Broadening personal and educational horizons: teacher exchange between Lithuania and the Netherlands

In August 2025, Snieguolė Bagočienė from Lithuania visited her colleague and collaborator Ellis van Kamenade in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. The trip was supported by a teacher exchange grant aimed at facilitating cross-border STEM projects and professional development.

Snieguolė's visit included a guided tour of Ellis' school, the Huygens Lyceum, a meeting with the Lyceum head, and presentations of students’ activities, classrooms and the available technologies. The two teachers also evaluated and refined their ongoing joint project combining micro:bit and Arduino activities.

The exchange gave them the opportunity to strengthen their already existing partnership and to identify practical adjustments for future STEAM projects. They gained a clearer view of how to select and integrate microcontrollers effectively and how to share good practices between their schools. There were even, Snieguolė reports, some late-night exchanges of messages about exciting ideas and experiments that they are eager to bring to their students in class.

Afterwards, they not only started to implement the ideas born during the visit in their own lessons, but they also applied to the next European Science on Stage festival with a more advanced robot project using micro:bit – and they keep coming up with more ideas to develop!

Reflecting on her experience, Snieguolė Bagočienė remarked that schools in the Netherlands have more modern facilities and a wider range of technologies compared to what she is used to from Lithuania. "Such international teacher‐exchange projects are truly inspiring", she says. "They not only broaden our professional horizons but also motivate us to keep developing innovative approaches for our students. Working side by side with colleagues from another country strengthens our confidence, enriches our teaching methods, and shows how powerful collaboration can be in shaping the future of STEAM education."