Schools are in a holiday period and they have been going on distant education activities in Turkey from the middle of March. This process has shown how important the use of technology is for teachers. Perhaps it was the first time for many teachers to teach remotely. In that way, this period created a chance for teacher trainings and learning about distance education. There are especially many provincial directorates of national education – in Turkey – that turned this period into an advantage. Based on teachers’ demands some started training teachers all over the country.

As a Scientix Ambassador, I received a proposal from some provincial Minister of National Education to present and share my knowledge with other teachers in our country. I have been providing “STEM Approach and STEM Discovery Week” online teaching for a while and there has been an incredible demand from the very first presentation. See the training session posters.

I made the first presentation for Ankara Provincial Minister of National Education within the scope of Başkent Teacher Academy. 300 people on Zoom, 650 online on YouTube, 6200 offline followed this training, video in Turkish here. Then, the training I provided for Ordu Provincial Directorate of National Education was watched 150 teachers; for Silifke District National Education Directorate there was by 100 attendees. The last two trainings were only online, however, the training for Sirnak, – which is one of Turkey’s most disadvantaged regions -, was incredible: 650 people watched live on Youtube, 100 people watched on Zoom and 5600 people watched offline training on YouTube. video in Turkish here. In addition, 500 people watched a live streaming at the eTwinning Professional Development Workshop for the General Directorate of Innovation and Educational Technologies. Also, 100 teachers participated in Aydın Provincial Minister of National Education program. See screenshots from one of the live the sessions:

The training that I provided consisted of three parts:

(1) I talked about the STEM approach and methods.  

(2) I walked them through my STEM-related works such as STEM Camp, More Coding More Girls, Intercontinental STEM Experience, among others.

(3) This was the most important part, where I taught about the Scientix project and STEM Discovery week. I explained all the competitions one by one and provided with information about each step from adding an event to the map to filling out an online form. I gave them the information about the specifications of the competitions, and which competition was suitable for which branch. Of course, we also talked about the great awards… I presented the Scientix Online Meeting Room (SOMR) and Moodle options within the scope of STEM Discovery Week, which was updated for the Covid-19 crisis. Finally, I explained the conditions and how they would benefit from both SOMR and Moodle LMS. See screenshots from this session bellow.

At the end of these trainings which were followed by about 14000 teachers in total, I answered several questions and I continue to answer them. I am extremely happy and proud of this special week because I have received two rewards.

This year I had a chance to give presentations strengthening science education in Europe, enabling students to solve real-world problems, and performing well the Ambassadors’ great responsibilities. The teachers who participated in these trainings also help me to reach my goals to keep strengthening STEM and sharing knowledge by organizing activities, participating in competitions and perhaps receiving awards within the scope of STEM Discovery Week. I will continue, with my strengths, to contribute more and more to this project, which I am always proud to be a part of it.

Author: Selçuk Yusuf Arslan, Turkish Scientix Ambassador

Featured image was created by Selçuk Yusuf Arslan – Attribution CC-BY

Tags: SOMR, STEM practices, STEMDiscoveryWeek, teacher training, Turkey