SiS Catalyst – Children as Change Agents
2011-2014
SiS Catalyst was one of the first Mobilisation and Mutual Learning (MML) action plans funded by the European Commission under FP7 (grant agreement 266634) – and was based upon the very simple idea that present decisions in science and education are significant for tomorrow’s citizens, students and researchers – who are children and young people at this time. Currently very well demonstrated within the Fridays for Future movement.
We believe that in a fast changing technology-based world, the potential of all young people is in demand – irrespective of their social, cultural or economic background. We further believe that Higher Education and science institutions have a leading role to play in the global changes occurring – as hubs of creativity and vehicles for social justice.
SiS Catalyst considered the role which children and young people have in the development of Science in Society – and how science organisations can better engage with young people, both on a practical and a strategic level. In consequence, learning programmes and institutional development shall resonate with a young audience.
The project succeeded in creating a couple of useful tools and guidelines when it comes to working together and for children in the field of science engagement. You can find this material in our resources area as documents to download.
SciChallenge
2015-2017
The SciChallenge project (#665868, H2020-SEAC-2014-1) developed novel concepts to inspire young people to work with science, scientific methods and insights. The idea was to use a contest-based approach to encourage self-produced digital education materials by young people for young people. The project was driven by inspiring topic sheets, guides and toolkits that have been created in this project and distributed to partner schools, teachers and other youth-oriented institutions as well as through various social media channels.
Furthermore, the material was aggregated on the SciChallenge Web Platform to generate wide reaching awareness and promotion. Individual or collective competitors between the ages of 10 to 20, who have participated in the SciChallenge, generated creative digital materials (videos, slides, or infographics).
The SciChallenge Platform also increased awareness of science careers and opportunities for internships or open days in STEM institutions through the strong involvement of related organisations and industries. Additionally, aggregated information on science events (slams, nights, festivals etc.) was shared. With this multi-level approach, SciChallenge boosted the attractiveness of science education and careers among young people leading to wider public engagement with science and economic prosperity and global competitiveness on a pan-European level.
Eucu.net participated as a dissemination partner and provided also experts to the international jury for the contest. Many contributions of young people came from the network members science engagement ecosystems.
InEDU – Innovate, Educate, Awake
2016-2018
The InEdu Project aimed to promote active learning based on observation, experiment and conclusion making which are part of the scientific method. Within the project new teaching materials and tools have been developed to help primary school teachers prepare and conduct more fascinating lessons which can stimulate the children’s natural curiosity.
As part of a training scheme teachers have been invited to exchange their educational methods and tools so that they had the chance to develop their skills and create interesting and effective methodology on the basis of the experience gained during the project.
One of the outcomes was the design of an exploration box: “Spikey’s Journey” about environmental issues for primary school kids.
Eucu.net participated in this Erasmus+ project (#2016-1-PL01-KA201-026744, 2016-2018) as a dissemination partner.