MASS, Motivate and Attract Students to Science
Would you like to know how science education can become more attractive and accessible to students? Join the MASS community!
The intention of the MASS project is to identify, analyse, evaluate and disseminate practical tools and methods in teaching science that can effectively increase students’ motivation and give them a higher level of basic skills in science.
Eight countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Greece, Cyprus and the Netherlands) have put together their expertise and joined forces to explore what happens in science lessons and to find good practices that involve innovative methods in teaching science.
The MASS project has identified three major challenges in making science education more attractive to students:
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Science through digital learning
The majority of today´s generation of students use digital devices, Internet applications or social media every day. The MASS project shares good practices and experiences in the use of digital tools and media that make science education more meaningful.
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Early Inquiry
Inquiry has proven to be an effective method to attract children to science to increase their learning success, especially at a young age. The MASS project analyses barriers to using inquiry-based methods at schools and shows successful implementation of these methods in science classroom practice, with a special focus on primary school learners.
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Low achievers in science
Science is a setting where people learn important lessons about the real world; which is why it must be delivered to every child. The MASS project collects, pilots, adapts and shares practices that can attract low achievers to science and help them develop some relevant key competences that are at the same time basic-life skills.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
Basic information
The Country Starting Point Reports (CSPR) are a reflection on the experience and evidence collected during the research in the initial phase of the MASS project. The focus of these reports is on analysing the strengths, weaknesses and potential in the particular area of science education method in each partner country.
The CSPRs for partner countries are available at: http://mass4education.eu/project/documents/69-cspr
To help teachers to become empowered, skilful and self-confident, we work on:
- Study (recommendations)
- Good practices database
- Teacher training module
- Hands-on lessons / tutorials
All of these products and materials are made available in electronic form, downloadable from the MASS project website: mass4education.eu
Final versions of the MASS resources were presented and disseminated at the 3rd Education Conference ‘Motivate and Attract Students to Science’ at the University of Cologne, Germany, from 28 to 30 September 2016.