A Summer in The Poly-Universe
The Poly-Universe game is a geometric skill development game designed by a Hungarian artist. The novelty of Poly-Universe lies in the ‘scale-shifting’ symmetry inherent to its geometric forms and a color combination system, which can be used universally in STEAM education. The methodological tool has been tested over the last 10 years by thousands of teachers and students at different age groups (6-18 years) in hundreds of institutions and events (schools, math festivals, museums) across Europe.
Johannes Kepler University is a partner in Erasmus+ project PUNTE – ‘Poly-Universe in teacher training education’ which aims at collecting best practices in the use of the Poly-Universe game family in different fields and introducing them into higher education, teacher education and teacher training, thus stimulating a paradigm shift in methodology. The project also aims to develop the skills of students with special educational needs and those from different social backgrounds through the use of games.
Our JKU team presented Poly-Universe, the project and its results in a series of international and national multiplier events, with a special focus on the JKU team’s own development and experience in using the game in teaching various subjects. Participants could learn even more about our key project result: a comprehensive handbook published in English and Hungarian providing an insight into the methodology courses launched during the last academic year and the PUNTE interdisciplinary good practices collected during the project. The key multiplier event was a series of 3 workshops and 4 presentations on PUNTE and its results at JKU’s international ‘Design and Visualisation in STEAM Education Conference and Workshops’ on 15-19 May 2023. We had 4 presentations with examples of how to use Poly-Universe in maths, art, PE, chemistry and biology education. Branko Andjic presented the game, PUNTE project and its results at the final workshop. The workshop and conference week was attended by more than 37 participants from 20 countries (23 non-affiliated to JKU in any way).
On the other hand, the Austrian multiplier events went truly local, organised in 3 different federal states, with a focus on very different issues: practice schools as key actors in pre-service teacher training, alternative pedagogy (Waldorf schools with their unique system of in-service teacher training and learning environment) and pre-service teacher training in another federal state. The conference was followed by a workshop (22 May) at the teaching practice school of University of Education Upper Austria, where 15 teachers could learn how to use Poly-Universe as an effective teaching tool. Most participants are actively involved in supervising the teaching practice of pre-service teachers, so they can act as multiplicators. We delivered 2 more events in different parts of Austria during the summer: in the biggest Waldorfschule of Styria we introduced the game and PUNTE results to 14 teachers, 7 of them are actively involved in the in-service training of Waldorf teachers in Austria and Germany (29 June). We had another introductory workshop for pre-service teachers in Vorarlberg with 16 participants (8 July).
