On 28th January, a group consisting of teachers of secondary education and teachers of environmental/sustainability education came together in Utrecht to learn more about digital tools and how to implement them in class.

The training course covered different tools for different subjects and provided the trainees with new ideas and the necessary explanation on how to use them in their own practice. After the different presentations there was time to try the games/apps and other tools out and to experiment with them. Also a lot of space was offered to discuss and learn from each other.

Participants felt inspired and went home with new ideas and inspiration to try the tools out themselves.

Group of 30 science teachers from all over Latvia took part in the pilot teacher training. Two connected workshops were organized in the new Centre for Natural Sciences of the University of Latvia. During the first workshop, on November 2, teachers worked in 3 parallel groups and got trained in all three project topics. 

Teachers got acquinted with ICT tools which could be used in science lessons, tried inquiry based activities and discussed about recomendations on how to motivate low achievers in science. Next task was to try one or two selected lesson plans in their classes. The results of this piloting were presented and discussed during the next workshop on January 7, 2016. Most of the teachers agreed that activities were motivating for students.

The MASS project and its results together with GLOBE will be a part of “An international perspective on STEM education” lecture and seminar series which has started this winter semester at the University of Cologne.

Several national and international experts in education will talk to students and train pre-service teachers on how to integrate MASS and GLOBE in science classes in schools. Every cycle will start with a lecture. During seminars and workshops students will work intensively on each topic. The lecture series will also provide opportunities to disseminate the MASS project and the results on an international level through contact with international experts.

Parts of the series dedicated to MASS are schedulded for January.  Dr. Astrid Hensel will firstly give a speech about MASS Best Practice Teaching Approaches in schools (January, 15) and then together with Prof. Dr. Karl Schneider they will provide MASS training (January, 23).

The full programe of the series can be downloaded in .pdf.

The 2nd Education Conference 'Motivate and Attract Students to Science' took place in Warsaw on 25th – 27th November 2015. The event gathered more than 70 science teachers, educators and teachers' trainers from over 20 European countries and United States of America. The special guest, Director of GLOBE Program - Tony Murphy, made the inspiring speech about role of citizen science in science and society.

Main aim of the conference was to build a network of teachers, educators, trainers and scientists involved in science education by sharing best practices of science education with a use of modern and the most effective tools and methodologies.

Training session, held in parallel, were the main part of the conference. Thus, participants could get to know all educational materials developed in the frame of MASS project and experiment with them under supervision of qualified training professionals. Then, all training sessions were summed up during the discussion with a use of Six Thinking Hats tool "How to implement methods that motivate students to science?". It enabled to gather valuable comments and remarks for improving materials developed in frame of the MASS Project.

More inspiring examples and experiments were presenting during the Idea Market. All participants had an opportunity to get to know new teaching methods, test interesting serious games and share their experience with others.

The whole event was finalized by science workshop organized in cooperation with the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw – the leading science education centre in Poland. It was a chance to look at the science from the other perspective.

The third and the last MASS Conference will take place in Cologne (Germany). Follow MASS website for more details!

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The next meeting of all members of the consortium takes place in Warsaw.

The goal of the Collaborative and Evaluation Meeting II is to share experience from the piloting phase and show its first results. Part of the meeting is dedicated to the discussion within Working Groups, which included giving feedback to other partners-experts and ideas on improvement of the pilot materials.

The meeting was organized by UNEP/GRID-Warsaw Centre – one of the partners of the MASS Project –at the end of the second phase of the MASS project. It was planned for 5 days including 2nd Education Conference 'Motivate and Attract Students to Science'.

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We kindly inform that the deadline for online registration has been extended till 13 November, 2015. Registration is available through the online form.

New! For science teachers a one-day ticket is now available - you can take part in only one, selected day of the conference paying special conference fee. See details in the registration section.

German MASS team members participated in the Conference on Heterogeneity in Geography Classes in Cologne on the 25th of September 2015.

During a conference MASS products were presented. German team also got in touch with the participating teachers to talk about the work of the project. Selected Good Practice Examples were shown to teachers  as well as all three tutorials of the MASS working groups.

A MASS-flyer was on display for teachers to have a brief look at what the project is about.

Download MASS-flyer (available in German) .pdf

Registration is available through the online form. The deadline for registration is 31st October, 2015.