SciLit discovers the secrets of science education

Friday 22 June 2018

[ssba]

We have asked if they know what the world is made of, what are molecules, atoms, and the structure of water. We looked at adhesion and cohesion forces and electricity. We observed the curiosity of children, the interest of parents, teachers, and educators in science and we discussedwhy is it important to promote science education from the early years education and which methodologies can be applied by teachers and educators in their daily work.

All of this and more happened on the 15^th of June 2018 during the final event of the project SciLit entitled “Bringing children closer to science”. The eventwas held at Centro Internazionaledelle Culture Ubuntu bringing together children from different nationalities, their parents, educators, teachers and students and letting them to discover the secrets of science education and what we cannot see with our eyes.

The activities and methods that were demonstrated during the event were outputs of the SciLit project. SciLit – Scientific literacy at the school: improving strategies and building new practices of science teaching in early years education, a project that is co-funded by Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership for School Education, developed innovative tools to facilitate the teaching of science in early years education.

SciLit project is at its final stage..The project team met in Gijon, Spain on the 8^th of June 2018 for the last project meeting to reflect on the discoveries and achievements during 2 years of the project. We discovered the science education, we learnt about the need to stimulate the interest of children from the early age, about the situation across Europe in preparing teachers and educators to teach science in schools, and not only.

All of us, project partners, were trained by the project coordinator how to use innovative methods to teach science considering the needs and developments of each child. Project partners from Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and Spain adapted and tried novel methodologies at their own kindergartens and schools. All those discoveries, models, methods and achievements were collected and presented in the final SciLit project outputs, namely:

“Scientific literacy at school: a proposal of a new methodology” – Guide for policy makers, scientists, education professionals and national, regional and local authorities involved in science education.
“Scientific literacy at the school. An inquiry about What is the world made of?” – Classroom materials for teaching natural sciences.
“Scientific literacy at the school. An inquiry about Archaeology in the classroom” – Classroom materials for teaching social and human sciences bringing archaeology closer to the students.

The final materials are being fine-tuned and all soon will be available on CESIE’s Digital Library. We are concerned that science teaching is a basis for the overall development of the child, therefore consult the materials of the SciLit project and: