The foundation “La Main A La Pâte” is the French contact point. For their annual meeting, Scientix was invited to join for a collaborative work scheduled on Saturday 14th.

Speaker at the Conference

Let me briefly introduce what is “La Main A La Pâte”. It is a foundation that aims at improving the quality of science and technology teaching in primary and middle schools. It was founded in 2011 by the Académie des Sciences, the École Normale Supérieure (Paris) and the École Normale Supérieure of Lyon.

“La Main A La Pâte” continues the work started by the La main à la pâte operation, which was launched in 1995 by the Académie des Sciences at the initiative of Georges CHARPAK, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1992. The foundation’s activities are carried out within France and internationally, providing assistance and professional development for teachers. Programs are designed to help them implement inquiry-based learning which stimulates a scientific spirit in pupils, understanding of the world and capacities for expression.

Let’s go back to the conference. It all started well, and on Thursday 12th the head of the Foundation as well as one inspector set the context of this workshop. On the afternoon, reports on different activities took place. On Friday 13th of November, the audience was divided in groups and each of them was given the task of defining what basically is inquiry-based learning. That led to heated debate as the session went on. Then, David Jasmin, the head of the foundation made a presentation of Scientix. Both Céline and I were asked to briefly tell what Scientix is about and give the assembly some information. But, the idea was to be prepared for the next day meeting where the spotlight would be shining on Scientix.

It turned out differently and Paris became a scary, bloody place overnight. Needless to say that the Saturday session was cancelled. Agueda and Enrique went back to Brussels, Céline and I did exactly the same. This event, instead of being a fantastic networking event, will be more remembered as the most frightening one I have ever attended. However, from the texts and messages we sent to each other that night to keep us up-to-date, I realized how close-knit we’ve become. This gave me the feeling that we are all part of the same community, a true Scientix team.

Article written by: Philippe Vignat, Scientix Deputy Ambassador

Tags: conference