Parallel sessions III

13. Projects III

13.1 COMBLAB (T54), Montserrat Tortosa

Abstract: COMBLAB (COmpetency-MBL-LABoratory) is a European project that aims to: (1) provide new research-based teaching materials to promote scientific competencies in secondary school students using Microcomputer-Based Laboratories (MBL), and (2) provide research-based teacher training modules to scaffold secondary teachers to enhance science competencies in their students using MBL. Preliminary versions of the activities were translated into Catalan, Czech, German, Finnish and Slovak, and were implemented with 865 secondary school students from five countries in 2012-2013.

13.2 ASTEP and professional development (T56), Evelyne Touchard

Abstract: Supporting Science and Technology in Primary Schools, initiated by the foundation "La main à la pâte," involves a school teacher and one or more science student(s) working together to provide inquiry-based science teaching. This approach, strongly encouraged by the Ministry of Education, is complex, as the teacher has to do science and teach science to students. This study falls within the field of professional learning and its analysis was based on explanatory interviews conducted with the teachers in order to understand the "brakes and levers" they face when designing and implementing inquiry-based science teaching.

13.3 DynaLearn (T61), Bert Bredeweg

Abstract: DynaLearn has developed an Intelligent Learning Environment that allows learners to acquire conceptual knowledge by constructing and simulating qualitative models of how systems behave. Research points out the importance of learners' constructing conceptual interpretations of systems' behaviour. But what kind of tool is needed to accommodate the true nature of conceptual knowledge? Addressing this question, DynaLearn has developed six distinct representations, which act as scaffolds to support learners in developing their conceptual knowledge.

13.4 School on the Cloud: lessons from Digital Earth (T17), Karl Donert

Abstract: The digital-earth.eu project networked more than 80 organisations involved in using Digital Earth technologies in schools, teacher education and training. The presentation will review the outcomes of the ambitious network, recently rated at 90% by evaluators from the European Commission and receiving a Global Award for Capacity Building in education from the GeoSpatial World Forum. It will examine the digital-earth.eu legacy and subsequent developments through the School on the Cloud network: Connecting Education to the Cloud for Digital Citizenship.