Be a Maker at School: Biotechnology and Robotics

Project summary

A large number of studies have emphasized a worrying decrease in the interest of young people in science and technology. The Rocard report on Science education states that this lack of interest of young people towards science is due to the way it is taught in schools. In this context, whilst the educational community agrees that the teaching methods based on investigation are more effective, the truth is that in most European classrooms these methods are not always implemented. The need of improving the scientific education has a crucial role in the "Lisbon Strategy", in the report "Science education for responsible citizenship" (2015) and in the Strategic framework in education and training (ET2020). The five schools involved in this project include science and technology education, as well as teaching of foreign languages as main goals of their curricula. Despite the fact that employment opportunities in Europe have been seriously affected by the economic conditions, the demand of skilled science and technology workers with a good language competence and entrepreneurship is still high. Thus, the participating schools aim to educate their students to become active citizens with the skills required to seize the opportunities the future may bring in two high profile areas among the STEM, robotics and biotechnology subjects. For the above reasons the project raises the following objectives: 1. To educate in science and technology as one of the basis for employment access and social inclusion. 2. To involve students in their own learning processes through proposals where they become leading characters and responsible. 3. To propose a non-formal, personalised and cooperative learning taking the advantage of the accessibility to open educational resources generated in the website. 4. To improve the students' competences, mainly in linguistics and science-technology. 5. To promote equity, social cohesion and active citizenship. 6. To encourage the cooperation among European countries to improve the cultural dialogue, increase the employability and extend the range of job opportunities. 7.Increase creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training. 8. To provide the students with innovative learning approaches which involve them directly, thus favouring an active participation in the common problem-solving processes and the creativity, initiative and responsibility of their own work. In order to achieve these objectives we propose the following action plan: A. To promote and bring the students closer to the most innovative areas of the Maker Movement: robotics and biotechnology. The Open Hardware, the Open Software and the emerging biotechnology allow the acquisition of new skills yet to be included in a high school student's scientific-technological competence and which are necessary for the future active citizen. B. To design and create tools to build a low cost biotechnology laboratory which can be replicated in other secondary schools, Genspace Program. (https://www.genspace.org/high-school-students/). C. To evaluate the tools built for the biotechnology laboratory, assessed by a reference laboratory. E. To design and create robots based on the Robobo technology (http://www.theroboboproject.com/) F. To introduce some challenge proposals, so common in other teenager's spheres such as sports or videogames, in the teaching of science and technology. G. To increase the use of ICT in schools by means of virtual learning for students and pedagogic support for teachers. H. To exchange good practice implemented in each of the schools through virtual communication canals, networks, meetings and mobility which enhance key competences. Most innovative schools in Europe are introducing the Inquiry Based Learning Method as an strategy to improve science education. In our project we offer a new methodological approach: to adapt the different strategies of the inquiry based learning method to problem-solving processes. The results of our project will be distributed in two stages: 1. Creation of Open Software - Open Hardware and biotechnological development. 2. Guides for teachers We consider these first results may be helpful for the improvement of the practice activities in secondary schools, and that is why the educational officers could adopt our experience in their schools. The incorporation of a Maker movement philosophy where the students are responsible for their own learning and for the technological problem-solving fosters not only the students themselves but also the schools. The maker movement is characterized by a continuous revision and improvement of its resources in an open space, so in a near future these schools will be able to enhance its responsiveness to the new technologies related to robotics and biotechnology.