Josu Waliño Elhuyar Foundation j.walino@elhuyar

1. Stimulating Science andTechnology CompetencesThrough Innovative Means forTeaching and Learningwww.stimula-project.eu Josu Waliño ElhuyarFoundation j.walino@elhuyar.com

2. About Stimula • STIMULA aims to develop innovative methodologies to foster aspirations towards S&T careers among pupils in secondary level education, using as a strategy the active involvement of the world of work (universities, research & innovation centres, and research & development companies) in educational activities. • The main objective of this project is to foster the S&T vocation among the European young students (12 to 18 years old). According to PISA 2006, the interest and enjoyment of S&T is positively associated with better performance, so it is expected that the increase in the motivation towards S&T will also contribute to the improvement and development of key competences in S&T among the European young students, and to their scientific literacy. Title: STIMULA. Stimulating Science and Technology competences through innovative means for teaching and learning Call: LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMME Centralized / COMENIUS Multilateral projects / EAC/49/2010 (European Commission,EACEA) Start: 01/11/2011 Duration: 24 months Coordination: Elhuyar Foundation (j.walino@elhuyar.com)

3. Partners • This project is managed and coordinated by the Elhuyar Foundation. Partners of the project are St. Mary’s University College, University of Zaragoza, Steinbeis, Phaenovum and Colegiul National NicolaeTitulescu. • There are also 12 associated partners involved in the project. 12 schoolsfrom 5 differentcountries  are participating in STIMULA: ElorriokoInstitutua and Fray Juan de Zumarraga – Durango BHI fromSpain, BernatEtxepareLizeoa and ZiburukoKolegioafrom France,  St. DominicsGrammarSchool Belfast, Loreto College, StMichal’sGrammarSchool and St. Paul’s Junior High SchoolLurganfromtheUnitedKindom, FreieEvangelischeSchuleLörrach and Hans-ThomaGymnasiumfromGermany and ColegiulNationalNicolaeTitulescu and ColegiulNational Stefan Velovanfrom Romania.

4. Strategy • STIMULA project strategy will be to bring S&T closer to the young students and at the same time the students closer to S&T, through bidirectional collaborative initiatives between schools and agents of the world of work. The project will: • Bring S&T to schools, through the proposal and practical implementation of curriculum extending S&T educational initiatives (in the form of live experiments and competitions based on problems). They will be carried out in the classrooms and will additionally promote team work, creativity and ICT skills. • Take schools to S&T, through the definition of collaboration strategies, models and programmes of the schools with agents of the world of work (universities, R&D centres and companies) will be defined, in which the school students will collaborate with these external organisations in different activities (research activities, for example). • Additionally, the project will propose specific teacher training methods and programmes, addressed to current and future S&T technology teachers, so that they can contribute to effectively foster the S&T vocation on young students.

5. Methodology

6. Methodology

7. RESULTS OF THE PROJECT: FIRST QUESTIONNAIRE • Design of an ad hoc questionnaire, focused in perception, interest and vocations of S&T. • 12-18 years old students • Translated to local languages • Different kind of items • The questionnaires were filled by pupils in 51 classrooms of 13 • schools from France, Germany, Romania, Spain, and United Kingdom (1127 pupils from the five countries).

8. Example NI questionnaires 51 groups 1795 total questionnaires More than 1000 students of five countries

9. Methodology

10. RESULTS OF THE PROJECT: PUBLISHED REPORTS • Teacher’s training : Competence profile, pedagogical approach and key areas of initial teacher education in post-primary science and technology • S&T Cooperation Guideline between schools and agents of world of work • Taking Science and Technology into schools (design of contest and experiments).

11. DESIGN OF ACTIVITIES • Contest • 12-14 y.o. students • Worked in teams • Each team chose one problem/topic to solve • Different topics based in local curriculum and characteristics • Prepared one work in digital format (ppt, video..) • They have four weeks to finish the work • Evaluation criteria based in • Ability to reflect about the topic and take out conclusions • The content is appropriate and complete • Creativity, originality • The winners received some prizes

12. DESIGN OF ACTIVITIES • Experiments • 14-16 y.o. students • Some experiments were proposed and the teacher chose one/some • Black box • Rube Goldberg machine • Building a hydro-electric turbine

13. DESIGN OF ACTIVITIES • Visit to Research centre • 16-18 y.o. students • One day visit • The students talked with researchers

14. RESULTS • http://stimula-project.eu/results/

15. Overall conclusions • Differences related to language, cultural background, academic curricula and others appear. • We do not consider that the groups are representative of local, regional or national populations. • Nevertheless, we could describe our results as rather homogeneous.

16. Overall conclusions • PERCEPTION ABOUT S&T • Perception of usefulness of learning about S&T subjects is quite positive and critic. Basque Country (French System), 13-14 yearsold Level of agreement (percentage) of pupils with the following statements NorthernIreland (UK system), 12-13 yearsold Level of agreement (percentage) of pupils with the following statements

17. Overall conclusions • PERCEPTION ABOUT S&T • Although many typical stereotypes about people working in S&T (“men”, “boring”, “strange”) are rejected, some of them related with “difficulty” are in some sense accepted (“hard-working”, “competitive”, “addicted to work”, “very vocational”). Germany, 14-15 yearsold Level of agreement of pupils with the following statements: “People who have a career in S&T…”

18. Overall conclusions • PERCEPTION ABOUT S&T • Although many typical stereotypes about people working in S&T (“men”, “boring”, “strange”) are rejected, some of them related with “difficulty” are in some sense accepted (“hard-working”, “competitive”, “addicted to work”, “very vocational”). Basque Country (Spanishsystem), 14-15 yearsold Percentage of pupils who believe that people choose S&T as a career for the following reasons

19. Overall conclusions • INTEREST IN S&T • Pupils are both interested in S&T related issues in their life and in studying S&T subjects. Romania, 16-17 yearsold Level of interest (percentage) of pupils in the following areas of life

20. Overall conclusions • INTEREST IN S&T • Pupils like S&T school activities as experiments, projects and trips. Others as competitions or speakers are usually interesting just for a minority. Germany, 13-14 yearsold Percentage of pupils who are interested in the following S&T activities at school

21. Overall conclusions • INTEREST IN S&T • Although pupils usually get information from teachers and parents about those items, many of them get that kind of information from television, Google and YouTube too. NorthernIreland (UK system), 14-15 yearsold Use (percentage of all pupils) of the following methods for getting information on S&T

22. Overall conclusions VOCATIONS Romania, 16-17 yearsold Percentage of pupils who are interested in the following future careers Level of interest (percentage) of pupils in the following areas of life

23. Overall conclusions • GENDER CONSIDERATIONS • In general, the gender influence is small, and perceptions, interest and vocations related with S&T of male and female pupils are very homogeneous. • In some cases female pupils show more interest towards issues related with art/culture and health, towards the biology as an academic subject, and less interest towards Electronics and Engineering. • These tendencies are small and for many groups don’t apply.

24. Overall conclusions • EFFECT OF THE STIMULA ACTIVITIES • For all the regions, all the activities and all the ages, the effects of the STIMULA activities on the survey results are minor. • Interestprevious to theactivitywasalreadymedium/high • Durationofthepilots • This does not mean short-term activities are “useless” • Previous experiences of partners indicate that long term activities has actual effect

25. Overall conclusions • MOST INTERESTING RESULTS • There is a pretty nice correlation between interest towards S&T and perception of the usefulness of S&T. • More interest doesn’t imply more vocations. • Why more interest seems not to be connected with more vocations? • Can additional school activities contribute to increase vocations? If it is so, how? • Design of activities to increase interest or to foster vocations should be different? • “Difficulty” of S&T subjects scare the pupils off?

26. Overall conclusions • SOME SUGGESTIONS… • Change the message that studying S&T will only be useful for developing a career in S&T. • Post-Secondary studies in S&T areas are a very nice general preparation for any job. • Additional S&T school activities should include a wider view of S&T subjects as one of the best ways to be prepared, not only for S&T careers, but for any career in a world that is increasingly depending on S&T.

27. JosuWaliñoj.walino@elhuyar.comDanel Solabarrieta d.solabarrieta@elhuyar.comJesús I. Martinez jimartin@unizar.eswww.stimula-project.eu Josu Waliño ElhuyarFoundation j.walino@elhuyar.com