Fourth inGenious Workshop in Tours 1-4 March 2013
 

After last September’s success in Bratislava, inGenious launched its fourth workshop with the collaboration of STMicroelectronics in Tours, France. On 1-3 March 2013, thirty teachers, education specialists and industry experts participated in this inspiring event.

The workshop kicked off on Saturday with a warm welcome by Evita Tasiopoulou, inGenious Pilot schools Coordinator, and Frédéric Chapuis, Quality Management System & Sustainable Development at STMicroelectronics. To kick off, participants enjoyed a guided visit of the STMicroelectronics factory; the visit concluded with a first session presented by Frédéric Chapuis focusing on the type of work conducted in industry. Participants were well impressed by the site’s innovation and intended to share this experience with their students.

After lunch, Francisco Moro and Julio Megia from Telefónica provided a workshop on Arduino, an open-source electronic prototyping platform used to create and program electronic prototypes. Participants were very enthusiastic about all the pedagogical possibilities such a platform can offer – one inGenious teacher said "I've found the Arduino presentation useful because it fits with my current work in the school."

In line with similar technologies, a great movie illustrating Drawdio, ‘a Pencil that Lets You Draw Music’ developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was also presented to spark further interest. Before wrapping up the first day, a third session on remote access labs with the Go-Lab visionary workshop was presented by Evita Tasiopoulou on behalf of European Schoolnet.


On Sunday, Evita invited participants to talk about their own experiences through a session entitled: inGenious questionnaires, why & what for? / inGenious and you. Finally, to conclude the weekend and provide one last best practice example, Mathilde Bargoin, European Schoolnet, presented a session on EPCA’s initiative that’s been made into a popular inGenious practice: Chemistry is all about you.

“Meeting with other European teachers is always great in terms of learning and sharing of experiences. After each meeting I feel richer in knowledge but I am also full of new contacts and friends. These networks of teachers can really make a difference on European teaching and learning.”

inGenious teacher

Resources

Open source hardware and software often generate a strong online community, with some great project examples. Discover instructions, tips, tricks, and anything and everything you need to know with an enthusiastic bunch of users in the Arduino playground, a wiki space where users can freely share and contribute their findings (available in bg, ct, de, en, es, fr, it, pt, and ru). Some great finished examples can also be inspiring for students: 20 Unbelievable Arduino Projects.

 Download presentations:

Published: May 2013