ICSE Newsletter

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Dear Newsletter Subscribers,

even though much has been slowed down during this autumn of the Covid-19 year 2020, we at ICSE have some exciting news to share. In this edition of the newsletter you will find the introduction of two more of our Consortium partners, this time from Turkey and Austria. We have two new innovative projects to announce and you will find updates about our up-and-running projects ENSITE and GEM. Furthermore, we now offer open math tasks that grapple with the Corona pandemic, additionally to our traditional Quarterly Problems (QPs).

We are not the only ones, who stay active during this challenging season, however. Our partners from Science on Stage once again facilitate the European Code League this year. Grab your school class and participate in the coding competition- there is still some time left! Lastly, we have partnered up with Futurum Careers and talked to them about two important topics: the role of science communication in establishing trust towards science-based decision making and the crucial task of building a STEAM generation for the succesful future of us all.

Are you curious? We wish you a pleasant read and, despite the difficult circumstances, a joyous and calm Christmas season ahead.

Your ICSE team

content

1. The ICSE Consortium Introduced

University of Klagenfurt, Austria
Hacettepe University, Turkey

2. Project Announcements:

MOST: Meaningful Open Schooling Connects Schools to Communities
STEMKey: The importance of promoting core competences in future STEM teaching

3. Project Reports:

ENSITE: Developing materials for future science and maths teachers
GEM: First summer school in Lithuania a big success despite Covid-19

4. Tasks

Mathematics and Corona
Quarterly Problem: Math Edition - Air Traffic
Quarterly Problem: Science Edition - Hunting Microorganisms
Quarterly Problem: Green Edition - Park Ranger's worries

5. ICSE Partner Activities

Guest Blogpost by Karen Lindsay, Futurum Careers: Can STEM education help establish trust in science and scientists?
Interview with ICSE Director Katja Maaß in Futurum Mag "How to Build a STEAM Generation"
Join the European Code League: Submission Deadline 1 December 2020

ICSE Consortium introduced: university of Klagenfurt

One of our two Austrian partner institutions is located right in the heart of the beautiful and diverse Alps-Adriatic-Region: at the Institute for Instructional and School Development (IUS) of the University of Klagenfurt (AAU).

They focus on those who learn and those who teach, on learning arrangements, organisations, and the educational system, operating in the action fields of research and development. The IUS has a long tradition between teacher education and professional development in STEM education. It also has a long-standing cooperation with the Freiburg University of Education, making it the perfect partner for ICSE.

the icse consortium introduced: Hacettepe university

Hacettepe University (HU) is a major state university in Turkey with over 50,000 students and 3,600 academic staff and a founding member of our ICSE Consortium.

Our partners at Hacettepe University STEM & Maker Lab are researchers with extensive experience in STEM curriculum development, in-service teacher training activities and public engagement of STEM to improve the quality of education. Their collaboration with the University of Education Freiburg enhanced Hacettepe’s partnership with other PD centres in Turkey. As a result, the university worked closely with the Turkish Ministry of National Education on Professional Development activities to promote STEM education nationwide. HU regularly organises big-scale conferences and other multiplier events.

MOST: Meaningful Open Schooling Connects Schools to Communities

The EU funded project MOST supports the cooperation of European school students and citizens with other established local institutions. Through projects around communal environmental challenges, they develop scienctific knowledge as well as transversal skills and competences to find nuanced solutions to complex problems.

The aim is to awaken an interest in natural sciences and scientific work, which in the long term will lead to more students in Europe choosing to pursue a scientific career, caring about the environment and having the necessary skills to meet contemporary challenges with well-informed problem-solving capabilities.

To achieve this goal, 23 partners from 10 European countries form the MOST consortium.

New Project STEMKey

STEMkey stands for ‘Teaching standard STEM topics with a key competence approach’. The new Erasmus+ project aims to transform future teachers’ approach to teaching by rethinking, reshaping and redirecting standard STEM teaching in the direction of key competence development.

As a result students will be empowered to apply their knowledge to the complexities of our real world, thereby qualifying them to find creative solutions to problems in the world of work.

plastic BOTTLES IN teacher education

One might righftully ask oneself what the life cycle of plastic bottles has to do with the education of future teachers?

Through our ENSITE materials future teachers learn to discuss problems around plastic and the environment in their own lessons. They do so by using inquiry-based learning approaches for the topic, thereby setting up socio-scientific issues on plastics in their lesson contexts and teaching their pupils to identify and argue for different perspectives of plastic issues. This includes fostering attitudes and action competence as important parts of children’s journey to be responsible citizens.

a first successful GEM summer school

In the spring of 2020 the GEM Consortium faced a challenging decision: what to do with the planned 11 summer camps 2020 for girls in the midst of the Corona pandemic?

The GEM project was put on halt for a year. Only our GEM project partners from Lithuania were able to organise a first summer school in Vilnius in the summer of 2020. After intensive planning, many considerations and very low corona infection rates at that time, the summer school “Smart City 2020” was a first success.

The school’s program aim was to motivate girls to pursue a career in STEM subjects and to encourage active participation in European research, innovation, entrepreneurship and digital literacy.

Mathematics and Corona

What does math class have to do with the corona pandemic?

At first sight maybe not so much. But when we look closer, there are many links!

How fast is Covid-19 spreading? How much is the spread slowed down by lockdowns and social distancing measures? Why was the proportion of those who died of the corona virus in Germany so low at the beginning and was then rising?

Math class can empower students to wrap their head around these complex questions, while teaching them about important mathematical concepts like statistic or exponential growth.

We developed some concrete tasks to get started.

QP Math Edition: Air Traffic

No contrails, but blue sky and bright sunshine. Spring 2020 brought lots of good weather - but also curfews and travel bans. Instead of spending Easter at the beach or visiting grandma and grandpa, staycation was the order of the day.

But how many planes were actually in the air in April, compared to the usual traffic? And what does that mean for our environment?

QP Science Edition: Microorganisms

Most objects and surfaces accumulate microorganisms. Some are more prone to do so than others, however. Handling mobile phones, keyboards and computers devices, video consoles, railings, doorknobs, etc. could lead to situations where microorganisms are spread...

How can we discover where harmful microorganisms do and don't reside? Could we come up with a 3D map that points out microorganism hot spots?

QP Green Edition: Park Ranger's Worries

During his tour through the park, the park ranger notices changes in the horse chestnut trees that cause him concern. The horse chestnut leaves already show yellowish to brown, elongated spots in early summer and die off completely by late summer.

Can this be a problem for the tree? What could be the cause? Are fungi or animals perhaps the reason for this phenomenon? Or is climate change to blame for the suffering of the trees?

Can STEM education help establish trust in science and scientists?

If events like the current coronavirus pandemic have taught us anything, it is that science communication is vital. But if citizens are lacking in science literacy, then all the best science communication strategies in the world won’t achieve the public engagement they seek. This is where teachers come in.

In this article Karen Lindsay from Futurum Careers discusses questions like: How do we meet people who are part of an anti-science or anti-vaccination movement? How can STEM education help establish trust, where suspicion lingers?

Find out what answers she comes up with.

Futurum Mag "How to Build a STEAM Generation"

How do you build a STEAM generation?

That's the theme of Futurum Career's latest issue, which features an interview with ICSE director Katja Maaß about how research can help improve STEM education across Europe.

Included are also Dr. Jenny Nash, Head of Education Impact at LEGO Education, and Ollie Bray, Initiative Lead at The LEGO Foundation, bioengineering student David Aguilar Amphoux aka "HandSolo", who built his first prosthetic arm aged 9 and Benjamin Rein, a PHD student who has set up the Aspiring Scientists Coalition.

You can find the interview of Katja Maaß on page 54.

JOIN the European Code League

The situation around Covid-19 makes it clear how important digital tools are for work and private life. In order for students to be able to shape digitization in the future, they should also be able to program. Teachers should integrate this topic into their lessons to prepare children and young people for the digital future. This is why Science on Stage has launched the European Code League. They invite STEM teachers from all over Europe to get creative with their students and present their innovative coding project for STEM lessons in primary and secondary schools. For these projects digital tools such as microcontrollers (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Calliope mini, etc.) and/or different programming environments and languages (Snap!, Scratch, C++, etc.) can be used.

Deadline is 1 December 2020.

PS: Be inspired by the free brochure "Coding in STEM-Education"!

photo credits

1. ICSE, 2. AAU Klagenfurt, 3. Hacettepe University, 4. Jasmin Sessler/Unsplash, 5. Gerd Altmann/Pixabay, 6. Mausund Feltstasjon, 7. GEM Project Consortium, 8. ICSE, 9. OpenClipart-Vectors, Pixabay, 10. Sinisa Maric, Pixabay, 11. Pixabay, 12. Science on Stage, 13. Dominic Seyler for Futurum Careers, 14. Katja Maaß

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