RIALE-EU, REMOTE INTELLIGENT ACCESS TO LAB EXPERIMENTS IN EUROPE
Description
The RIALE-EU project was developed to address the need for students to experience the experimental process and appreciate its complexity. By providing remote, live access to technical-scientific laboratories, students can follow researchers conducting experiments, engage with them through video conferencing, ask questions, and confirm hypotheses. This interactive method helps them better understand the intricacies of experimentation.
RIALE-EU is an educational platform that offers both synchronous (live) and asynchronous access to experimental activities in the laboratories of universities, research centers, and schools. The platform serves compulsory school students, university students, and professionals, with a special focus on secondary schools. The platform integrates distance learning strategies, offering an innovative environment for the development of technical-scientific knowledge.
The project's main objective is to connect students and researchers, promoting the use of the scientific method, improving their understanding of research, and assisting in career orientation. Currently funded until 2025 by the Development and Cohesion Plan of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, RIALE-EU is expanding its network to schools and research centers across Italy and Europe.
Basic information
Coordinator
CRS4, https://www.crs4.it/
Partners
- ISTC - Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, CNR di Roma
- IFN - Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, CNR di Roma
- IC - Istituto di Cristallografia, CNR: sedi di Trieste, Bari, Catania
- DIBRIS - Dipartimento di Informatica, Bioingegneria, Robotica e Ingegneria dei Sistemi, Università degli Studi di Genova
- Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici - Università degli Studi Federico II di Napoli
- Several University Departments - Università degli Studi di Cagliari
- GEOPS - Laboratorio di Geoscienze, Università PARIS SACLAY
- Sincrotrone SOLEIL di Parigi
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Facultad de Ciencias Físicas Departamento de Estructura de la Materia, Física Térmica y Electrónica
- Karolinska Institutet di Stoccolma - Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society
- University of Bergen - Department of Biological Sciences
- IRTA - Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology
- Dipartimento di Agraria - Università degli Studi di Sassari
- Consorzio UNO, Oristano
- IFT - Istituto di Farmacologia Traslazionale, CNR, Cagliari
- Fondazione IMC Centro Marino Internazionale – Sardegna Ricerche, Torregrande (OR)
- Porto Conte Ricerche – Sardegna Ricerche, Alghero (SS)
- Piattaforma Energie Rinnovabili – Sardegna Ricerche, UTA (CA)
- Istituto Tecnico Agrario “Duca degli Abruzzi”, Elmas (CA)
- Istituto di Istruzione Superiore "G. Asproni"-"E. Fermi", Iglesias (CI)
Programme
Other (programme-other)
Project Acronym
Target groups
college students, education authorities, general public, policy makers, researchers, secondary school students, teachers, trainee teachers, university lecturers
Topic
Agriculture, Applied sciences, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedicine, Biotechnology, Computer science, Chemistry, Earth science, Ecology, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Environmental sciences, Fisheries science, Food science, Genetics, Geology, Geophysics, Information technology, Materials science, Nanotechnology, Pharmacology, Physics, Technology, Education
Start year
2023
End year
2025
Contact person
Carole Salis, riale@crs4.it
The RIALE-EU project aims to create strong interactions between secondary school students, teachers, and the scientific community, with the goal of enhancing students' understanding of research methods and scientific inquiry. This is especially important when direct exposure to research environments is not feasible.
The project operates in two main formats:
- Synchronous sessions: Students remotely access live experiments, observing the researcher's actions and interacting with them in real time.
- Asynchronous sessions: Recorded experiments and interactive educational objects are made available to further support students' understanding of the research process.
In the 2023/2024 school year, the project involved:
- 14 schools, 23 teachers, and 535 students
- 29 synchronous sessions
- Collaborations with several universities and research centers across Italy and Europe
For the 2024/2025 school year, RIALE-EU will continue to expand, bringing in new research institutions from Italy and across Europe, including the Karolinska Institutet, University of Bergen, and Universidad Complutense de Madrid, among others. These partnerships will further enrich the platform, offering students new learning opportunities.
For more information, contact the project head, Carole Salis, at riale@crs4.it.
Papers
The RIALE-EU project provides a web platform that enables students to access technical-scientific laboratories through both live and recorded sessions. This innovative educational tool offers schools access to facilities that are typically not available to them, aligned with the school curriculum.
The project is designed for lower and upper secondary students, promoting the scientific method and fostering a direct dialogue between researchers and schools. The platform supports different learning styles by providing interactive, asynchronous content that students can engage with at their own pace. Teachers can also monitor students' progress through the platform's tools, assessing their understanding of the experiments.
The project's objectives for teachers include:
- Providing a tool that adapts to each student’s learning pace and style
- Helping students make observations using the scientific method by analyzing data from real research labs
- Offering a method for teachers to track the learning progress of each student
Teachers are invited to integrate RIALE-EU into their classroom activities to provide students with real-world scientific experiences, fostering their interest in STEM fields.