Mentoring Partnerships Blog - EUCU.NET - European Children's University Network

Life is the best teacher – we often hear from our parents, and sometimes also from our (sometimes idle) students, because becoming wise and educated is really painful and tiring. Though, how many times we sigh over the sweet memories of our school-life?

The Faculty of Life Sciences (and the next two pictures too...)

For one week in September Prešov Children’s University in Slovakia was given an excellent teacher – LIFE in Copenhagen – more accurately, it was the visit at the Faculty of Life Sciences of University of Copenhagen. Although the visit was not the part of the Mentoring Partnership Project (this belongs to Malopolski University for Children in Trzebinia), the desire for the inspiration was so strong that we have found also another way (exactly, the Erasmus mobility program) to widen our knowledge about the concept of children’s universities and we have directed our attention straight towards one of the best known universities in Europe. We were lucky to contact willing and enthusiastic person – Mr. Torben Ingerslev Roug, head of Secondary School Service (the title for the activities that might be considered in other countries as Children University), whom we first met at the International Children’s University Conference in Tübingen. The Program is actually a tri-faculty project, where, the coordination is run from a central office hosted at the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Natural Sciences and The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences also hosts several of the workshops offered in the school service program. This program for secondary schools covers their research and scientific areas and focuses mainly on the children and teenagers age of 12 – 17 years.

A Study Visit in Kopenhagen

In September Indian summer, thanks to the friendly and kind acceptation of Torben Ingerslev Roug and his colleagues at the Faculty of Life Sciences, our Prešov Children’s University was given a chance to observe interesting and special program aimed at young students right at the forum actus.

During that week, we visited many interesting workshops and seminars at different places all over the Copenhagen. The University of Copenhagen provides through the Secondary School Service a lots of interesting activities – available in the offer on their web-page – (not only) for young students throughout the whole year. They do it exclusively by the laboratory experiments, workshops and excursions with the smaller groups of children (app. 24); either in university laboratories and workrooms. The School service at The University of Copenhagen also cooperates with other places and institutions (such as museums, oceanarium, zoo, botanical gardens, etc.). Beside the main target group – the young secondary school students – these activities are aimed also at the teachers, who attend the program together with their young students as well as they are aimed at the young university students, who often provide the “lessons” together with the lecturers. During the academic year, there are pupils from several secondary schools coming to the morning or afternoon classes each weekday. Up to the 8000 young students per year can experience the reality of varied university research.

We share the opinion with our colleagues from Copenhagen about the effectiveness of the work in the small groups, where the students really put their hands on the experiments; they experience the science, its relations and connections with the real life. This way of education (and also the popularization of the science) brings long-term effects and significant impact on the young population. As we have already mentioned, it brings the benefits for children and teenagers; university students (because under the expert-supervision the best of them use to lead the experiments and workshops, they are trained, how to communicate science information to teenagers); and it is also of big value for the teachers coming with their pupils, because they, observing the activities, can become acquainted both with different teaching methods as well as with the newest scientific knowledge.

During that week, spent at the Faculty of Life Sciences, we could visit and observe several laboratory seminars, experiments and excursions connected by the principle of John Dewey’s philosophy of “learning by doing”, where the children are always active participants of the experiments or workshops. We attended the experimental classes testing the symptoms and influence of stress on human and animal organism...

Laboratory Experiment - Stress

or the classes, where children studied the principles of plant biotechnology (the ways of genetic modification in modern plant-breeding).

Laboratory Experiment - Plant Breeding

At the Niels Bohr Institute we observed the experiment, where the children were contracting and testing their own solar cells, using the dark coloured dye from blackberry to catch the sunlight, and nanotechnology to convert the sunlight to electricity.

Laboratory Experiment: Converting Sunlight to Electricity

At the university research institute Øresundsakvariet (in Elsinor) we observed the experimental workshops explaining the life in sea, physiognomy of the pelagians, provided as a lecture in aquarium, as a trip to the sea and even by children’s own fish-dissection.

Fish Dissection

This School service is being driven by their own experienced staff and students at the Aquarium.

The University of Copenhagen cooperates also with the other institutions and museums, representing a wide variety of cultural history and arts, who regularly prepare the educational activities for young students. For example the Workers Museum in Copenhagen provides the special motivating educational program for children and teenagers, using the special expositions, allowing students to touch and manipulate with the objects.

Workers Museum

Similarly, the National Museum for Art provides the special expositions, followed by the workshops in ateliers.

Museum of Art

We like the way our colleagues in Copenhagen run their Children’s University project – by systematic, conceptual and in detail elaborated work free of bombastic promo actions and medialization, and yet very important and effective.

And the last bonus of this fruitful trip was the University Campus Race – on bike with students, employees and, of course, Torben. But it’s a different story ☺. We have brought many ideas from LIFE and we hope, there will by some ideas in the future of our Children’s University that might be brought to LIFE.

Adela and Torben

Experiences brought by LIFE

A Study Visit in Kopenhagen

Archive

Comments