Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2026 Newsletter
Living Math Explorers: Discovering Mathematics Beyond the Classroom by Adina Veronica Godja
Some educational projects enrich classroom practice. Others fundamentally transform the way we understand teaching and learning. For me, Living Math Explorers belongs to the second category.
It was never intended to be simply another international eTwinning project or a collection of collaborative classroom activities. Instead, it became compelling evidence that mathematics can become one of the most engaging and meaningful subjects in school when it is taken beyond the pages of a textbook and reconnected with the world children experience every day.
Throughout more than thirty years of teaching, I have come to realise that children do not reject mathematics itself— they reject mathematics when it appears abstract, repetitive and disconnected from their lives. However, when pupils discover symmetry in a butterfly ' s wings, estimate distances in a public park, identify geometric shapes in historical buildings or solve mathematical challenges together with classmates from another European
country, their perception changes completely. Mathematics ceases to be a collection of exercises and becomes a wayof observing, understanding and interpreting the world.
This educational conviction inspired the creation of Living Math Explorers, an international eTwinning project developed in partnership with teachers from Türkiye, Italy, Ukraine and Romania. As a co-founder, I contributed to designing the pedagogical framework, coordinating collaborative activities and creating digital educational resources that supported every stage of the learning process.
From the earliest planning meetings, our international team shared one common objective: to demonstrate that mathematics should be explored rather than simply taught. Instead of relying exclusively on repetitive calculations and routine exercises, we designed authentic learning experiences where pupils became investigators, observers and creators. They measured, compared, estimated, photographed, analysed, discussed and collaborated while discovering mathematical concepts embedded in
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