Von: "International Centre for STEM Education" <icse@ph-freiburg.de>
Datum: 15.02.2022, 14:20
An: icse@ph-freiburg.de
International Centre for STEM Education (ICSE)
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NEWSLETTER Fall 2021
Dear ICSE E-Mail,
The nights are getting noticabley shorter and it's getting cold outside; another challenging pandemic year is slowly but surely coming to an end. By now, we have all adjusted to an uprupt digitalization and new ways of communicating at work. Accordiningly, we at ICSE continue to hold many of our events online, but not exclusively.
In this issue of our newsletter, you can find out about upcoming events, like the soon-to-take-place online International Forum on Teacher Professional Development and Socio-Scientific Issues, as well as the ENSITE Spring School in Slovakia. Moreover, we introduce two more of our ICSE Consortium Members and give you insight into recent project milestones, like the kick-off of the GEM Network for female empowerment in ICT and STEM careers. Finally, we provide some creative teaching materials in the form of our open tasks, the "Quarterly Problems".
We hope you enjoy the read and we wish you all good health for you and your loved ones,
Your ICSE team
Content
1. Announcements:
Online International Forum on Teacher Professional Development and Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) on November 30, 2021
Spring School 2022 in Slovakia: Socio-Scientific Issues in Mathematics and Science Teachers' Education
Quarterly Problems: This time featuring our Green Edition "Understanding Nature"
5. News from our Friends:
The ISTEM Project: Creative Methods in Science Teaching - A Way Forward!
Online Forum on Teacher Professional development and SSI
On November 30, 2021 from 10:00 - 16:00 this stand-alone, international event brings together experts in the area of socio-scientific issues (SSI) and teacher education to discuss recent trends, synergies and collaboration as well as exploitation capacity.
The specific objective of this multiplier event is to provide a venue for ITE (initial teacher education) teachers and curriculum developers in Higher Education, and other policy makers to discuss and share good practices and ideas on further improving teacher education related to socio-scientific issues. The multiplier event starts with an invited plenary, followed by workshops and lectures that provide concrete examples of how to include SSIs in ITE for science and mathematics teacher educators.
We would like to invite all interested students and teaching staff to the ENSITE Spring School in April 2022 (exact date is tbd) in the beautiful city of Nitra in Slovakia. During this intensive ten-day event students will have the opportunity to explore socio-scientific issues in the education of maths and science teachers. We especially welcome science and maths Initial Teacher Education students as well as PhD students in mathematics and science education. The spring school will be accompanied by a cultural programme and is recognized by 3 ECTS Credits.
ICSE Consortium introduceD: the University of Nicosia
The private University of Nicosia (UNIC) is the largest university in Cyprus, with over 11,000 students, from over 70 countries across the globe. UNIC research foci are on exciting global and local issues, including health, complex networks, social organisation, education, ICT, engineering, and environmental sustainability.
Accordingly, the UNIC team around Maria Evagorou and Nicholas G. Mousoulides especially appreciates the interdisciplinary conversations that are happening in the ICSE consortium: "They make it possible to evolve ideas around STEM, citizenship, socio-scientific issues and intercultural learning in STEM and these ideas have matured through the various EU funded projects that ICSE is coordinating."
Currently UNIC is very active in our projects GEM and ENSITE.
Charles University (CUNI) is the largest, most renowned and best-rated Czech university according to international rankings. While it was founded in 1348, making it one of the oldest universities in the world, it is also renowned as a modern, dynamic, cosmopolitan and prestigious institution of higher education. CUNI became a founding member of the International Centre for STEM Education Consortium in the year 2017. Ever since, CUNI has joined together with other ICSE member insititutions in a variety of international projects, pushing innovation in interdisciplinary STEM Education.
Aspiring girls and young women need allies and supportive structures that make it possible for them to achieve their career goals in traditionally male-coined fields like ICT and STEM. To strengthen these structures, the GEM Network offers professionals the possibility to connect with one another.
The goal hereby is to build a long-term Europe-wide network of different stakeholders from STEM education, digital and entrepreneurial sectors. Members of this network share information on equal opportunities for girls in STEM, show best practice examples in their countries in their different fields of action and are encouraged to implement a variety of awareness-raising activities in society to support girls and make a difference.
We are now looking for new members! You can sign up for our mailing list through the link below.
Today’s and tomorrow’s challenges demand from us to think out of the box, to think further, to think across disciplines. STEMkey seeks to contribute to a forward-looking way of education, by taking up the challenge to prepare future STEM teachers to teach STEM subjects through interdisciplinary approaches.
In Fall of 2021 newly developed STEMkey higher education teaching materials were introduced to Czech STEM teachers and teacher educators. Together with the project team, they discussed the potential of the materials and provided valuable feedback on implications for transferring the materials from project-context to teaching practice.
With our Project MOST, we are part of the OpenSchooling together Initiative. OStogether is a joint initiative of ten European Open Schooling projects funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme. The OStogether initiative is driven by a shared vision: to contribute to a more scientifically interested and literate society and to the development of more active, informed and responsible citizens, by opening up schools to society and society to schools, through the development of meaningful partnerships and projects between schools and community stakeholders.
Brand New Teaching materials: Our Quarterly Problems
This time featuring our Green Edition Problem Understanding Nature: "Now that it's autumn time, it's striking once again how much nature changes with the seasons. Isn't it fascinating? All of a sudden chestnuts and walnuts fall from the trees and can be collected, the leaves change colors, mushrooms sprout from the ground.
But how does it all actually work? How do the trees know that autumn is coming and why do the colors of the leaves change? Why do they fall, and why only those of certain trees? Why is there an increased occurrence of fungi? Questions upon questions. What a great chance to get in touch with the environment and find answers to one of these fascinating phenomena!"
The ISTEM Project: Teaching STEM with performing arts
What does STEM subjects have to do with the performing arts? Is it possible to teach STEM subjects through performing arts techniques? How will this impact the way students learn?
The ISTEM Project asked these questions and finds creative and astounding answers in their new ebook: Creative Methods in Science Teaching - Ways Forward!
1. ICSE; 2. pkproject on Colourbox; 3. Carol Czinege on Pexels; 4. University of Nicosia; 5. David Růžička for Charles University; 6. -7. ICSE; 8. Open Schooling Together; 9. Pixabay; 10. Kristijan Arsov on Unsplash
IMPRINT / CONTACT
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