the branch. The primary objective of the project is to focus on the disinformation of secondary school students in the internal and external policies of the state, the economic and political system. Secondary goals include improving argumentation, ability to compromise and teamwork.The project works on the principle of fictional countries. Students, as the government, learn during the international meetings and debates how the state works and what responsibilities it has. Every two months, students will have to deal with given political and economic issues. They will have to solve them in a way that the country has the greatest prosperity possible, but at the same time the solution is correct and applicable to the real world. At the end, the most successful “state”, based on ranking, will win a trip to Strasbourg.

Organization: Slovak Debate Association

Project: Development of a secondary school debate program

The common aim of the SDA is to support the critical thinking, openness and civic engagement of young people. It fulfills it through debates – an organized exchange of opinions in which the quality of arguments is crucial. The oldest and most elaborate activity of the organization is a secondary school debate program. It consists of regular meetings of discussion clubs, methodical help, and debating tournaments.

Organization: SOVA – Civic Association for Gifted Children

Project: ChemPlay – addition

The board form of ChemPlay is used in approximately 155 Slovak schools. The game encourages pupils’ interest in chemistry through understanding the root of the problem. Pupils appreciate playful form and teamwork. It is necessary to involve logical, combinatorial, analytical, and creative thinking. Children learn how to think in a new, active way, which can help them in studying other subjects as well. It completely eliminates a passive approach to learning. SOVA is planning to design an electronic application in addition to tabletop ChemPlay. As part of the testing at elementary and secondary schools, the table game in a form of competition has been also verified. Chemistry teachers have shown great interest in the new form of competition since there has not been any nation-wide competition other than chemical Olympics, which is very challenging.

Organization: civic associatiomThe Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Slovensko 

Project: The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award

The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award(“abbreviated DofE”) is a complex program aimed at the development that enables young people to develop their abilities, and in particular their character, their ambitions, inner motivation and motivation for long-term improvement. Participants choose activities that they want to perform at least 1 hour per week in four main areas – volunteering, sports, talent development, and adventure expeditions. Then they choose the length of the program – from 6 to 18 months. With the help of their program leader (a teacher who accompanies them through the program) or by themselves, they find the organization or association where they perform the activity together and set a specific measurable goal together. The National Office is looking for partner organizations that are interested in providing DofE program for their students or members, licenses the organizations, trains their volunteers, and organizes awards for program graduates.

Organization: Uni2010

Project: Rozbehnime naše školy (“Let’s start-up our schools“)

Uni2010 teaches young people how to start-up their own business. It prepares them for times when there is no job guaranteed and they have to learn how to create it themselves. At the secondary schools, they create a network of ambassadors (a teacher, a proactive student, a parent) who will introduce the program to the school management and get permission to project a short video in each home class. Students who are interested in participating in the project will receive a free “start-up cheat sheet” and access to the online course. Best students are invited to business startups and receive support to test their ideas.

Organization: Elementary school, Pribinova Street, Nováky

Project: Spomíname, nezabudneme (“We remember, we will not forget“)

The primary school responds to increasing intolerance and extremism among young people. In Nováky, there was the largest forced labor camp during World War II. Today, children do not perceive the horror of fascism and communism of that time anymore. As a part of the history classes, the school designed and wants to build a permanent exhibition that will teach pupils about local history through the work camp model and educational panels. There is a possibility of further spread to other schools and interconnect the project with other subjects such as ethics, religious education, civics or history.