In higher secondary education science teaching is a challenge and often students don’t really understand complex contexts and relations (especially in physics). In some European countries the learning results for female learners are not so good as compared with their male peers. This was the starting point for the project TEST. The project “Technology Enhanced Science Teaching” aims to create multimedia-based and interactive teaching material for science teaching. The focus is laid on complex topics from physics (for example quantum physic), chemistry, and biology. These so-called teaching tools are small software units dedicated to a specific competence. The tools can be used by students during lessons and as well for individual learning at home. As a complete innovation the “Analogous Comparison and Transfer Method” ACAT is first used to create the tools. The ACAD method is an innovative approach to science teaching, was developed in Austria and first published by P. Mazohl at the International Conference for Education, Research, and Innovation (ICERI) in Seville 2017. The objectives of the project are the creation of approx. 15 tools (as described above), implement them in standard lessons in five European countries, evaluate them and finally to publish them as Open Educational Resources (OERs) as examples of best praxis using digital competences and technology enhanced learning. This will be an active learning and a flipping teaching experience, where the teacher acts as a facilitator and students learn actively in a heutagogical approach. The project contributes to an active learning in the digital era. The consortium partners are well distributed in Europe (Sweden – North, Ireland – West, Spain – South, and Austria in the middle). Three partners are schools with a specific emphasis and skills. The Colegio Internacional Costa Adeje (CICA) is an international private school with students from all European countries focusing on physics, the Adamstown Community College is a private school in the suburbs of Dublin focusing on physics and chemistry; and the Dragonskolan Umea is experienced in using virtual labs for science teaching. The Austrian partner EBI/EIE is a teachers’ training institution with an own research department and impacts to the project in the field of multimedia content creation and the necessary pedagogical competences. The EBI is associated with an Austrian school to evaluate the created teaching tools there. During the lifetime of the project the partners will develop approx. 15 different learning units as multimedia-based and interactive tools. In close cooperation of the partners, these tools are outlined, created using common software to create the multimedia-based learning units, implemented in the standard lessons, evaluated, and finally submitted as OERs to www.openeducationeuropa.eu. A transferability and evaluation guide cares for the versatile use of these tools in other context or educational fields as well as it offers the help and the guidance for other teachers to develop their own tools. Two European frameworks will be used during the development: the DigiComp 2.0 framework and the e-xellence framework (e-xcellencelabel.eadtu.eu) for tool development and quality enhancement. Additional, the pedagogical approach uses the ACAT method. The used methodology is partly adapted from the way to create software. After the outlining of the 15 learning tools in a stepwise refinement the basic steps are defined, from this the software is developed, translated, implemented, evaluated, amended and finally supplied by the transferability guide. Quality enhancement is part of the development and will use a benchmark-based framework (see above). The results are approx. 15 approved and evaluated learning tools, each for a specific competence in science teaching, programmed on a modern level for technology enhanced teaching and learning (TETL) (former eLearning). The tools are an impact to TETL in Europe as examples of best praxis. They promote the ACAT method, which is an enrichment not only for science teaching but for all subjects. This method also makes it easier for girls to understand complex scientific relations. As a longer-term benefit these tools fill the gap of teaching material in Europe. They demonstrate a versatile and promising approach to science teaching.
The starting point of the project “Technology Enhanced Science Teaching” (TEST) was that in higher secondary education some complex contexts and relations of the science field were not easily understood by students. For this reason the project TEST aimed to create multimedia-based and interactive teaching materials for science teaching and learning. The focus was laid on complex topics from Physics, Chemistry and Biology, but educational resources for Mathematics or Philosophy were also created. These so-called teaching tools are small software units dedicated to a specific competence. The tools can be used by students during lessons as well as for individual learning at home. As a complete innovation the “Analogous Comparison and Transfer Method” (ACAT) was first used to create the tools. The ACAT method is an innovative approach to science teaching. It was developed in Austria and first published by P. Mazohl at the International Conference for Education, Research, and Innovation (ICERI) in Seville 2017. As a result, 17 teaching tools were created and implemented in standard lessons in the four European countries. They were also published as Open Educational Resources (OERs) in the webpage of the project as examples of best praxis of technology enhanced learning and contributed to the development of active methodologies in the digital age. In close cooperation of the partners, these tools were outlined, developed using common software, translated, implemented in the standard lessons and evaluated. The experience of the implementation of the educational materials into regular lessons was summarized in a document. A Transferability and Evaluation guide was also written. This guide cares for the versatile use of these tools in other contexts or educational fields, and it offers the help and the guidance for other teachers to develop their own tools. The tools were an impact to Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning (TETL) in Europe as they filled the gap of teaching materials in Europe. They show a versatile and promising approach to science teaching. They also promote the ACAT method, which is an enrichment not only for science teaching but for all subjects. Moreover, the COVID-19 crisis confronted almost all schools in Europe with distance learning. The ACAT tools are ideally suited for learners to independently develop and understand certain learning contents. For this purpose, the tools are accessible online and can be used by students and other interested persons. The consortium partners are well distributed in Europe (Sweden – North, Ireland – West, Spain – South, and Austria in the middle). Three partners are schools with a specific emphasis and skills. The Colegio Internacional Costa Adeje (CICA) is an international private school with students from all European countries and is involved in technological development projects, the Adamstown Community College is a school in the suburbs of Dublin focusing on physics and chemistry; and the Dragonskolan Umea is a school experienced in using virtual labs for science teaching. The Austrian partner EBI/EIE is a teachers’ training institution with its own research department and impacted the project in the field of multimedia content creation and the necessary pedagogical competences. The EBI is associated with an Austrian school in order to implement and evaluate the created teaching tools. Each organisation selected at least three teachers/trainers with the necessary pre-knowledge for the development of the different activities of the project as well as to fulfill the technical requirements to implement the educational resources in regular lessons. Moreover, it was very important that they were interested in the project, in using the ACAT method and in developing innovative teaching material.