If you are a regular in this blog, or already acquainted with our community, you will be well aware that the objectives of Scientix are those of promoting and supporting a Europe-wide collaboration among STEM teachers, education researchers, policymakers and other STEM education professionals. Nonetheless, what you might not know is that Scientix is organized through a non-profit organization called European Schoolnet (EUN). Founded in 1997, EUN is a network of 30 European Ministries of Education, based in Brussels and with a clear objective in mind: to bring innovation in teaching and learning.

As a matter of a fact, European Schoolnet is currently leading the debate on how to attract the new generations to embark on science and technology studies and careers. Consequently, STEM has become one of European Schoolnet’s major thematic domains. In fact, up until now, EUN’s Science Education Department has been involved in more than 30 STEM education initiatives, supported thorough different stakeholders. From EUN’S members to industry partners, or through the European Union’s funding programs. Additionally, the portfolio of European Schoolnet STEM projects is quite varied, including a number of different STEM education aspects such as technology enhanced learning, teacher training or even the introduction of IBSE methodologies and Research and Innovation principles in schools.

In particular, there are 3 on-going projects that are well worth mentioning as they encompass the STEM objectives mentioned above:

• The AmgenTeach project is funded by the Amgen Foundation although the direction and technical assistance is provided by European Schoolnet. Its objective is to deepen student interest and achievement in science by strengthening the ability of life science secondary school teachers to use inquiry based teaching strategies in the classroom. The project comprises a series of face-to-face, enquiry-based training workshops offered in multiple languages and supporting national curricula.

• The Go-Lab Project (Global Online Science Labs for Inquiry Learning at School) opens up online science laboratories (remote and virtual labs) for the large-scale use in school education. The overall aim of the project is to encourage young people aged from 10 to 18 to engage in science topics, acquire scientific inquiry skills and experience the culture of doing science by undertaking active guided To achieve this aim, the Go-Lab project has created the Go-Lab Portal allowing science teachers finding online labs and inquiry learning applications appropriate for their class, combining these in Inquiry Learning Spaces (ILSs) supporting particular lesson scenarios, and sharing the ILSs with their students.

• Last, the STEM Alliance project is coordinated jointly by European Schoolnet and CSR Europe and supported by 10 different companies, as a follow-up to the successful inGenious project. The strategic goals of the project are: To support the competitiveness of European economies by ensuring a STEM-skilled workforce; to promote the attractiveness and importance of STEM jobs in all industrial sectors; to improve and promote all existing industry-education collaboration in the field of STEM or to contribute to innovation in STEM teaching at all levels of education by reducing the current shortage of STEM teachers in Europe and to enhance industry-education collaboration at national level across all Member States, among others.

Curious about knowing more about the Science Education Department? Feel free to contact us or check our websites for more detailed information!

Tags: Brussels, European Schoolnet, European Union, projects