Small laboratory, open to the local community, where children (6-12 yo), under the guidance of teachers or other educators (including parents), may engage in STEM-based projects or activities about sustainable development topics.
Published in Chapter:
MiniOpenLab: Open Community and Hands-On Approach to Sustainable Development and STEM Education – An Innovative Approach
Tharrenos Bratitsis (University of Western Macedonia, Greece), Iro Koliakou (Educational Association Anatolia, Greece), Arcadio Sotto Díaz (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain), Virginia Arvaniti (Educational Association Anatolia, Greece), Teresa Sarmento (Centro de Engenharia d Desenvolvimento, Portugal), Nuria Olga León Tobajas (Ceipso Maestro Rodrigo, Spain), and Ana Barroca (Projeto Schole LDA, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 23
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-3861-9.ch004
Abstract
Education for sustainable development and STEM education are two major EU priorities. Both should be addressed from an early age. At school, children must be motivated to learn maths and science and to imagine working in these fields, and to learn about sustainability and develop attitudes and behaviours that are in line with the UN's SD Goals. Over the past years, children have taken interest in SD and in some cases. By contrast, STEM is still regarded as difficult and unattractive by many children. Thus, it may be beneficial to couple both these fields. The project MiniOpenLabs proposes to set-up and test a different methodology with a higher prevalence of experiential learning and relying on the collaboration between science and technology organisations, enterprises, and civil society to ensure relevant and meaningful engagement of all societal actors with science and increase the uptake of science studies, citizen science initiatives and science-based careers, employability, and competitiveness.