DIY EXperiments for sustaining science Education in distant learning enviRonment during the COVID-19 crisis Erasmus Project

Project Title

DIY EXperiments for sustaining science Education in distant learning enviRonment during the COVID-19 crisis

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Pedagogy and didactics; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, countries have turned to distance learning as a means of continuing education services. For educators, this situation requires to perform a complex, adaptive and transformative challenge, one for which there is no preconfigured guidance to appropriately implement continuous activities. Hence, the teachers and education leaders must swiftly design responses as the pandemic runs its course. An analysis performed by the “États généraux du numérique pour l’Éducation” in France has shown that under these exceptional circumstances, the school directors, primary school inspectors and management staff have mostly placed the preservation of the learning link as the first priority (65% and 69% respectively). This exceptional situation has also generated particular difficulties. More than two-thirds (69%) of the respondents are finding it more difficult to ensure the smooth running of the organization of student work, 65% to implement activities and initiate educational actions. Meanwhile, according to the Harris Interactive survey for the SNUipp-FSU, 90% of teachers believe that confinement has highlighted more inequalities between students. In this context, maintaining experimental learning while not creating new difficulties and inequalities in reaching and understanding STEAM contents is a priority.

To support this shift and develop inclusion in a difficult context, TheDexterLab will provide several iterations of scientific experimentation protocols, part of a scientific process, based on the national STEAM programmes in secondary school classes, capitalising on digital and computational thinking practices to ensure that all students independently from financial resources and access to device, can maintain their access to educational contents. This will participate in reaching the following objectives:

Obj. 1: Provide the same opportunities to maintain the access to experimental STEAM activities, independently from context, access to devices and financial resources by constructing scientific protocols with the teachers and for the students to answer several learning modalities

Obj. 2: Participating in the development of curiosity for sciences through inquiry-based learning modalities based on transdisciplinary resources illustrating how the experimentations can have an impact on societal issues

Obj. 3: Enhancing the use of techno-creative solutions using MakeCode to create simulations of scientific processes.

To achieve this aim, the project will be based on 4 outputs leading to the following results:
1) Compendium of scientific protocols for maintaining STEAM activities during COVID-19: 25 scientific protocols tailored to the needs of the STEAM teachers will be provided
2) Do-it-yourself resources and devices to support the protocols: 5 full devices DIY plans and associated resources for home-based version will be made available and certified as open hardware
3) Associated simulation scenarios available on an open-source online platform.
4) Guidelines and support programme for teachers and extracurricular actors to ease the project implementation and replication, including a training programme.

This will lead to several short and long-term impacts, especially:
– The promotion of innovative and digitally based approaches in maintaining scientific experiments in hybrid learning ecosystem, especially during the COVID-19 crisis,
– The development of the 21st-century skills of the learners, especially, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, through tools enabling the development of inquiry-based and autonomous practices in STEAM activities,
– Eventually, on the longer term, the development of cooperation between educational organizations and places for the promotion of DIY/digital practices such as Maker Spaces and Fab Lab for replicating the approach and diffusing the mindset at large scale.

Through these activities, the partners expect to directly involve 30 teachers within the project, and through their classrooms around 3 000 potential students in 5 European countries, including 200 children with fewer opportunities, facing health and economic obstacles.

Eventually, the project will rely on the quality of its partnerships, gathering 5 organizations from 5 EU countries, representing 1) technology development (AMU, EA) in the field of computer science and pedagogy, 2) schools and teachers (AMU, EA), 3) mediations associations especially for children with disabilities and fewer resources (SCIENTOTHEQUE) and eventually, 4) the maker ecosystem (Ultra-Lab, ZeUGMA).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 250913 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITE D’AIX MARSEILLE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• ELLINOGERMANIKI AGOGI SCHOLI PANAGEA SAVVA AE
• ZeUGMA OOD
• ULTRALAB S.L.
• La Scientothèque