A Guide to Open Science Schooling in Secondary Schools
Executive Summary
The concept of open science schooling (OSS) tries to contextualise science meaningfully for students, using experiential learning (ideas of constructivism) and practical, hands-on activities with the aim of building or manipulating actual objects in order to generate knowledge (constructionism). The aim is to bridge science learning and students through the practical identification of science as it is used in the students’ environment and context (e.g., local community). To achieve this end goal, OSS envisions to engage students in real-life science challenges in society and create a solid link between schools and the community. With that in mind, OSS involves students into cross-subject immersive mission-style learning activities, so that personalised learning is attainable through a variety of practice-oriented work.
This Guide is interactive in the section “Some Example Activities”. In each Scenario it is possible to have the abstract description of the teacher, the student and the school. Also it is possible in Curricular Implementation to show the subjects related with the Activity. It is also possible to search scenarios by subject involved in each scenario, using the “topic cloud” you will find on page 27 (you should click over the desired topic and, in the bubble that will appear, click again over the involved scenario you want to reach).
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This practically useful guidance takes schools and teachers through the different steps in Open Science Schooling, offering examples and giving useful advice from experiences during the project.
The guide offers the following:
- Open science schooling approach explanation
- Scenario based integration of open science schooling in a variety of context: a rich selection of 12 scenarios within 6 different schools profiles and 12 teachers/students profiles, including as well real-life cases. Some scenarios also come with a video!
- Evaluative considerations of the open science schooling approach in the classroom
- The questionnaire used in the project to monitor students’ perceptions on various aspects of the approach.