The rapid shift to online teaching and learning due to COVID-19 offers a unique opportunity to grasp the transformative potential of new digital technologies in facilitating an inspiring and engaging science classroom by: (a) keeping the opening up momentum of schools through meaningful synergies with educational stakeholders; and (b) supporting digital readiness and school resilience in the face of major disruptive events such the current pandemic. Bringing together an international consortium of partners with a proven track record in the design and implementation of digital education, the “Playing with Protons Goes Digital” project aims at employing the use of digital technologies, appropriately framed and scaffolded, to facilitate creativity-enhanced inquiry-based science teaching and learning. The project places strong emphasis on building teacher digital competences by providing teachers and educators with an integrated toolkit that would allow them to co-design online STEAM resources that speak to the digital habits, needs and interests of the generation Z of school learners. This will contribute to the cultivation of teacher digital leadership and resilience, which in the current circumstances is a key requirement for the effective engagement of students with cutting-edge science, the wonder of scientific discovery and the merits of technological innovation at a crucial stage in their lives before their attitudes to science become negatively fixed. The project aims to address science teaching and learning through the use of exciting digital technologies by teachers working with hands-on and minds-on activities and experiments and various innovative arts-based methodologies inspired by cutting-edge science at INFN and CERN, taking into consideration both remote support and working in the classroom. The project will work with 50 schools (10 in rural/remote settings), 100 teachers and 500 students. The project aims to reach 2000 teachers through its various activities Our approach aims to improve teacher digital skills and their ability to respond to the demands for science teaching that not only enthuses young minds but also informs them about the inextricable relevance of science to society. In addition, there is also an emphasis on remote support. Here, we are looking into offering remote schools the ability to: (a) work with exciting STEAM activities; (b) collaborate with organisations such as INFN and Città della Scienza with the use of open digital tools; and (c) access exciting open content that can be delivered by teachers remotely during closures or outside teaching hours. Addressing the needs of contemporary students and teachers, the project will develop a coherent integrated teacher training methodology, which will allow teachers to: • Be acquainted with and fully understand the context of creative science teaching methodologies adapted and reworked into a unique and easily digested approach from selected STEAM initiatives • Put to practice various teaching components, by taking into account the needs and skills of students and the various contexts addressed • Be able to deploy new arts/creativity methodologies and ICT tools such as simple but engaging augmented reality activities and games • Bring into their science teaching a unique collection of tools and interdisciplinary resources and learning scenarios • Learn how to create science learning scenarios that suit their own needs for using e-Learning tools • Establish a collaboration framework with colleagues and peers, allowing them to synchronize and coordinate delivery, as well as performing joined activities with their students • Join a European a community network of peers and stakeholders (teachers, adult trainers, teacher trainers, facilitators, education policy makers, scientists) • Expand learning beyond the school • Expand their continuous professional development opportunities • Learn how to build an opening up strategy for their school based on “Playing with Protons Goes Digital” concrete recommendations. The project will produce five Intellectual Outputs: • the Conceptual/Methodological Framework on why working with STEAM methodologies, digital tools, High-Energy Physics in the classroom and their role in inspiring the young minds • the Resources and Training Manual with its complete set of activities, tools, materials, including an augmented reality kit • the Online Environment to support teachers and science educators remotely, as well as to scaffold teacher engagement, cross-school collaboration, the design of new content by confident teachers and the implementation of activities and projects • A Guide to Evaluation supplemented by an eTwinning Toolkit to enhance reach and offer pathways for further synergies beyond the lifespan of the project • A School and Policy Recommendations Document to support educational authorities, school leaders, science centres and museums, and educational stakeholders
Based on the success of the STEAM initiatives in Italy, Greece and the UK, the project aimed at strengthening the digital techniques of primary and secondary school teachers in order to enrich their pedagogical practice. This not only helped build an online community and share good practice among teachers, but also provided a set of new digital resources based on "augmented reality" (AR). The COVID-19 pandemic has caused serious disruptions in school education globally. As reported by UNESCO (2020), over 1.5 billion students were affected due to the closure of schools in 131 countries. Many educational systems around the world have so far responded to the emergency by using the use of distance learning and online learning systems as a means to continue the educational process, adhering to social distancing protocols and other necessary precautions. The rapid transition to online teaching and learning through COVID-19 provides a unique opportunity to grasp the transformative potential of new digital technologies in facilitating a challenging and engaging science class.
The basic idea behind the PWPGD project is to help strengthen the digital techniques of European primary and secondary school teachers, making available all the experience of the founding partners in the field of basic scientific research and the design, development and implementation of research activities in education. The expertise of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and the University of Birmingham in the field of physics and STEAM activities carried out with schools over the past decade, along with the experience of the Ellinogermaniki Agogi School (EA) in the R&D of the educational sector and the Fondazione Idis-Città della Scienza, which has always designed and implemented museum and digital activities for schools, have certainly contributed significantly to the development of digital school skills increasingly needed in the post Covid period. As an industrial partner, to design and realize a digital platform for the development of science stories through augmented reality, we involved the company CreativiTIC, which is an SME founded in 2011 with a huge R&D experience in the field of Augmented Reality.