Diversity and Inclusion in STEM Education: ICSE's Events and Project News

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Dear ICSE ICSE,

It is fall again and as the days are getting shorter, we are wrapping up our impactful open-schooling project MOST. This newsletter offers some insights into the evaluation of MOST with a special focus on the lessons learned concerning what makes school-community projects successful and what hinders them. In case you are ready to start your own school-community project, we provide our open schooling manual.

If you are looking for some contentual inspiration during the grey winter, we encourage you to participate in our weekly ICSE Academy online workshop series (every Tuesday afternoon). The series is clustered in different topics and you can join now for the next topic "Diversity and Inclusion", which begins next Tuesday, October 31. Finally, you can read up on recent trends in STE(A)M projects, our new project on nature-based solutions and find a science task for your teaching practice.

We hope you enjoy the read,

Your ICSE team

Content

Upcoming Events:

ICSE Academy Online Workshop Series: Tuesdays from 4-6pm

Project News:

New Project: Empowering the Next Generation to Fight Climate Change through Nature-Based Solutions
MOST Evaluation Report: What makes School-Community Projects successful?
“The Seer” Extensive Study on EU-funded STE(A)M Projects: What's trending?

Materials:

Quarterly Problem: Female Models for Health Science
MOST Manual: How to Organize an Open Schooling Project

online Workshops on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM

The Workshop Series of the ICSE Academy has recently taken off. The first cluster on inquiry-based learning is already over. The next cluster "Diversity and Inclusion in STEM Education" kicks off with the introduction to the topic next Tuesday, October 31 from 4-6 pm. The series continues in the following weeks at the same time and day with 2 more events focusing on this topic. The next cluster "STEM in a Digital Era" starts on November 21.

All events take place online and are free of charge. All teachers and students are welcome to participate!

Check out our Events Calender for more details (available soon).

RESGISTER HERE

New Project: Nature-Based Solutions

Climate change is not just a buzzword—it’s a pressing issue that’s reshaping our world, and addressing it requires all hands-on deck. But where do we even begin? How can we make this overwhelming problem something that every individual, especially young people, can act on? Meet the NBS4School (Empowering the Next Generation to Fight Climate Change through Nature-Based Solutions) project, funded by Erasmus+, designed to tackle this very issue.

What makes school-community projects (SCPs) successful?

The recently published final MOST report examined the participating SCPs from a systemic perspective (what went well and what did not) to provide guidance for implementing such project in the future.

The evaluation revealed that key features of successful SCPs were a predominance of feelings of pride and enjoyment and a sense of relevance and impact of what had been achieved.
In relation to the characteristics of good SCPs, the qualitative analysis shows the importance of planning in advance and having school and community support, as well as linking the project to both local problems relevant to those involved and the school curriculum.

Regarding the main barriers for a good implementation, teachers refered to a lack of time or experience, a rigid school curriculum and organization and sometimes, difficulties to collaborate with other colleagues and engage external agents. Teachers require recognition of their efforts and bigger support and flexibility to run such projects.

Trends in European STE(A)M Projects

Within the EU-funded project “The Seer,” an extensive study of European STE(A)M projects was conducted. 800 projects from the past two decades were analysed to evaluate recent trends and developments in the field.

The study found that interdisciplinary approaches with a focus on real-life contexts become increasingly important. Moreover, challenges of the 21st century, such as digitization, sustainability and environmental education dominated the thematic focus of the examined STE(A)M projects.

The study also showed that there are weaknesses in the area of sustainability: a large portion of the project outcomes becomes unavailable after just a few years.

Quartely Problem: Female Models for
Health Science

Many diseases affect mostly women and taking into account that women have been excluded from many clinical trials testing drugs and health treatments the consequences for the health of this half of the population can be terrible.

In this science task, students are asked to research diseases that affect mostly or exclusively women or men. They find out when they were discovered and when an effective treatment for them was found.

DOWNLOAD MATERIAL

Open Schooling Manual

This document is for educators, teaching in formal and non-formal educational settings, who want to engage in Open Schooling projects together with their students. One of the main attributes of Open Schooling projects is the collaboration between schools and communities; this is why single projects are named School-Community Projects (SCP). The manual describes important stages of a developmental process SCP leaders should consider while carrying out a SCP. It introduces a framework and offers ideas for whom to include, and how to co-create an appealing, socially relevant approach that will affect the regional community itself. In addition, you will find recommendations on how to put ideas into practice, communicate them and find out whether or not your project is successful.

DOWNLOAD MATERIAL

Pictures

1. MOST; 2. ICSE; 3. Ildigo, Pixabay; 4. Pixabay; 5. The Seer; 6. Hasty Words, Pixabay; 7. MOST

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