ECB

Time to wrap up

 

Expectations and feedback

There weren’t many expectations mentioned before the Summer School. Teachers expected to visit the Science Museum and Planetarium, to learn useful facts about new practices and to hear about new things, which will be coming up next cycle.  Some teachers were also interested in the examples of school-industry collaboration. A few teachers also wanted to organize meetings with others before the Summer School.

In General teachers were very happy about the event. Positive feedback was given a lot. Teachers found workshops very interesting and they got new ideas, which can be easily applied to classroom.  One teacher said she loved the event and she will try to involve her colleagues in inGenious. Some also got inspired to make a partnership with other schools. Positive feedback was also given to the venue CosmoCaixa. There were no complaints about early wake ups, teachers just said it was necessary to wake up early to have time for exiting workshops! Many thanks were given to European Schoolnet team about how well things were organized.

Some feedback was also given for specific workshops. The presentation of “Remote Labs and eExcursions” was said to be an excellent. “Street Lighting” was found to be very interesting and easy to work with students. “It’s all about energy” was also said to be a great workshop. Blu-ray DVD and LED workshops gave a good view to physics applied to everyday life.

Many teachers told that the best part was to meet interesting colleagues from abroad and chance experiences with them. They found the event a good place for peerlearning. Some suggested that there should be a bit more space between workshops to be able to share more thoughts with colleagues.

 

Suggestions for upcoming CoPs

Teachers gave their ideas for future CoPs: Biology, Nanotechnology, Self Evaluation in STEM subjects and inGenious activities, Remote Labs and Renewable energy.

 

Encyclopedia of links

In general teachers were very happy about the links. Very many teachers really found the collection of links very useful. Some new links were also recommended:

-       Pearltrees (an app for pc, iPads and Android devices), which helps to bring all useful links to classroom.

-       http://www.luma.fi/news/, a Finnish STEM web page.

-       An interesting world-wide science programme GLOBE for students of all ages: www.globe.gov. There are local branches in many countries as you can see from the map: www.globe.gov/community/map.

-       Great web sites with brain teasers: http://www.braingle.com/Science.html and http://www.sfscience.com/english/qtd/2000_2001/rm/index.htm

 

Video "Ignite Your Future"

Teachers had the chance to watch the new inGenious video “Ignite Your Future”. Many teachers consider the video useful and the feedback is positive. They think that it will have positive effect on the motivation of students to study science. Teachers like the positive feeling of the video. They think that visual information in the form of video can inspire more than an article.

Teachers want to share the video with their colleagues. One teacher intends to run it on the display screens around the school for some time. In addition teachers will show it to the career advisers as well as to the other science teachers or leave it to the career centre in their school.

An interesting idea is to show the video to the students in university who are becoming teachers. These young teachers who teach at schools for their first year can spread it to many schools.

Teachers are planning to use the video to motivate students and to show some of the different perspectives of career that now exist in the area of chemistry and sciences related to it. Showing this video at the beginning of the school year can give students some ideas about planning their future career.

The video fits easily into the lessons because the curriculum says that every teacher in every subject should introduce possible future careers connected with their subjects.

Some teachers think that teachers also have to create video materials and some teachers say their students have created videos themselves.

The new InGenious competition

The inGenious competition aims to raise pupils’ awareness of STEM skill sets and available careers and will launch on September 2013. The focus of the competition is on STEM career activities in class and the ultimate objective is to develop innovative thought-provoking activities for the pupils.

The competition is open to all interested schools and the guidelines will be available on InGenious web-page. A video and a set of pictures are requested to participate. Documentary films can be created with different software (Sony Vegas, Camptasia, ....) and posted on online platforms (Youtube). Flickr and Slide Share can also be used.

Teachers are sure that participation in competitions motivates students to learn science. Teachers think that competitions create a feeling of excitement and lead to success. But winning is not everything. Even if you lose you learn from your failure. Competitions are motivating, without them students would be lazier. Competitions always bring added value and let students have more fun while doing serious things. They can do something different from what they normally do in the class.

Teachers say that if students get prizes and rewards the interest is even greater. If competitions are international and associated with travelling they very attractive to students.

Teachers think that certificates and small presents are very good for students. Published photo is also a good idea.

Teachers also refer to some problems. Participating in a competition requires a lot of effort and logistics. Sometimes the language can also be a problem.