Research and education cooperation example: educational packages of ERIS project

Abstract

One very promising model of learning designs is the model of Research and Education Cooperation activities. The ERIS project proposes exploitation of research results in school practice. ERIS is EU funded project (ERASMUS+) aiming to increase the interest of pupils in lower and upper secondary schools in science, and the choice of a scientific career. Thanks to the development, pilot implementation and dissemination of educational packages and methodological materials, research results will be exploited in the education systems of at least 3 European countries: Poland, Romania and France. ERIS packages are dedicated to various topics, e.g.: glaciers, earthquakes, geomagnetism, meteorology in the Arctic, UV radiation, etc. They use freely available research databases or results published online, which may be analyzed by pupils with the help of instructions prepared by scientists. The packages include materials for teachers to work with pupils during classes or extracurricular activities. They contain worksheets for pupils and guidance for teachers. 30 packages were tested in schools in Poland, Romania and France. The results of evaluation studies are presented and discussed. Teachers found packages interesting and useful for school practice. They found the tasks for pupils rather difficult, as it was a challenge for pupils to apply a new approach, which wasn’t taught at schools before. Pupils could not solve tasks in a schematic ways, which they often use when solving typical school exercises, and it might have caused difficulties. However, challenging tasks are developing interest and engagement. ERIS packages and proposed teaching approach may be considered as an efficient way of increasing pupils’ interest in science and scientific topics.