Meet the expert Meet the expert

The expert of the first week is Astrid Carl from the House of Natural Sciences, Denmark, who is also the host of the CoP. Astrid Carl is the author of the handbook “How to Get Started with School-company Collaborations in Science” based on experiences collected from more than 30 collaborations in Denmark and Sweden. The handbook provides general experiences and good advices, and shows 5 very different concepts for collaborations.

 

Astrid Carl is also the project manager of NatPLUS, which is a project aiming to develop concepts for collaborations on STEM between different actors including primary schools, secondary schools and companies.  

 

Astrid Carl holds a MSc in Biology and has a past in a public research institute and as Business Development Manager in ARLA FOODS INGREDIENTS.  

Welcome Welcome

This Community of Practice aims to inspire you to make the right choice of collaboration with a company because you are aware of the different benefits and drawbacks of each way of collaboration. It also aims to give you the knowledge of how to obtain success and avoid troubles when collaborating with companies.


During the 6 weeks we will discuss about: 

1)      General experiences and good advices

 

5 different ways of collaboration:

2)      When Individual pupils make projects with companies

3)      When 1 class, 1 teacher and 1 company have 1 collaboration

4)      When a company adopts a class for several years

5)      When teachers experience hands-on programs in companies

6)      When a municipality makes a political decision


At the start of each week you will have access to a chapter of the handbook “How to Get Started with School-Company Collaborations in Science” covering the topic of the week.


At the end of the 6 weeks we will have asked questions, shared concerns, experiences and success stories. There is no doubt that school-company collaboration including visits and hands-on experiences for the pupils are challenging for the teacher to plan the first time it takes place, but there is no doubt either that these experiences are very fruitful indeed for the pupils. After this Community of Practice you will feel much more confident in initiating, planning and performing a collaboration with a company.  


The topic “Different types of school-company collaborations” is relevant because there are very many different ways of collaboration, ranging from indirect means of collaborations to adoption schemes for classes or even whole schools. Most often the collaboration includes teachers and pupils, but we also find activities for teachers only. It also varies whether the pupils will visit the company, the company will visit the class or there are mutual visits or maybe even no visits at all.