Good practices

The Inspiring Science Education Project
Working Group:Low Achievers in ScienceCountry:Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, United KingdomLanguages:EnglishAge of students (target group/s):13-14, 15-18Links, resources:http://www.inspiring-science-edu...
The project aims at providing resources and opportunities for teachers to make science in specific fields (Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Earth science, Environmental sciences, Geography, Physics) more attractive to their students. The project includes: (a) an online portal that provides with an interactive inventory of e-learning tools and resources from research centres and other facilities (b) easy access to online tools and resources to be used in science teaching (c) development of scenarios and methodologies to support science teachers and trainers (d) revitalisation of a platform that can be used by both students and teachers in and outside the classroom (e) provision of ideas through which the students can be involved in scientific and research activities and which will motivate them to collaborate with one another.Strong points and opportunities:• The project is conceived with an integrated operational design whose outcome is a coordinated educational environment for both students and teachers.
• Throughout the pilot activities, teachers will be able to access interactive simulations, educational games and E-science applications integrating them with extra-curricular activities.
• Teachers will be able to access remote and online labs, and relevant scenarios for their use in the school classroom.Limitations:Some of the proposed materials may be a link to extra-curriculum activities, as they combine more than one scientific topics. This is beneficial for teaching science and demonstrating its link to everyday life. It may also pose time constraints in order to follow the curriculum, a fact that requires better organization from teachers.Added value with regards to the 3 topics of the MASS project:Inspiring Science Education is about providing the tools to make science education more challenging, more playful and above all more imaginative and inspiring for today’s students. The program holds a strong potential to challenge and attract low achievers to science in the classroom and in everyday life.Any prerequisites needed:PSc and Internet connection.