The project “Science around us” is going to be implemented by a partnership consisting of six upper secondary schools (four state and two private) from six different countries– Finland, France, Greece, Island, Malta and Poland. The direct participants will be 20-80 students of age 15-20 and 4-10 teachers per school. The project is student-centered, both in terms of aims and involvement in almost all project activities at all stages – from preparation to evaluation and dissemination of its results. It is an answer to the need to form young people in a comprehensive way- to develop them as critically thinking, open–minded individuals, but also members of local communities, nations and united Europe, and conscious inhabitants of our planet, and in this way to contribute to science-literate society, the necessity of which is stressed by Europe 2020 Strategy. It addresses the problem of falling interest of students in scientific subjects, which many of whom find difficult, useless and boring, observed in schools and confirmed both in surveys conducted among students and in reports of the Ministries of Education, and manifesting itself in decreasing shares of students doing sciences on advanced level and choosing scientific subjects in final exams, as well as in unsatisfactory results in PISA tests in our countries, which only in Finland were above the average for OECD countries both in terms of mean score and the share of top performers. To ensure active involvement of the students in the activities, we intend to use enquiry-based learning approach, hands-on method and place-based education. Observations, experiments, workshops, lessons in university labs or science museums, demonstrations, debates, lectures, seminars and visits to scientific or industrial institutions should trigger and develop the curiosity of our students in the natural and technical world around them and the principles governing natural phenomena or the operation of technical devices, make them realise the importance of science and its influence on our lives, and foster their critical thinking and innovativeness, which is our main goal, corresponding to the main problem. A chance to observe scientists or engineers at work, using modern digital equipment, should show them the significance of scientific method and a good command of ICT. Non-academic activities like photo or film-taking should attract students achieving worse results at school or marginalised at school and local community, and give them a chance to feel important, building their initiative and self-confidence, and in some cases arouse interest in science too. Moreover, we intend to use the full potential inherent in group work, especially in international context, and form attitudes of initiative and entrepreneurship, teamwork and leadership skills as well as ability to perform well in new situations and cooperate with people from different backgrounds. International cooperation should also raise awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe, increase language skills and motivation to learn them. Getting to know the culture of other nations should build awareness of similarities and differences among nations, fight stereotypes, form attitudes of tolerance, openness and respect for otherness. Distance cooperation and the need to use modern equipment and ICT in project work at home should increase their ICT skills. Also, the enriching impact of international cooperation on teachers cannot be overestimated. Exchange of ideas, experiences and practices within the partnership should develop their professional skills. Changes in attitudes, especially towards science, finding new interests and learning new skills will be the most important results of our project. However, we are also planning to prepare a few joint end products, some of which we hope to be used as teaching aids in our partnership and beyond. We intend to produce a booklet on the importance of water and the problem of its purity, a booklet on geological forms and phenomena in our countries, a video on benefits and risks of using nuclear physics, two PPT presentations - on the Earth as a planet and on work principles of various devices explained on the grounds of science, an interactive atlas showing sources of energy and mineral deposits in our countries, a photo album of natural phenomena together with their explanations and a set of lesson plans. We expect the project to be a stimulating and developing experience for the students that will change their attitudes and perception of the world and influence their life choices. It will equip teachers, not only of our schools, with innovative lesson plans and teaching aids. Finally, the schools as institutions, maintaining some curricula changes, new extracurricular activities, as well as newly gained contacts or forms of cooperation, will be able to offer a chance for comprehensive development to new students and keep their position of modern, European schools.
The project “Science around us” has been implemented by a partnership consisting of six upper secondary schools (four state and two private) from six different countries– Finland, France, Greece, Island, Malta and Poland. The direct participants were 20-80 students of age 15-20 and 4-10 teachers per school. The project was student-centered, both in terms of aims and involvement in almost all project activities at all stages – from preparation to evaluation and dissemination of its results. It was an answer to the need to form young people in a comprehensive way- to develop them as critically thinking, open–minded individuals, but also members of local communities, nations and united Europe, and conscious inhabitants of our planet, and in this way to contribute to science-literate society, the necessity of which was stressed by Europe 2020 Strategy. It addressed the problem of falling interest of students in scientific subjects, which many of whom found difficult, useless or boring, observed in schools and confirmed both in surveys conducted among students and in reports of the Ministries of Education, and manifesting itself in decreasing shares of students doing sciences on advanced level and choosing scientific subjects in final exams, as well as in unsatisfactory results in PISA tests in our countries, which only in Finland were above the average for OECD countries both in terms of mean score and the share of top performers. To ensure active involvement of the students in the activities, we used enquiry-based learning approach, hands-on method and place-based education. Observations, experiments, workshops, lessons in university labs or science museums, demonstrations, debates, lectures, seminars and visits to scientific or industrial institutions triggered and developed the curiosity of our students in the natural and technical world around them and the principles governing natural phenomena or the operation of technical devices, made them realise the importance of science and its influence on our lives, and fostered their critical thinking and innovativeness, which was our main goal, corresponding to the main problem. A chance to observe scientists or engineers at work, using modern digital equipment, showed them the significance of scientific method and a good command of ICT. Non-academic activities like photo or film-taking attracted students achieving worse results at school or marginalised at school and local community, and gave them a chance to feel important, building their initiative and self-confidence, and in some cases aroused interest in science too. Moreover, we used the full potential inherent in group work, especially in international context, and tried to form attitudes of initiative and entrepreneurship, teamwork and leadership skills as well as ability to perform well in new situations and cooperate with people from different backgrounds. International cooperation also raised awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe, increased language skills and motivation to learn them. Getting to know the culture of other nations built awareness of similarities and differences among nations, helped to fight stereotypes, form attitudes of tolerance, openness and respect for otherness. Distance cooperation and the need to use modern equipment and ICT in project work at home increased their ICT skills. Also, the enriching impact of international cooperation on teachers cannot be overestimated. Exchange of ideas, experiences and practices within the partnership developed their professional skills. Changes in attitudes, especially towards science, finding new interests and learning new skills are the most important results of our project. However, we also prepared a few joint end products, some of which we hope to be used as teaching aids in our partnership and beyond. We prepared PDF presentations on the importance of water and the problem of its purity and on the Earth as a planet, booklets containing photos of geological forms in our countries and physical phenomena in nature together with explanations of how they were formed, a video on the benefits and risks of using nuclear physics, a PPT presentation on the principles of operation of various devices explained on the grounds of science, an interactive atlas showing electricity production in our countries and a set of lesson plans. We expect the project to be a stimulating and developing experience for the students that will change their attitudes and perception of the world and influence their life choices. It will equip teachers, not only of our schools, with innovative lesson plans and teaching aids. Finally, the schools as institutions, maintaining some curricula changes, new extracurricular activities, as well as newly gained contacts or forms of cooperation, will be able to offer a chance for comprehensive development to new students and keep their position of modern, European schools.