The Citizen Science at School (CSS) project is formed by the association of four secondary schools highly relevant in their respective regions and from different European countries (Spain, Belgium, France and the Czech Republic). Teachers have noted in their students a low motivation towards the study of the subjects of Sciences Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), what has been translated in an alarming decrease in the scientific vocations. In each center the project is led by a specialist teacher in innovative pedagogies who, aware of the need to motivate students towards the study of science and to promote scientific vocations, has been involved in several European projects on an individual basis, whose main objective were to validate and disseminate innovative pedagogies. After the success of the project Teaching Innovate Practices at School (TIPS!), in which the centers exchanged their knowledge of successful educational practices and generated educational resources in European languages, with this project we intend to know a new tool to add to our teaching practice . Citizen science is a concept that involves students in real research on curriculum topics of high interest and has been shown to greatly increase the motivation of students to study science by contextualizing its learning. The Citizen Science at School project aims to open the centers to external agents (universities, research centers, national and international experts, etc.) to generate networks that produce greater impact and sustainability and are the basis for future collaborations. The associated centers intend with this project to achieve the following objectives: OBJECTIVE 1 (O1): To train the participating teachers in Citizen Science and incorporate this concept into their teaching practice through the implementation of pilot experiences in each center. OBJECTIVE 2 (O2): To increase students' motivation to study science as well as scientific vocations through their participation in European Citizen Science projects and by taking part in workshops at each partner center that contextualise science learning. OBJECTIVE 3 (O3): To increase the European dimension of the educational community of partner schools, promoting the creation of a network of centers, universities and research organizations with common interests that establish synergies to further develop projects in the future, in particular a KA201 project. OBJECTIVE 4 (O4): To achieve a European eTwinning quality label by fulfilling the 6 criteria (pedagogical innovation, curricular integration, communication and information exchange, collaboration between centers, use of technology and results, impact and documentation) of the Spanish National eTwinning Support System. Get each partner school certified with the ETWINNING SCHOOL seal. To achieve these objectives, four citizen science projects are carried out quarterly (two per school year) programmed through didactic units written at transnational meetings. In each project, international groups of students should research on a relevant curricular theme and generate information and data that will allow them to produce a final product during the mobility that closes the work of the unit and which will be presented to the educational community of the host center . In addition, during the mobility workshops and activities will be held to promote scientific vocations allowing students to contact the university experts who have supported them during their research. The didactic units will be available online in the TwinSpace of the project, which will serve as a repository and will be widely distributed in media, social networks, and webs and Educational Institutions, following the dissemination plan of the project, which will generate abundant traffic towards them and will produce their reuse by STEM teachers at all levels from the local / regional to the European. The association aims to create a network of centers and external agents with common interests that can continue to develop projects in the future. The training that teachers directly involved in the project will receive will improve their teaching, providing them with new tools and ideas that will improve the skills not only for the students directly involved, but also of future generations of them. This is a further step in a future-oriented project, in which the participating centers want to continue to promote collaboration and exchange of good practices at all levels of the educational community, opening it up to the outside, thus preparing to face the Challenges of 21st century education.
The Citizen Science at School (CSS) project is formed by the association of four secondary schools highly relevant in their respective regions and from different European countries (Spain, Belgium, France and the Czech Republic). Teachers have noted in their students a low motivation towards the study of the subjects of Sciences Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), what has been translated in an alarming decrease in the scientific vocations. In each center the project is led by a specialist teacher in innovative pedagogies who, aware of the need to motivate students towards the study of science and to promote scientific vocations, has been involved in several European projects on an individual basis, whose main objective were to validate and disseminate innovative pedagogies. After the success of the project Teaching Innovate Practices at School (TIPS!), in which the centers exchanged their knowledge of successful educational practices and generated educational resources in European languages, with this project we have added a new tool to our teaching practice. Citizen science is a concept that involves students in real research on curricular topics of high interest and has been shown to greatly increase the motivation of students to study science by contextualizing its learning. The Citizen Science at School project has opened the partners to external agents (universities, research centers, national and international experts, etc.) generating networks that produce greater impact and sustainability and are the foundation for future collaborations. The associated centers have intended with this project to achieve the following objectives: OBJECTIVE 1 (O1): To train the participating teachers in Citizen Science and incorporate this concept into their teaching practice through the implementation of pilot experiences in each center. OBJECTIVE 2 (O2): To increase students' motivation to study science as well as scientific vocations through their participation in European Citizen Science projects and by taking part in workshops at each partner center that contextualise science learning. OBJECTIVE 3 (O3): To increase the European dimension of the educational community of partner schools, promoting the creation of a network of centers, universities and research organizations with common interests that establish synergies to further develop projects in the future, in particular a KA201 project. OBJECTIVE 4 (O4): To achieve a European eTwinning quality label by fulfilling the 6 criteria (pedagogical innovation, curricular integration, communication and information exchange, collaboration between centers, use of technology and results, impact and documentation) of the Spanish National eTwinning Support System. Get each partner school certified with the ETWINNING SCHOOL seal. To achieve these objectives, four citizen science projects have been carried out quarterly (two per school year) programmed through didactic units written at transnational meetings. In each project, international groups of students researched on a relevant curricular theme and generated information and data allowing them to produce a final product during the mobility that closes the work of the unit and present it to the educational community of the host center. In addition, during the mobility workshops and activities were held to promote scientific vocations allowing students to interact with university experts. The four didactic units are available, in english and another european language, online in the TwinSpace of the project, which acts as a repository, and have been given great dissemination through social media, webs and educational institutions. The main dissemination event has been a webinar in eTwinning that had the maximun participants allowed of 200 teachers from different european countries. These actions have generated trafic to the didactic units allowing them to be reused by STEM teachers at all levels from local/regional to national/european. The partnership has aimed at maintaining the network of schools that have been working together since 2015, our common interests and desire to go on developping projects together has allowed us to present a new application for a KA229 project that has received funding for the 2019-2021 period, allowing for a greater susteinability of the results of the CSS project. The training received by the teachers directly involved in the project has enhanced their teaching practice, incorporating new tools and ideas that increase the competencies not only of the students that have taken part in the project but also of future generations of students in our schools.