“Lay of the Land” Conference

WS 1

“Empowering scientists and scholars for OS. Sharing practices, discussing problems”
(Paola Rodari, Sissa Medialab, Trieste Italy)

Workshop Description

All STEM OS projects include the participation of researchers who meet and work with teachers and pupils and other actors of the networks. But also not-STEM projects may include the participation of scholars: historians, sociologists, economists, etc. All these experts need to be motivated in participating and giving their time to these activities. It is also very important that they have an open attitude and are able to understand others’ needs and to communicate their knowledge in a relevant and interesting way. That implies engagement, competences and training. This workshop aims at facilitating the sharing of good practices in the training in research communication of scientists and scholars between children unis’ organisers and other people working in the informal learning. It will tackle themes such as: barriers to the involvement of academics and ways to promote the engagement; training topics, methods and schemes; experiences in the facilitation of the dialogue between experts and not experts; etc. SISSA Medialab facilitators will organize and lead group work in different steps to come out, at the end of the workshop, with shared dos and don’ts and recommendations. Some of the ideas will be taken by the Phereclos project results.

Register for WS 1

WS 2

“The City is Asking Children”
(Sibel Cetingöz & Erdoğan Kahyaoğlu, Informal Education-cocukistanbul, Istanbul, Turkey)

Workshop Description

The aim of the workshop is to reflect the purpose, guiding ideas, structure, implication philosophy and metodology and outputs of a project that successfully reached around 7 thousand children in İstanbul through a chain of more than 50 stake holders including local administration bodies, schools, museums, NGO’s, teachers and educators within the informal education area. The project was finalized on May the 2022 and realised by Informal Education-cocukistanbul in partnership with the City Council of İstanbul.
The project aims in general to understand how the children perceive the city they live in, while they voice out what they like and dislike, what they want and wish to their benefit and to the benefit of all the people and natural inhabitants living in and around the city where they also develop their own ideas and solution proposals. The project is basically a “democratic partipitation” project where the main actors are the children as “citizens”. The stake holders are there to guide and create oportunities to them to equally and activelly participate. The project furthermore aims to create a sustainable and structured link between the children and especially the local municipal authorities to evaluate the children’s ideas together, to develop a strategy for a better city and to take concrete steps to realise the childrens needs and wishes together with the children.

The workshop will be highly interactive not only with rich visuals but also with materials for the participants to actively practice. Everyone will glance at their own city through the eyes of children. Even at Bucharest…

Register for WS 2

WS 3

“First Generation Project – Ready for university!”
(Thomas Troy & Eva Resch, Vienna University Children’s Office, Vienna, Austria)

Workshop Description

According to research, the educational qualifications of children in Austria are still to a significant extend determined by the educational level of their parents. Whereas 67% of school students whose parents earned a degree at a university enrol at a university, only 22% of school students, whose parents do not have a university degree enrol at a university. In cooperation with the University of Vienna, the LEC Vienna developed within the framework of the EU project PHERECLOS the First Generation Project. The Project addresses anyone who is the first in his or her family planning to study at an (Austrian) university. The objective is to promote their involvement in the university education process, fostering equal opportunities, removing barriers and to gain first experiences in the academic environment.
In this interactive session, we take a closer look at the First Generation Project and its design as well as the impact on First Generation school students and universities. Additionally we align all participant’s experiences to gain a broader perspective and discuss various opportunities to foster inclusion in context of universities and enable participation regardless of the educational level of parents.

Register for WS 3

WS 4 

“Dive into open schooling through maker education”
(Alexandru Toma Pătrașcu, ASUR)

Workshop Description

Make it Open is an open schooling project that proposes to bring into the classroom the philosophy of the maker movement to develop a transformational approach to STEAM teaching and learning. Make it Open adopts the concept of Open Schooling where schools are transformed from traditional educational institutions into community partnerships and become agents of community well-being.
This workshop is an opportunity for all educators to gain inspiration and reflect together with other institutions that have been experimenting with new methodologies of learning. During the workshop we will present the overall project concept and run some hands-on sessions introducing the Make it Open innovative pedagogical tools – Learning Scenarios. They can be accessed through the project’s Open Schooling Navigator and their aim is to provide a supportive framework for teachers to try out an open learning approach.

Register for WS 4

WS 5

“Co-creation to solve challenges in school education”
(Selene Pineda & Ana Agudelo, EAFIT University, Medellin, Colombia)

Workshop Description

Co-creation is the sum of experiences and creativity to achieve common goals. In this workshop we will understand co-creation through solutions for social challenges where different actors such as schools, universities, companies and the government participate.

We are going to co-create solutions around social problems related to health, culture, gender equity, youth, social develop, mobility, social inclusion and environment. We will make a design process with these elements: problematize; identify solution alternatives; design and implement solutions; evaluate and adjust.

Also, we will talk about the triggers to achieve a successful co-design: consensus, conversation, activation and expasion. In the end we will talk about the co-creation experience at LEC Medellin.

The workshop will be divided into three moments for 90 minutes:

• Activation and presentation
• Teamwork to solve challenges
• Presentation of the LEC Medellín

Register for WS 5

WS 6

“Going Global – A brainstorming session on setting up an International Day of Children’s Universities”
(Jolanta Różowska, Fundacja Małopolski Uniwersytet dla Dzieci, President of the European Children’s Universities Network)

Workshop Description

Setting up the International Day of Children’s Universities is an idea that has been appearing in our discussions for some time and always arouses enthusiasm. So the perfect moment has come to brainstorm its goals, nature of activities, and formalities related to the organization of such a holiday. The first part of the workshop will introduce the basics of the concept, its potential and key actions to be taken. In the second part, participants will work out their solutions for feasibility, purposefulness and ways of spreading the idea. The groups will present their conclusions in part three so that at the end of the workshop a meaningful action plan is drawn up.

Register for WS 6

WS 7

“Stronger Communities of teaching Nature Science”
(Christina Dahl Madsen, Søren Søndergaard Thisted & Mikkel Staadsen-Boesen, VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark)

Workshop Description

The focus of this workshop is divided into two topics both with unique importance to the Danish after education project SNL (Stronger Communities of teaching Nature Science).

1. What is a systemic approach to continuing education of Danish Schools teachers and what’s important in designing, implementing and sustaining new knowledge and learning in the classrooms of the public schools?

The first part of the workshop contains an introduction of the Danish after education project; SNL. This project aims to change an develop the quality of teaching the nature sciences in the public schools of Denmark by using a systemic approach that focus on capacity and community building instead of a singular focus on the competencies of the teacher. The project began in 2019 and involves the Danish Governance, 6 University Colleges and 36 public schools.

The workshop will discuss the importance of;

• designing research-based continuing education with the active use of formative evaluation and action research
• an active and supportive schools management
• the influence of the time aspect
• the changing of a local school culture and difficult role of locale project ambassadors

We will dig into the process of developing and implementing the project revealing what we learned and how we used the new knowledge to strengthen the project concept.

We will also invite the participants to contribute with inspiration and ideas from their perspective and experience within the field of continuing education.

2. The second part of the workshop will focus on the content knowledge of the SNL-project; How to teach focusing on the natural sciences competences of the students.

This part of the workshop will be activity-based involving the participants in trying out a science experiment as a way to demonstrate how to teach within a specific mindset and focus. Afterwards there will be a plenum discussion that reflects on what challenged the teachers of SNL in there aims to implement this mindset in their school practice.

Register for WS 7

WS 8 & WS 16

“Code! .. Draw! .. Stitch! / Coded Embroidery”
(Andrea Mayr-Stalder, Turtle Stitch)

Workshop Description

Note: Participants need a laptop (with mouse) and Internet browser for this workshop!

Register for WS 8

WS 9

“Parental Engagement through STEAM”
(Judit Horgas, Liget Műhely Alapítvány, Hungary)

Workshop Description

Builiding on ourcomes of the EU-funded Open School Doors, Parents Engage and ParENTrepreneurs projects, this workshop will explore in an interactive format the various ways parents can and should be engaged in open schooling programmes.

Register for WS 9

WS 10

“Is open schooling suitable for everyone?”
(Maja, Karolina, Katarzyna, Mihnea, Delia and Ștefan; Lodz & Bucharest, Romania)

Workshop Description

As a group of volunteers from the Children’s University of Lodz, we have had a chance to gain a broad experience with open schooling in recent years. Starting from a group of children who had no idea what open schooling is, we have come to the point where we can call ourselves experts in this field. Therefore, we would like to share our experience and knowledge on this subject with you.

During this workshop, with our friends from Romania, we will introduce the concept of open schooling from our perspective. We will also discuss and bring to life the practical application of these methods with the participants of the workshop.

We will try our best to create some space for a debate about open schooling from a wider perspective.

Register for WS 10

WS 11

“Over knowledge and into practice – assessment for skills.”
(Anna Przybyło, Kraków, Poland)

Workshop Description

According to Solo taxonomy (after Biggs and Collis 1982) there are a few stages of learning: Prestructural, Unistructural, Multistructural, Relational and Extended abstract. At school, we usually get only to Relational way of getting knowledge. This means that we teach kids how to compare, contrast, classify and relate. Students can think creatively and create only if they are let to do so. How can we change written tests into practical knowledge, and how to learn from mistakes? I invite you to my presentation.

Register for WS 11

WS 12

“Open school and PBL – Great play and deep seriousness”
(Søren Peter Andersen & Anne Katrine Blond, Denmark)

Workshop Description

Get introduced to ‘Project-based learning and innovation in an open school’. The presentation is for anyone involved in teaching, innovation and PBL.

Project-based learning is a teaching method that is rapidly entering the European education system. But what elements should a PBL and Open School programme contain, and how do we create a culture and didactic stance that has a common language across the many disciplines of primary schools? In this presentation, you will hear about didactic models that provide schools and teachers with a common didactic direction for working with PBL, open school, creativity and innovation skills.

See individual models here: https://www.klimazirkus.com/english

Register for WS 12

WS 13

“Education for sustainable development through open school activities, related to geography – Focus Group and Role Play”
(Laura Cristea, University of Bucharest / Children’s University of Romania & Elena Matei, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania)

Workshop Decription

Sustainable Development (SD) is effective in group activities where participants reflect on the importance of caring for the planet and develop useful critical thinking and social skills (Dulamă, 2008). Thus, SD programmes that involve both spatial and social openness, including a wide range of actors in the learning process, have better results on developing skills for sustainability.
As a school discipline, as a science, geography has in its contents the whole panoply of elements for analysis, understanding of sustainable development and education in accordance with it (Matei, 2020). Therefore, the deployment of SD in connection with geography for ESD is an important trinomial in developing the knowledge and training the skills of future generations with the tools of adaptation and mitigation of potentially catastrophic global environmental change (Meadows, 2020)10, with the intelligent management of natural and human resources.

This workshop aims at revealing the potential of Open Schooling activities that focus on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) through various methods such as: “focus grup” and “role-play”.

Register for WS 13

* The former WS 13 Family based early childhood development (Soner Yurtdas, Mersin Yenişehir Municipality Children’s University, Mersin, Turkey) was cancelled.

WS 14

“Introduction to online didactics and the use of e-learning in teaching science”
(Mikkel Staadsen-Boesen, E-learning consultant, VIA University College, Denmark)

Workshop Description

Building on our talk on the SNL (Stronger Communities of teaching Nature Science) project, I will dig a bit deeper into the specifics of online didactics and create an overview of the most important things to account for as an educational designer. This will be a short talk focused on the practical application of online learning theory, and flipped learning methods, and how they can be applied in an open schooling context.

After this we will look at the educators toolbox – videos and course designing for educators Introducing simple ways to bring the natural world into the classroom, and create engaging online support for your teaching. Finally we will look at how easy it can be to create your own online course. We will group up, and take a well-known subject, from which we will create short courses using Articulate Rise.

 Note: please bring laptop for this workshop.

Key takeaways

• How to use online didactics to aid in open schooling
• What are the effects of online learning on students
• What not to do – creating online education that works
• How to get started – make your own courses using www.articulate.com/360

Register for WS 14

WS 15

“Learning how to be an entrepreneur”
(Joana Santos (coord.), Vítor Silva, Clara Vasconcelos, Bruno Pinto, University of Porto)

Workshop Description

Participants will have the opportunity to:
1 – get familiarized with some techniques on how to address a challenge (problem or opportunity) through Design Thinking.
2 – understand how the Business Model Canvas and the Lean Startup method can help young entrepreneurs to learn about the contexts of their projects, markets (clients and other stakeholders) and to extract meaning from testing hypotheses.
3 – recognize the relation between Entrepreneurship, Design Thinking, Lean Startup and the Business Model Canvas.

Register for WS 15

WS 16: See WS 8

This workshop is a repetition of WS 8 in the first WS time slot

Register for WS 16

Claudia Aguirre Rios (she, her)

Claudia Aguirre Rios is a trained mining engineer and has a MsC in Science communication. For ten years, she worked as Director of Contents and Education at Parque Explora, a science center in Medellin, Colombia. For four years she was Coordinator of the Andes node of the Latin American Network for Popularization of Science and Technology. In 2018 she moved back to France and worked for a European project (PERFORM), a science centre (Exploradome) and now as project manager at TRACES where she coordinates the methodology Work Package of the SALL (Schools As Living Labs) project. She organized and participated in International Science Theatre Festivals, Public Engagement with Science Conferences, Public Engagement with Science and Science Communication Congresses. She has coordinated several collective books in Science Education in Science Centers, Science Theatre and Science Museums.

Peter Gray

Peter Gray had a varied career, transporting equipment for rock bands, taxi driving and working on a farm before returning to higher education in 1994. He studied media, environmental education, philosophy and adult education before gaining his PhD in 2005 from the University of Stirling, UK.

For the past fifteen years, Dr Gray has worked on collaborative international projects in science education, teacher education and educational democracy. This work included the evaluation of such projects as well as participating in project formation and management. He recently retired from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, for which he worked on over forty such projects.

He has three main professional obsessions:

• Disrupting the current structures of academic research.
• Reforming education in the direction of personal growth rather than standardised achievement.
• Making education a public good rather than a branch of the economy.

Dr Gray lives in Edinburgh with his partner and younger son, and loves tools, particularly guitars, bicycles and hammers.

The Conference will be hosted at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, situated in the north part of the town, 8 km north-west of Bucharest city center and 15 km from Bucharest International Airport.

Address:

University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest

59 Mărăşti Boulevard, District 1

Bucharest, 011464

Romania

General Map: https://goo.gl/maps/5ahc9HvvM9rDi3SK8

The main conference venue is the Faculty of Biotechnologies Building 

Welcome Reception, Lunches, Dinner and Farewell Party are going to happen in the Reforma 9 restaurant at the University Campus. 

Download a Map of the conference venues: Conf_Map_LoL_Phereclos_layout

Hotel Recommendations

By airplane

București Henri Coandă – Otopeni International Airport (OTP) is the closest airport.

There are direct charter and scheduled flights connecting București with many cities carried out by many flight companies. Please contact your travel agent for details about the flight schedules.

By car

Nădlac 2 border cross is the main entry point to Romania when travelling by car from the West of the country.

By train

Travelling to București by train can be an option. When travelling by train from the West, the main border cross is near the town of Curtici. The main railway station of București is called ,,The Northern Railway Station”.

General Information for Transport in Bucharest:

By public transport:
From Otopeni (Henri Coandă) airport: 783 or 780 express line to Free Press Square (Piata Presei Libere) + 41 tramway line (one stop – Agronomic Institute/Institutul Agronomic);
From North Station: 105, 205 or 282
105 towards Free Press Square / Piata Presei Libere (final stop, Free Press Square stop / Piata Presei Libere);
205 towards Free Press Square / Piata Presei Libere (Village Museum stop/Muzeul Satului);
282 towards Triumph Arch / Arcul de Triumf (Casin Monastery stop/Manastirea Casin);

By taxi:
From Otopeni Airport: 15-20 minutes at noon and night, 30-40 minutes during rush hours (8:00-10:00 AM, 5:00-7:00 PM);
From North Railway Station: 10-15 minutes at noon and night, 20-30 minutes during rush hours (8:00-10:00 AM, 5:00-7:00 PM);

NOTE: The taxi fare in București is between 1.69-1.99 RON/km (30-35 cents/km). Taxis can be found in front of the airport exit. Be sure to check the fare on the taxi door before getting on. The average distance from Otopeni Airport to the city center is 18 km (36 RON ~ 8 EUR), and the distance from North Railway Station to the city center is 4.5 km (9 RON ~ 2 EUR).

You can also use taxi and ride sharing applications in București. You must install the specific application on your mobile phones.