Playing with Protons Goes Digital Erasmus Project

Project Title

Playing with Protons Goes Digital

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: Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The rapid shift to online teaching and learning due to COVID-19 offers a unique opportunity to grasp the transformative potential of new digital technologies in facilitating an inspiring and engaging science classroom by: (a) keeping the opening up momentum of schools through meaningful synergies with educational stakeholders; and (b) supporting digital readiness and school resilience in the face of major disruptive events such the current pandemic. Bringing together an international consortium of partners with a proven track record in the design and implementation of digital education, the “Playing with Protons Goes Digital” project aims at employing the use of digital technologies, appropriately framed and scaffolded, to facilitate creativity-enhanced inquiry-based science teaching and learning.
The project places strong emphasis on building teacher digital competences by providing teachers and educators with an integrated toolkit that would allow them to co-design online STEAM resources that speak to the digital habits, needs and interests of the generation Z of school learners. This will contribute to the cultivation of teacher digital leadership and resilience, which in the current circumstances is a key requirement for the effective engagement of students with cutting-edge science, the wonder of scientific discovery and the merits of technological innovation at a crucial stage in their lives before their attitudes to science become negatively fixed.

The project aims to address science teaching and learning through the use of exciting digital technologies by teachers working with hands-on and minds-on activities and experiments and various innovative arts-based methodologies inspired by cutting-edge science at INFN and CERN, taking into consideration both remote support and working in the classroom. The project will work with 50 schools (10 in rural/remote settings), 100 teachers and 500 students. The project aims to reach 2000 teachers through its various activities
Our approach aims to improve teacher digital skills and their ability to respond to the demands for science teaching that not only enthuses young minds but also informs them about the inextricable relevance of science to society. In addition, there is also an emphasis on remote support. Here, we are looking into offering remote schools the ability to: (a) work with exciting STEAM activities; (b) collaborate with organisations such as INFN and Città della Scienza with the use of open digital tools; and (c) access exciting open content that can be delivered by teachers remotely during closures or outside teaching hours.

Addressing the needs of contemporary students and teachers, the project will develop a coherent integrated teacher training methodology, which will allow teachers to:
• Be acquainted with and fully understand the context of creative science teaching methodologies adapted and reworked into a unique and easily digested approach from selected STEAM initiatives
• Put to practice various teaching components, by taking into account the needs and skills of students and the various contexts addressed
• Be able to deploy new arts/creativity methodologies and ICT tools such as simple but engaging augmented reality activities and games
• Bring into their science teaching a unique collection of tools and interdisciplinary resources and learning scenarios
• Learn how to create science learning scenarios that suit their own needs for using e-Learning tools
• Establish a collaboration framework with colleagues and peers, allowing them to synchronize and coordinate delivery, as well as performing joined activities with their students
• Join a European a community network of peers and stakeholders (teachers, adult trainers, teacher trainers, facilitators, education policy makers, scientists)
• Expand learning beyond the school
• Expand their continuous professional development opportunities
• Learn how to build an opening up strategy for their school based on “Playing with Protons Goes Digital” concrete recommendations.

The project will produce five Intellectual Outputs:
• the Conceptual/Methodological Framework on why working with STEAM methodologies, digital tools, High-Energy Physics in the classroom and their role in inspiring the young minds
• the Resources and Training Manual with its complete set of activities, tools, materials, including an augmented reality kit
• the Online Environment to support teachers and science educators remotely, as well as to scaffold teacher engagement, cross-school collaboration, the design of new content by confident teachers and the implementation of activities and projects
• A Guide to Evaluation supplemented by an eTwinning Toolkit to enhance reach and offer pathways for further synergies beyond the lifespan of the project
• A School and Policy Recommendations Document to support educational authorities, school leaders, science centres and museums, and educational stakeholders

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 298615 Eur

Project Coordinator

ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI FISICA NUCLEARE & Country: IT

Project Partners

• CREATIVITIC INNOVA SL
• Fondazione IDIS-Città della Scienza
• ELLINOGERMANIKI AGOGI SCHOLI PANAGEA SAVVA AE
• THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM