ASEF ClassNet Awards

The ASEF ClassNet Awards encourage and reward innovative, effective and sustainable School Collaborations. In total, there are 6 Awards that fall under two categories:

• Gold Awards
• Merit Awards

Presented at the ASEF ClassNet Conference, the Gold and Merit Award winners each receive a cash prize of EUR 2,000 and EUR 500 respectively. This prize is to be used either to develop further their existing School Collaboration or to create new School Collaborations in the future. Award Winners have also the opportunity to present the School Collaboration to their peers at the ASEF ClassNet Conference.

The criteria used to assess the ASEF ClassNet School Collaborations are the degree to which they enhance:

1. Intercultural Understanding: Asia-Europe and community engagement
2. Teamwork: Involvement and collaboration among diverse schools
3. Knowledge-sharing: Good practices of teaching and learning and focus on substance
4. Use of ICT: Selection and use of innovative digital tools
5. Learning Outcomes: Intangible and tangible results

This year, a total of 45 school collaborations from 2018/2019 contested for the Awards at the 15th ASEF Classroom Network Conference in Tokyo, Japan.  These winning awards are as follow:

Gold Awards

Postcards from the Edge
“Postcard from the Edge” engaged students in a global writing community to experience the pleasure of writing and to express their thoughts with peers from Asia and Europe. This School Collaboration built empathy and a sense of urgency among young writers to develop a greater understanding of themselves, their own and other cultures. The writing journey began with hand-written postcards and ended with poems, essays and stories published on a joint blog.
Coordinator: Mrs Juliette BENTLEY (Australia)

Asia-Europe Cultural Heritage Games
“Asia-Europe Cultural Heritage Games” used the pedagogical method of gamification to broaden students’ cultural horizons and to enrich their knowledge in the areas of joint interest. Most activities were game-based tasks. Participants created games covering various topics (e.g. geography, history, literature, art, music, sport, traditions, etc.) and shared them with their peers from other countries. Through this collaboration, students learnt new things and had fun at the same time. At the end of the project, all participants took part in the online “Asia-Europe Cultural Heritage Games”.
Coordinator: Mr Adam STEPINSKI (Poland)

TeACh: Teens Actions for Change
“TeACh: Teens in Action for Change” invited students to support the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Participants took action by joining and participating in national and global campaigns and initiatives within the vision of a Human Rights-based approach and the Paris Agreement on climate change. Inspired by global programmes like Design for Change, Global Youth Service Day, Apps for Good, this School Collaboration helped students to find inspiration, information, identify problems, get involved and, finally, act to solve these problems and improve their local communities. The project also enabled participants to train creative thinking and entrepreneurial skills for life.
Coordinators: Mrs Maria DA SILVA (Portugal) and Mrs Arpita DUTTA (India)

Merit Awards

The ARCTIC
Climate change is impacting Asian and European countries in different ways. The project “The ARCTIC” exposed learners to different global issues and encouraged them to actively participate in raising awareness and proposing possible and logical solutions to the identified global plight of combatting climate change. The students documented how global issues are affecting their respective countries. A dedicated website published their personal blogs, vlogs, pictures, research, etc.
Coordinators: Mr Rodel PENDERGAT (Philippines) and Ms Masinah binti SAHID (Malaysia)

Great Minds in STEM, Bridging the Gap!
“Great Minds in STEM, Bridging the Gap” invited students from Asia and Europe to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in a holistic way rather than through four separate and discrete subjects. By addressing and discussing and finding creative solutions to real-world issues, students and teachers from Asia and Europe got a better understanding of STEM in general. Most importantly, the collaboration tackled misconceptions and gender biases surrounding STEM careers and contributed to the creation of a conducive and positive learning environment for students in the schools.
Coordinators: Mr Seppe HERMANS (Belgium)

Hacking Our Spaces
The project “Hacking Our Spaces” allowed participants to do research on how STEM subjects can impact their lives and to explore how STEM solutions can be leveraged to improve spaces like homes, schools, and communities around them. By acquiring some (block) programming using Microbits and through a common online platform, participants shared and collaborated with each other to study different spaces and worked on solutions to hack the spaces with creative ideas to find useful functionalities.
Coordinators: Ms Felicia TAY, Ms Sarah WONG and Mdm Siti Aishah ZAHARA (Singapore)

These 6 award winners mobilised a total of 756 students, 52 teachers, 40 schools in 24 ASEM countries.

Congratulations to these winners!