The community for science education in Europe

The 2023 STEM Discovery Campaign featured the first-ever Scientix Awards: every submission to the campaign was automatically eligible to win prizes. Awards were granted according to four different categories.

• STEM enthusiasts: participants who submitted the greatest number of activities.
• STEM providers: participants who described their activities in the best way possible (for example, by adding links, images etc.), so that other educators can easily replicate the activity. 
• STEM influencers: participants whose activities had the greatest impact, e.g., involved the greatest number of people. 
• STEM contributors: participants who may have been too busy to organize their own activity, but took part in an event, a survey, a training or any other STEM-related activity.

The award winners are:

STEM Enthusiasts

• Nataliia Severenchuk, Ukraine
• Tanja Olear Gojic, Serbia
• Aiki Jõgeva, Estonia
• Hatice Yavuzyilmaz, Turkey

STEM Influencers

• Manuel Miramontes, Spain
• Ann Magkiosi, Greece
• Sladjana Jovic, Serbia

STEM Contributors

• Dalibor Todorović, Serbia
• Slavica Bernatović, Croatia
• Nikola Delevski, North Macedonia

STEM Providers

• Bárbara De Aymerich Vadillo, Spain
• Emma Abbate, Italy
• Ariana-Stanca Vacaretu, Romania
• Fortuna Testa, Italy

The competition called for educators in primary and secondary schools in Europe to explore the lesson plans from Intel's Skills for Innovation Starter pack and carry out the lessons with their students. The goal of the competition was to challenge the educators to create and share their stories of implementation, which would demonstrate actual use of Intel's pre-designed learning experiences in the classroom.

The winners of the competition are:

• Silvana Jakimovska Binova, North Macedonia, "Robot geometry, Volume Challenge"
• Stavroula Skiada, Greece, "Plant Food"
• Selçuk Yusuf Arslan, Turkey, "3D Repair"
• Semih Esendemir, Turkey, "Catapult Toss"
• Teresita Gravina, Italy, "My 3D Volcano"
• Gjorgjina Dimova, North Macedonia, "Storytelling with Scratch"

The NBS EduWORLD project challenged teachers with the Nature-Based Solutions in Education Competition for Teachers 2023, held during the STEM Discovery Campaign 2023 (1 February – 30 April 2023), to increase awareness of the value and benefits of teaching about nature-based solutions (NBS) to students of all ages. The Competition was supported by Scientix and Trane Technologies.
 
The Competition asked teachers to create and submit an original Learning Scenario in English, introducing students to the benefits of nature-based solutions (NBS). Educators got the chance to share with the NBS and Scientix communities their most creative ideas for STEM-related activities involving NBS, thus showcasing their work and exchanging good practices with peers around the world.

Fifteen Learning Scenarios have been shortlisted and will be published in the NBS EduWORLD Repository, the Scientix Resource Repository and other NBS portals, and among them, 8 winners were selected. The winners will be invited to participate either in an exclusive Science Projects Workshop in the Future Classroom Lab of European Schoolnet in Brussels (Belgium) in June, or to take part in a Summer School organized by Ellinogermaniki Agogi in Marathon (Greece) in July, depending on the level of NBS knowledge of their entry, i.e., beginner, advanced, expert. 
 
See all shortlisted and winning entries below:

• Green jobs for building sustainable cities after disaster (Secondary) - Zeynep Güler, Turkey
• Exploring the Role of Nature-Based Solutions in Lake Sevan through Armenian Literature (Primary) - Narine Asatryan, Armenia
• Carbon Footprint Awareness in Our Daily Routines (Secondary) - Oya Merter, Turkey
• Sustainable architecture (Secondary) - Ivana Devernay Cimić, Croatia
• EcoWave: Educating and Mobilizing Communities to Combat Landfills and Restore Natural (Secondary) - Natalia Grushko, Ukraine
• The sound of silence (Secondary) - Emma Abbate, Italy
• Stand up for Nature-based Solutions! There is no Planet B! (Secondary) - Katerina Glezou, Greece

 
NBS Beginner winners: 

• Our smart garden for climate change (Primary) - Stella Timotheou, Cyprus
• “Greenize” your school and create a school garden in an urban environment (Primary) - Aglaia Mantzana, Greece
• Resilient cities for resilient citizens (Secondary) - Silvia Pirini Casadei, Italy
   

NBS Advanced winners:

• Seeds for life (Secondary) - Luigia Palumbo, Italy
• Let’s Save our Earth! Every little bit counts (Primary) - Francesca Cutajar and Miriam Chetcuti, Malta
• Are we prepared for natural disasters? (Secondary) - Mahbup Ela Yalçın, Turkey

 
NBS Expert winners:

• Sustainable City Simulator: Building the Future (Primary and Secondary) - Dalia Kager, Croatia
• Let mussels clean the oceans! (Primary) - Stavroula Skiada, Greece

The “Make it Open Schooling (MiO) Competition for Teachers 2023” aimed to foster the use of an Open Schooling approach to teaching and learning in primary and secondary education. In addition, its goal was to increase awareness of the value and benefits of employing such an innovative pedagogical approach.

The winners are:    

• Sónia Abrantes, Portugal: LS Discovering Geology
• Cristina Iulia Anghel, Romania: LS Earthquakes and their effects
• Demetris Lazarou, Cyprus: LS Geology and Seismology in our local area
• Irene Christou, Cyprus: LS Geology and Seismology in our local area
• Nicos Lazarou, Cypru: LS Geology and Seismology in our local area
• Constantin Lucian Vladescu, Romania: LS Reforestation why and how?
• Ruth Zubery, Israel: LS StepUp

The Europeana Education Competition 2023 was an educational competition, which aimed to highlight the importance of integrating innovative pedagogical approaches into educational activities, using arts and science digital heritage to raise awareness about today’s society’s big issues.

It encouraged teachers and non-formal educators to focus on the reuse of available resources, include innovative ways of using Europeana arts and science digital heritage in their educational activities and share their Story of Implementation about it.

• Ahmet Sahin (Turkey)
• Alina Ramona Vlad (Romania)
• Arzu KİLİTCİ CALAYIR (Turkey)
• Ayrton Curmi (Malta)
• Beata Šikloši (Croatia)
• Daniela Bunea (Romania)
• Doroteja Vojedilov (Croatia)
• Ella Rakovac Bekeš (Croatia)
• Emma Abbate (Italy)
• Emma Santarcangelo (Italy)
• Gordana Dragušica (Croatia)
• Ivana Busuttil (Malta)
• José María Díaz Fuentes (Spain)
• Jose Viñas (Spain)
• Katerina Spitsa (Greece)
• Ksenija Škorić (Croatia)
• Kyriaki Heli (Greece)
• Ljiljana Štanfelj (Croatia)
• Marianthi Tsepeli (Greece)
• Marlene Attard (Malta)
• Mirko Andrić (Croatia)
• Mirna Glavan Grbeš (Croatia)
• Mirta Kos Kolobarić (Croatia)
• Moira Sciberras (Malta)
• Nikolina Janc (Croatia)
• Nusreta Murtič (Croatia)
• Ourania Iatropoulou (Greece)
• Panagiota Bali (Greece)
• Panagiota Koufopoulou (Greece)
• Paraskevi Belogia (Greece)
• Polyxeni Papari (Greece)
• Stavroula Vounissea (Greece)

Within the framework of the STEM Discovery Campaign 2023, the Life Terra project launched “Terra Mission Challenge” to popularise its learning materials, promote sharing best practices, and motivate actions to support sustainability among primary and secondary school teachers and their students.

WINNERS

The winning teachers’ submissions of Planting with Terra Mission are:

• School planting event in Turkey - Semih Esendemir
• School planting event in North Macedonia - Zoran Simonovski
• School planting event in Greece - Georgia Laskaris

 
The winning teachers’ submissions of Terra Mission Experiences are:

• Wildfires and global tree losses - Emma Abbate (Italy)
• Global temperature and climate change - Iwona Kowalik (Poland)
• Sustainable science and sustainable life on Earth - Daniela Troia (Italy)
   

The Career Advisers Network Professionals Go Back to School was organised by the STEM Alliance and Scientix in partnership with the SEER, funded by the Horizon Europe Program of the European Union.

The competition aimed to encourage teachers to organise activities with STEM professionals in class and share with their peers. Participants needed to:

• Organise an activity with a STEM professional in or outside the classroom (invite the expert in person, organise a chat online, visit the expert in their place of work, invite the expert to participate in a fieldtrip with students, etc)
• Write in collaboration with the expert a career sheet in English and using the template provided to be included in the Repository of STEM job profiles (presenting the expert’s area of expertise, their daily job, their study path, etc…)
• Write a story of implementation in English to share with other teachers, describing the activity and introducing briefly the professional, outlining feedback from students, the lessons learnt by the teacher, and any additional information deemed necessary by the participant to give a complete description of their activity.

The competition was open to Primary and Secondary school teachers. The participants were encouraged to review the Handbook for Career Advisers, the guidelines on how to introduce STEM jobs in class, and the STEM Alliance’s advice to teachers on how to connect with industry to find advice and guidance on how to connect with STEM Industry experts and organise events with professionals.

The winners, who were invited to an exclusive Science Project Workshop in the Future Classroom Lab of European Schoolnet in Brussels, are:

• Álvaro Molina Ayuso and Lara Domínguez Blanco, Spain
• Olga Juravschi, Republic of Moldova
• Nektarios Farasopoulos, Greece
• Alessia Pepa, Albania
• Irene Papadopetraki, Greece
• Nicoleta Livia Barbu, Romania

The projects “GLOBE Program Elementary K-4" and “Science Picnic/Znanstveni piknik 2023” together organised the “Look Up – Cloud Hunters” competition for schools and kindergartens. The competition allowed children (age 5-11) and teachers to explore the possibilities of the mobile application „GLOBE Observer“ by observing clouds and atmosphere conditions, and taking photos of interesting clouds on a mobile phone camera or tablet as an art activity with STE(A)M approach and become the "Cloud Hunters". The main goal was to raise awareness and inspire students to explore the world around them together with their teachers.

Click here for more details and to see the winners, or here to go to the competition's Facebook page.

The non-profit initiative “Leonardo 4 Children 2023 Awards: Climate, Equality and Peace” is dedicated to addressing the issues of climate change, discrimination, and peace between people while supporting children in need through art and science education.

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, this award will allow children and teenagers to use and foster their creativity, analytical and artistic skills in a proactive way.

Click here for more details and to see the winners of the awards.