Developing skills for the future: Science on Stage Festival 2019

26/09/2019

At the European Science on Stage Festival 2019, 450 teachers will be working together to shape the science education of the future. The best teachers from Finland will also be present with their best practices.

Whether it is digitalisation, globalisation or climate change: today’s children and young people will face enormous challenges in the future. One of the tasks of STEM teachers (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is to prepare them for these challenges. At the 11th European Science on Stage festival 2019, hosted by Science on Stage Portugal in cooperation with Science on Stage Europe, the participating teachers will be equipped with the right tools to do so.

The three-day educational festival will take place from 31 October to 3 November in the Portuguese city of Cascais. Following the motto “Skills for the Future”, 450 teachers from over 30 countries will come together to present and exchange their innovative teaching concepts in a fair, in workshops and in short lectures. From mathematical card tricks, to building an eco-friendly battery and programming a pet simulator, there will once again be a variety of practical teaching ideas from teachers for teachers.

Particularly outstanding projects will receive the European STEM Teacher Awards at the festival and will later be disseminated internationally as training courses or teaching materials. In this way, teachers reach thousands of students throughout Europe with their ideas. They encourage them across national borders to consider a career in science, IT or engineering.

This year’s festival is under the patronage of Mr Tibor Navracsics, Member of the European Commission, and is endorsed by the Portuguese Ministry of Education.

Educational experts from Finland will attend with their best educational practice

Finland will take part at the Science on Stage festival 2019 with four teachers. The participants qualified for the national delegation by passing a preliminary selection process last year. The selection was part of the StarT 2018-2019 program.

With exceptional ideas like combining statistics and language studies the teachers convinced the jury of the Finnish Science on Stage festival. Now they head for the international Science on Stage festival to inspire and enthuse colleagues from all across Europe with their teaching ideas.

Finland will be represented by:

LIIKUNTA, HYVINVOINTI JA MITTAAMINEN -KURSSI, JYVÄSKYLÄN NORMAALIKOULU
KALEVALA GOES SCIENCE, JOUTSAN YHTENÄISKOULU
PLAY A ROLE AND LEARN, PÄIVÄKOTI PIILOMETSÄ
YOUNG PEOPLE LEARNING STATISTICS, KEMINMAAN KESKUSKOULU

About Science on Stage Europe:

Science on Stage Europe brings together science teachers from across Europe to exchange best practice and teaching ideas and concepts with passionate colleagues from over 30 countries. Science on Stage Europe believes that the best way to improve science teaching and to encourage more schoolchildren to consider a career in science or engineering is to motivate and inform their teachers. The non-profit organisation was founded in 2000 and reaches 100,000 teachers Europe-wide.

Teachers from 30 countries come together every two years to exchange best-practice ideas. The Science on Stage festival is an educational fair that has in the past been hosted in Debrecen, London and Copenhagen.

The main supporter of the network Science on Stage is the Federation of German Employers’ Associations in the Metal and Electrical Engineering Industries (GESAMTMETALL) with its initiative think ING.

Science on Stage Finland

Science on Stage Finland spreads and promotes the best practice examples presented at the European festivals in Finland, through StarT programme. Every two years, Science on Stage Finland organizes, within the StarT programme, a national selection process for teachers to be chosen as Finnish participants for the European Science on Stage festival.

More information about representatives of Finland

M. Sc. Outi Haatainen, Project manager
Anette Markula, International project manager
info@start.luma.fi

Most important for the press:

Science on Stage Festival 2019
Date: 31 October to 03 November 2019
Opening Ceremony: Thursday, 31 October, 5 p.m
Open Day for the public: Saturday, 2 November 10 a.m. to 5 p.m
Venue: Estoril Congress Center, AvenidaAmaral, 2765-192 Estoril, Portugal

For media representatives: Please register at press@science-on-stage.eu or by telephone on 030 400067-42.

Notes for the Media:

Official homepage of the festival: www.sons2019.eu
Contact details as well as press pictures on demand
The Festival on Twitter: #SonS2019
Festival project videos at: https://www.youtube.com/user/ScienceonStageEurope

Teachers disseminate the latest climate research around the world

03/09/2019

How to talk about climate change to pupils in school? In early August, 30 teachers from more than 20 countries arrived to the Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station for a week-long summer camp to familiarise themselves with the latest research on climate change and how to handle the issue in their teaching. One of the participants was Emma Santarcangelo from Italy.

Emma Santarcangelo, a teacher, was lucky to be among the more than a hundred applicants from the Teachers’ Climate Change Forum online course, organised by the University of Helsinki, chosen for the contact teaching period held at Hyytiälä. She teaches Italian, history and geography to lower secondary school pupils in Benevento, Italy.

In the online course, participants learn to discuss climate change in their teaching in a versatile and sensible manner from the perspective of a range of scientific disciplines. According to Santarcangelo, the key insight gained on the course was the adoption of scientific thinking.

Among the methods learned she intends to introduce at her school are the use of drama and role-play. Over the course, she also realised how important it is to continuously adapt one’s own teaching methods on the basis of feedback.

Overall idea of climate change

Over the course, Santarcangelo became aware of how climate change will affect human migration. At the summer camp, she had the opportunity to visit INAR, a centre of top-level atmospheric research which measures aerosol particle and greenhouse gas concentrations and variance in the atmosphere at Hyytiälä.

“It was fascinating to see how problems caused by climate change are being perceived from such a wide range of perspectives, making it extremely difficult to form a bigger picture. A risk in one sector is not even seen in another sector. We really need a global overall idea and ethics for this issue,” Santarcangelo notes.

Academy Professor Markku Kulmala is one of the researchers whom the course participants got to meet. In his presentation, Kulmala emphasised the importance of teachers and education in curbing climate change.

To her school, Santarcangelo intends to take with her a guidebook for teachers in which climate change is described through exercises and visualisation relevant to individual school subjects.

Self-efficacy put to a test

Not for nothing is Finland providing education in climate change to teachers, as we have the potential to be among the leading countries in terms of research focused on climate change and science education.

Another theme at the Hyytiälä camp was the development of science education, with a particular focus on the self-efficacy of teachers, examined through interviews and measurements. A research article to be published internationally is in the works. Climate change is an emotive subject, making it necessary to take pupils’ beliefs and attitudes into account in teaching.

“Many teachers are uncertain about their ability to talk about climate change,” says Professor Maija Aksela, the coordinator of the course from the University of Helsinki.

Insights are rewarding and sharing promotes learning

Teacher Emma Santarcangelo believes that the most challenging aspect of science education, to both teachers and pupils, is learning by doing. At the same time, it is also the most rewarding aspect. Witnessing pupils gain insights by seeing something actually happen after studying the theory is worth every effort.

One of the mottoes of the course is ‘learning by sharing’. The aim is to establish an international network for climate change teaching. At least the network formed by teachers of various educational levels and school subjects at the summer camp will continue sharing experiences through a Facebook group established at the wish of the participants.

According to Aksela, the first Teachers’ Climate Change Forum online course and summer camp were so successful that the intention is to continue both annually, resources permitting.

Further information

Course description

Maija Aksela, director of LUMA Centre Finland, professor/University of Helsinki, phone +358 50 514 1450, maija.aksela@helsinki.fi

Other individuals contributing to the course included Mikko Äijälä and Laura Riuttanen, postdoctoral researchers at INAR, the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research; Tapio Rasa, science education coordinator for physics; Laura Ihalainen, science education coordinator for the arts; Oona Kiviluoto, science education coordinator for chemistry; Topias Ikävalvo, general coordinator and Jaana Herranen, a doctoral student from the University of Helsinki.

Teachers at the Hyytiälä summer camp gained an ample amount of information on climate change and related teaching methods. Emma Santarcangelo, blond hair, sits on the right-hand side of the second row.

The teachers also had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the equipment at Hyytiälä, which are used to measure, among other things, aerosol particle and greenhouse gas concentrations and variance.

Written by Johanna Pellinen

The winners of the international awards of StarT 2019: China, Lithuania, Jordan, Portugal and Finland

06/06/2019

The International LUMA StarT Gala took place on the 6th of June 2019. The LUMA Centre Finland awards annually three internationally most distinguished science, technology and mathematics related projects by children and youngsters, and three teachers’ best educational practices at the StarT gala. This year the winners came from China, Jordan, Portugal and Finland. The Director of LUMA Centre Finland, Prof. Maija Aksela and the Chair of the Board of LUMA Centre Finland, Prof. Jan Lundell, handed awards at the gala. Read more about StarT here.

In the winning projects students created e.g. a flash flood alert system, researched the question “When do children feel healthy and happy?” and created a drone from a scratch to enhance its design and function. The winning best educational practices showed how to make use of childrens’ questions through an interdisciplinary approach and how to combine the teaching of statistics, ICT and languages into one project. When assessing the projects, the StarT jury has focused on innovativeness, interdisciplinarity, collaboration and creativity.

The International LUMA StarT Awards were awarded for the third time this year. The internationally awarded StarT programme has been organized by the LUMA Centre Finland, a network of Finnish science, technology and mathematics universities, since 2016. So far we have had participants from over 40 countries. In 2018-19, 900 learning communities, 2300 teachers and 25 600 children and youngsters have participated in the StarT programme. For the competition we received this year 640 projects and 250 best practices from 17 different countries.

“StarT projects are a terrific way to learn skills and abilities of the future world. To plan, to design, to achieve and to evaluate the outcome of a StarT project is a way to learn to tackle global challenges for a better and more prosperous world. It is the StarT of a curious mind needed to create clever solutions.”, Prof. Lundell, the Chair of the Board of LUMA Centre Finlandcommented.

The public’s most voted favourite projects and best practices and the most active country of StarT 2018-19 were also awarded at the StarT gala. In addition, the Finnish National StarT Awards were handed.

Winners of the International LUMA StarT Award 2019

BEST PROJECTS BY STUDENTS, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:

“Flash Flood Predictor”, students Omar Shishani, Omar Abu Salem and teacher Omar Shaheen. Zarqa University Schools and KG, Jordan
“Health week project”, students Anele Ganusauskaite, Sofija Ganusauskaite, Simas Kudarauskas, Paulius Kvedaras, Izabele Trotaite, Arune Navickaite, Gerda Sezenytre, Saule Kasparaviciute, Dziugas Siautkulis, Jokubas Garlauskas, Elze Bartkeviciute, Liepa Morkunaite, Kostas Korsakovas, Akmeja Tilvikaite and teacher Rasa Jurgeleviciene. Šiaurės Licėjus, Lithuania
“Reinventing the drone”, students Vilhelm Toivonen, Arimo Gustafsson, Niilo Viheriäranta, Aapo Leppänen and teachers Johanna Halme, Jari Latva-Teikari and Kaarina Ojasti. Tampereen lyseon lukio, Finland

Winners of the International LUMA StarT Education Award 2019

BEST EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES BY TEACHERS, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:

“The Great Starry Sky”. Minyan Lu, Guifen Qian, Jie Chen, Jinxiang Liu, Xufeng Suna and Naihua Wei. Wanhong Primary School League, China
“Grow your own food! Dare to try it (even on the moon)! – a 3rd and 4th grades approach to STEM”, Anabela Santos. EB1/JI de São Bartolomeu de Regatos, Portugal
“Young people learning statistics”, Aira Karassaari and Hanna Littow. Keminmaan keskuskoulu, Finland

Public’s favourites

Public’s favourite project 2019:

“ASPAR T-2”, students Talha Talip AÇIKGÖZ, Alperen KAHRAMAN and teachers Ertuğrul ÖZAR and Cüneyt AKYOL. Niğde Akşemseddin Bilim ve Sanat Merkezi, Turkey

Public’s favourite best practice 2019:

“Theatre for science”, teachers Fouad El Haski, Hachim Mortaqi, Rachid Wahabi. GD-GSR (gestion déléguée du groupe scolaire la Résidence), Morocco

The most active country 2019

The People’s Republic of China. The most active country out of the 20 countries participating in StarT was China with its highest number of participants in StarT 2018-19.

Additional information

The comments of the StarT jury can be found here.
The composition of the StarT jury 2019 can be found here
Pictures of the awarded teams for the media can be found here
See the best of StarT 2018-19 here
Read more about StarT here: https://start.luma.fi/en/

StarT 2019–2020: registration is open!

We want to thank everyone who participated in the gala and StarT 2018–2019, and we are already eagerly looking forward to seeing what kind of StarT projects you create next school year!

Register as a learning community for StarT 2019–2020 here! Read more about registering as a StarT learning community here and see our quick guide for teachers here.

Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Text: Anette Markula. Photo: Maija Aksela.

LUMA Centre Finland received 75,000 EUR from Zontians for organizing ZAU clubs

29/04/2019

The Zonta organization raises funds for ZAU Clubs with the aim to inspire young girls to study science-, technology-, engineering- and mathematics-related (STEM) subjects. LUMA Centre Finland, which is responsible for organizing club activities, received the first donation in the Zontian’s spring seminar in Pietarsaari (Finland) on April 27, 2019.

In Finland, there is still a clear division into female- and male-dominated professions, and a distinct difference in their salaries. Girls do well at school, but when choosing their subjects, they still avoid science-, engineering-, technology- and mathematics-related subjects, thus closing the doors to further studies at a very early stage.

Zonta International (ZI) will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2019. In honor of this occasion, ZI District 20 has decided to highlight the organization’s basic idea about improving the status of girls and women and promoting gender equality. The ZAU Campaign, started in spring 2018, aims at raising funds for the LUMA Centre Finland network to organize phenomenon-based club activities related to STEM subjects. This network has experience of STEM clubs for children and young people since 2004.

The 75,000 euro donation was given by Governor Lea Helle on behalf of the Zonta organization, and received by Maarit Mäkelä (Ph.D.) of LUMA Centre Pohjanmaa on behalf of LUMA Center Finland. The second donation will be made in Helsinki in connection with the Zontians’ centennial seminar on November 8, 2019.

“Our common ZAU project is unique and extremely important for Finland. It will generate new openings based on the latest academic research and improve our knowledge in STEM subjects,” says Maija Aksela, Professor and Director of LUMA Centre Finland. She wishes that everyone can find the joy of discovery and success.

100 clubs and 1,000 participants as a target

The enrollment of organizations for the practical ZAU club arrangements and club instructors is currently ongoing. The first clubs will start in 2019, and the activities will continue in 2020. In the Helsinki metropolitan area, two pilot clubs are already working. The campaign target is 100 clubs and 1,000 participants allover Finland in 2019–2020 as well as a new, permanent operating model for schools.

The clubs aim at attracting the interest of 10 to 12 year-old girls in STEM subjects by utilizing topics that are important to them and the latest teaching methods based on academic research in universities. Learning includes topics such as the environment and sustainable development, food and reactions, sciences and art, space and the stars, digitalization and robotics. The clubs are mainly intended for girls, but also welcoming boys.

Members of the Zonta organization attend the club activities by raising funds but also by acting as godmothers and mentors, encouraging local schools and also by being role models and scouting role models.

Text: Zonta International District 20. Photo: University of Helsinki.

Nominees 2019: See The Final Twenty Contestants Of The International LUMA StarT Awards!

16/04/2019

The International LUMA StarT Award nominees have been chosen ‒ get inspired by the top-quality science, technology and mathematics projects and educational practices from all around the world!

The LUMA Centre Finland is proud to share the top ten best educational practices and projects carried out in learning communities across the world in 2018‒2019. The videos of these twenty nominees introduce educational practices worth noting and present inspiring ideas for carrying out interdisciplinary project-based learning in schools and kindergartens. Have a look and let the videos of the top contestants of StarT inspire you!

The International LUMA StarT Awards will be awarded for the third time at the University of Jyväskylä on the 6th of June 2019. In StarT learning communities from all around the world share their interdisciplinary science, technology or mathematics related projects and educational practices with us, and we at StarT share them with the rest of the world. This year, we received altogether 640 projects and 250 best practices from ca 20 countries. The StarT jury has now decided the final 20 contestants continuing to compete for the International LUMA StarT Awards, and the public chosen their two favourites.

The nominees for the International LUMA StarT Awards 2019

The StarT jury has now made their decision on the International LUMA StarT Award nominees out of the projects and best practices that made it to the international public voting. StarT has two award categories: 1) International LUMA StarT Award, which is given for the top three projects by children and youngsters 2) International LUMA StarT Education Award, which is given for the top three best educational practices by teachers. The StarT jury has chosen ten nominees for both of the award categories, and the final winners of the awards will be chosen from the nominees by the honorary StarT jury. The members of the international honorary StarT jury are this year:

Chair: Prof. Maija Aksela, Director of the LUMA Centre Finland
Dr. Jun Wang, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Psychology from Beijing Normal University in China
Dr. Angela James, Senior Lecturer in Science Education from the University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa.
Secretary: Anette Markula, International Project Manager of StarT

As such, the nominee videos are the international top twenty videos reported to StarT 2018-2019, and they convey exemplary science, technology and mathematics related educational practices that take use of an interdisciplinary approach, and promote collaborative learning and active learning in general. By watching the videos everyone can benefit from pedagogical innovations created across the world, and make use of the inspirational ideas and exciting methods for carrying out project-based learning.

THE INTERNATIONAL LUMA START EDUCATION AWARD NOMINEES (BEST PRACTICE NOMINEES):

“Grow your own food! Dare to try it (even in the moon)! – a 3th and 4th grades approach to STEM”, 3rd and 4th grades – EB1/JI de São Bartolomeu de Regatos (Anabela Santos), Portugal

“Legend Towers” , Bahçeşehir Preschool (Macide IŞIK, Emine Medine BOZ, Sinem ERENER ÜNAL, Kevser GÜNEYLİ, Yasemin Güzin KOCA), Turkey

“Math in Our Life”, Arar the Pioneer – Arar Academy schools (Ghazal Qawasmeh, Bara’ Sarhan, Lamar Obeidat, Yousef Abed, Khalid Fayyad), Jordan

“Physics Day in Amusement Park”, Irbid Preparatory Girls School (Smar Hasan Murshid Nazzal, Sawsan Faeq Sabbah, Yara Jamal Subhi, Khalid Mustafa Ghaben), Jordan

“STEAM-approach in education using augmented reality technology: “AR – travel around the towers””, Secondary School №8 (Olena Kovalova, Oksana Galusinskaja, Olena Shapovalova, Inna Derevianko, Olga Batkilina, Svitlana Grytsai, Viktoriia Kalinina), Ukraine

“Stem & Younger in Clima Action”, (Erviola Konomi), Albania

“The Great Starry Sky”, Wanhong Primary School League,(Minyan Lu, Guifen Qian, Jie Chen, Jinxiang Liu, Xufeng Sun, Naihua Wei), China

“The Way of A Silk’s Artistic Life”, Dongzhu Experimental Primary School of Suzhou (Lu Xiaojia, Gu Weiyi, Jiang Huiping Xiaorong, Yang Xiaoxian, Zhang Lei), China

“Theatre for science”, GD-GSR (gestion déléguée du groupe scolaire la Résidence) (Fouad El Haski, Hachim Mortaqi, Rachid Wahabi ), Morocco

“Young people learning statistics”, Keminmaan keskuskoulu (Aira Karassaari, Hanna Littow),Finland

THE INTERNATIONAL LUMA START AWARD NOMINEES (PROJECT NOMINEES):

“ASPAR T-2”, Niğde Akşemseddin Bilim ve Sanat Merkezi (Talha Talip AÇIKGÖZ, Alperen KAHRAMAN), Turkey

“Caring for pets- intelligent feeding appliance driven by web of things”, Suzhou Jinchang Foreign Language Experimental School (Yilin Wang, Shiwen Min, Yuxuan Lu, Zejun Zhou, Zhaojun Xie, Yuxuan Ou’yang), China

“Flash Flood Predictor”, Zarqa University Schools and KG (Omar Shishani, Omar Abu Salem), Jordan

“From the acorn to the oak”, Rokiskis Senamiestis Progymnasium (Afanasjeva Austeja, Bunevicius Augustas, Saccani Matteo, Sapagova Samanta, Semenas Kajus, Truksnyte Urte, Vasiliauskaite Emilija, Vasiliauskaite Fausta, Vasiliauskaite Kamile, Zavarskyte Karina), Lithuania

“Health week project”, ŠIAURĖS LICĖJUS (Anele Ganusauskaite, Sofija Ganusauskaite, Simas Kudarauskas, Paulius Kvedaras, Izabele Trotaite, Arune Navickaite, Gerda Sezenytre, Saule Kasparaviciute, Dziugas Siautkulis, Jokubas Garlauskas, Elze Bartkeviciute, Liepa Morkunaite, Kostas Korsakovas, Akmeja Tilvikaite), Lithuania

“Mind Controlled Car”, FISTA (Manu Kiiskilä, Sampo Lassila, Iiro Pekkarinen), Finland

“Planting By Using Artificial Lighting with Different Wavelengths”, The Shiny Light (Sondos Al-Mhesn, Haneen Al-Masalek, Dania Al-Qasire, Adan Al-Badnde), Jordan

“Reinventing the drone”, Tampereen lyseon lukio (Vilhelm Toivonen, Arimo Gustafsson, Niilo Viheriäranta, Aapo Leppänen), Finland

“Water for Life”, Blue World (Raihan Ahmad Shahab, Raisya Amira Maher, Aldebran Daffa Yudha Cahyadi , Bintang Rifqi Maulana DS, Aleena Rahma Shahab), Indonesia

“Waterx”, Green Group (Ayoub Dadani, Nouamane Ait Daoud, Khalil Admi, Aberrahmane Driouch, Houssam Azzouz), Morocco

Welcome to the International LUMA StarT Gala on the 6th of June in Jyväskylä, Finland!

The final six winners of the International LUMA StarT Awards will be awarded with a trip to Finland to receive their awards and diplomas at the international LUMA StarT gala. The gala is the grand final of both the national and international StarT every year. This year the gala will take place at the University of Jyväskylä on the 6th of June 2019, as a part of the international LUMAT Symposium and the national LUMA Days. Everyone is warmly welcome to participate in the gala! There gala will also be livestreamed, so that everyone in the world can watch it online. Register to the symposium and the gala here until the 26th of May.

Remember: registering as a learning community for the StarT 2019–2020 starts in May!

StarT is organized annually, and we invite all learning communities from daycares to upper secondary schools and extracurricular activity groups to share their best educational practices and projects related to science with us! Registering for the StarT 2019–2020 starts in May, and you can find more information here. Registering does not bind you to anything, but instead you will receive additional support and inspiration for carrying out exciting interdisciplinary project-based learning in your learning community. Welcome along, everyone!

New international course for high school students to develop solutions to global challenges

16/04/2019

The University of Helsinki Science Education Centre (a part of the LUMA Centre Finland network) organizes a new international and multidisciplinary Global Challenges Course for Youth 2019 from around the world during the summer and early autumn 2019, mostly online and partly in Helsinki, Finland.

In the course, youth will make a small learning project in team to develop a solution to a global challenge, with the support of the university’s young scientists and under the guidance of teacher students.

This year, the selected global challenges are

climate change,
digitalization,
energy, and
wellbeing.

Most of the communal learning takes place in the online environment, but at the intensive period in Helsinki on early August, the participants have the opportunity to meet each other and the young researchers and discuss the research with them.

The course introduces students to study and research opportunities in different disciplines at the University of Helsinki.

The versatile programme of the course is designed more specifically on the basis of the interests by the applicants and the participants.

The course is international and the working language is English. The course is equivalent to 1 ECTS, i.e. ca. 27 hours.

Application deadline for the course is Sunday, May 12th. Up to 20 participants are selected for the course. All applicants will be notified of the results of the selection on Monday, May 20th.

The service fee of the course is 20 EUR (incl. VAT 24%).

More information about course and its schedule, and the application form »

Text: Lauri Vihma. Photo: University of Helsinki.

Future of Work, Research and Education in the focus at the International LUMAT Symposium 2019

01/04/2019

LUMA Centre Finland has the honour and pleasure to invite all math, science and technology teachers from all educational levels, as well as prospective teachers, teacher educators and researchers, developers and other experts to the International LUMAT Symposium: Research and Practice in Math, Science and Technology Education (LUMAT) 2019 in Jyväskylä, Finland, Europe, from Wed 5^th to Thu 6^th June 2019

The theme of the symposium is Future of Work, Research and Education in the context of math, science and technology education.

The programme consists of keynote lectures as well as oral presentation sessions and international StarT Gala.

The invited keynote speakers are Professor Zsolt Lavicza (Johannes Kepler University, Austria & Geogebra Director of Research) and Associate Professor John M. Francisco (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA).

The are no registration/participation fees.

Registration to the symposium is possible at the symposium website by May 26th.

Text: Lauri Vihma. Photo: University of Jyväskylä.

Ideas and materials for climate education from the international Summer Camp for Teachers in Finnish lakeside on August 5th–7th

27/03/2019

University of Helsinki Science Education Centre (a part of the LUMA Centre Finland network) and the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) train teachers from various educational levels and around the world in Teachers’ Climate Change Forum (TCCF) 2019 Summer Camp in Finland, on August. Teachers may apply for the Camp by May 5th.

At the Summer Camp, the participants will get acquainted with internationally renowned and appreciated, top-level climate research and researchers in unique Finnish lakeside environment

The aim of the Summer Camp is to develop participants’ skills to address climate change and global warming from pedagogically meaningful and diverse perspectives, but also pay attention in different beliefs and attitudes.

The Summer Camp provides participants with various useful practical tips, ideas and materials for implementing climate context into everyday teaching.

The Summer Camp provides added value to the Teachers’ Climate Change Forum 2019 Online Course.

All interested teachers are welcomed to apply for the camp by May 5th. The applicants will be notified, whether they have been selected, in late May.

The Summer Camp is partly funded by the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation.

Text: Lauri Vihma. Photo: Juho Aalto.

The StarT Public Voting by April 7th ‒ Sharing the Joy of Learning!

20/03/2019

The LUMA Centre Finland network invites everyone to take part in the public voting of StarT. Videos of the projects and best practices of StarT 2018-19 have now been released on our Youtube channel. Have a look and get inspired by the innovative science, technology and mathematics projects by students and teachers from around the world!

The StarT programme was launched in 2016 by the LUMA Centre Finland and their collaborators to support the implementation of interdisciplinary project-based learning in accordance to the newest national core curriculum of Finland. StarT is aimed for learning communities ranging from early childhood education to upper secondary schools.

StarT is exceptional as everyone learns together as a learning community by carrying out phenomenon-based and cross-curricular projects. The main goal of StarT is to strengthen the interest of children and youngsters towards mathematics, science and technology. Furthermore, in StarT different learning communities share their best educational practices.

The long-term goal of StarT is to establish the collaborative StarT model into the annual activities of schools and other learning communities. The StarT teams consisting of children and youngsters from kindergartens, schools, extracurricular groups and homes share the joy of learning in the national and international StarT community, which consisted of nearly 600 learning communities from 30 different countries in 2018-2019.

We have now published videos of the StarT projects and best practices that the learning communities have produced on the Youtube channel of StarT. The videos celebrate the joy of learning and share the excitement of students’ discoveries!

The goal of the public voting is to share joy and ideas but also to make it possible for everyone to participate. Everyone can vote simply by giving a like for their favourite project or best practice video on Youtube by the 7th of April!

Voting pays off as your likes will be considered when the nominees for the International LUMA StarT Awards 2019 are chosen by the StarT jury. The winners of the public voting will also be awarded with a diploma at the international StarT gala. The international StarT gala is the grand final of StarT every year, and this year it will take place in Jyväskylä on the 6th of June 2019 as a part of the international LUMAT symposium.

Text: Anette Markula. Photo: Outi Haatainen.

Representatives of the ministries of education and teacher organizations from around the world got acquainted with LUMA activities

14/03/2019

The Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland with its partners, e.g., The Trade Union of Education in Finland (OAJ), are organizing the International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) 2019 event in Helsinki, on March 14th & 15th, 2019, for the leaders and other staff of the ministries of education and teacher organizations. The themes of the event are early childhood education, shared and participatory leadership, and sustainability challenges in education. Ministers or deputy ministers arrive in Finland with the chairman or vice-chairman of the teacher organization from almost 20 countries: Belgium, South Korea, Georgia, Hong Kong, Spain, Ireland, UK (and Scotland), Latvia, Moldova, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Russia, Vietnam and Estonia.

Participants of the event were offered opportunities to get acquainted with Finnish day care centers, schools and other educational developers already on March 13th. One of them was the administration of the national LUMA Centre Finland network at the University of Helsinki.

Guests from Denmark, Estonia and Hong Kong enjoyed, e.g. the presentation of LUMA activities by Director, Professor Maija Aksela, and the presentation of the innovative Pulmaario model by Professor Juha Oikkonen. After the questions and the conversation, they got acquainted with one of the so-called LUMA labs, the ChemistryLab Gadolin.