After a successful first event in Austria last October, inGenious was back again in 2013 with a second academy for teachers. On 8-10 March 2013, 85 teachers, STEM education specialists and industry experts gathered together in the heart of Madrid. The academy was organised by European Schoolnet in collaboration with Telefónica. On Friday, participants first took the time to get to know one another with ice-breaking activities and a reception at the Catalonia Gran Via hotel. The core programme then kicked off on Saturday with a warm welcome by Geert Paemen, Head of Corporate Volunteering at Fundación Telefónica, and Agueda Gras, inGenious pilot school manager. The plenary session also featured an overview of Fundación Telefónica’s worldwide educational programme. A total of 18 different workshops organised by inGenious partners were offered as a series of hands-on sessions, from which teachers could pick and choose. Several partners provided workshops on school industry partnerships, while other partners focused their workshops around testable inGenious practices and other educational resources. The Danish Science Communication association advised teachers on ways to identify local companies, link these with schools, and generate students’ enthusiasm for science. Wissensfabrik and the Austrian Ministry of Education each offered inspirational workshops where they presented successful examples of school-industry collaborations. SMART provided two workshops, each focussing on ‘Notebook 3D’ and ‘Maths Tools’, existing inGenious practices. Shell presented the ‘SuperBenz’ green power workshop, addressing and debating today’s energy challenges. Telefónica organised a session on Arduino, an open-source electronic prototyping platform that is used to program and create interactive electronic devices. The Autonomous University of Barcelona animated a session called ‘Do you know more practices?’ to help teachers identify and disseminate both existing and new practices. On behalf of the DESIRE project, European Schoolnet organised a world café discussion on better ways of communicating innovative educational science resources. MyScience UK ran a session to gather feedback about inGenious, while Nokia and The European Petrochemical Association demonstrated their own educational resources. At the end of the academy, each participant was thanked with a certificate of participation. Rinske van den Berg, inGenious project manager, concluded with a few words on the project’s upcoming activities; inviting teachers to join future chats, workshops, communities of practice and the second inGenious summer school. The inGenious team is now planning a third academy in 2014. Published: May 2013 | |||
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