Science education for action and engagement towards sustainability

Project Information

SEAS

Grant agreement ID: 824522

DOI

10.3030/824522

Project closed

EC signature date 26 June 2019

Start date 1 September 2019

End date 31 August 2022

Funded under

• Encourage citizens to engage in science through formal and informal science education, and promote the diffusion of science-based activities, namely in science centres and through other appropriate channels

Total cost

€ 1 601 113,75

EU contribution

€ 1 563 688,75

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SEAS (Science education for action and engagement towards sustainability)

Reporting period: 2020-12-01 to 2022-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Technological, socio-economical, and environmental changes are rapidly transforming and posing new challenges to our societies. What scientific knowledge, literacies, and skills do students and citizens need to address these challenges? SEAS aims to develop tools and methods that facilitate collaboration between schools and local communities facing sustainability challenges through open schooling designs. Open schooling involves schools cooperating with other institutions and organizations to achieve community well-being and opens schools to interdisciplinary work and action for change. In SEAS, this entails creating collaboration tools and methods where teachers and students can work together with out-of-school partners taking on complex sustainability challenges in their local communities.

The overall objectives of SEAS are (1) identifying core principles and best practices required for creating and sustaining open schooling collaborations, and (2) promoting scientific literacies and skills necessary to engage in addressing real-life, complex sustainability challenges.

To achieve these goals, SEAS coordinates and investigates collaboration among six open schooling networks with partners from Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. SEAS networks consist of partners with extensive experience in cooperation across formal, non-formal, and informal science education, and include, in addition to researchers and out-of-school centers, local schools, civil society organizations, and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The main activities in the SEAS project have been 1) establishing, supporting and analyzing local open schooling networks; 2) establishing key concepts for further development of open schooling, and 3) establishing tools and methods supporting open schooling and interdisciplinary science learning.

Establishing and supporting six diverse open schooling networks in Europe was a main objective. A rich variety of open schooling and real-life complex sustainability challenges is evidenced by some selected examples of actions taken: asking students to develop a plan of measures and strategies for climate protection on the background of the climate emergency (Austria); using a tool for curriculum planning across Eco-school settings to identify and select locally relevant challenges to make their city and community more sustainable (Belgium); the establishment of a Science Club for 7th grade students based on a curriculum including locally relevant sustainability issues (Estonia); creating a so-called “cathedral of hope” from plastics collected from the ocean through a collaborate with an upper secondary school (Norway); using a formal agreement between a school and the municipality regarding the protection of a forest as starting point for a purposeful division of mapping of values attached to the school forest (Sweden). For more insights into the activities of the local networks, cf. https://www.seas.uio.no/about/local-networks/.

The initial key concepts, tools and methods were refined through an iterative design where the documentation and analysis of various challenges in each network provided feedback into the further activities. On the basis of two annual local assessments, challenges, difficulties and opportunities emerging throughout the project were identified, along with alternative uses of tools and solutions specific to the local networks. A key tenet of the SEAS project’s design has been to encourage diversity among local networks to ensure their relevance to the local context and sustainability challenges addressed. In order to use the rich (empirical, methodological and theoretical) diversity as a strength, we designed an approach to co-construct a global synthesis to allows for local diversity while also making sure that each contribution is relevant and helpful to realise our joint goal, i.e. to create knowledge on our shared goals. The insights and resources of SEAS were developed in three areas: 1) Establishing Open Schooling Collaborations, 2) Supporting Teachers, and 3) Empowering Learners.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The first and most immediate impact of the SEAS project is the local open schooling networks established and cultivated throughout the project’s implementation. Based on our records, 3956 school students, 266 teachers, 28 school principals, 94 scientists, 15 small and medium enterprises, 25 non-governmental organizations and 43 policy makers have been part of the SEAS local networks. The local networks that are established are by themselves sources of significant short-term, mid-term and long-term impacts. However, not all impact is measurable and significant aspects of it are qualitative and situated. Impact may take shape as newly formed qualities of relationships in the various local networks, and again their various in-depth articulations, of which we have reported instances in our assessment and reporting work throughout the project.

Broadening science education by providing citizens and future researchers with the tools and skills to make informed decisions and choices are still a viable long-term impact of SEAS through the tools and resources produced, communicated, and disseminated throughout the project. Key tools in the projects have been cCHALLENGE and LORET.

cCHALLENGE (www.cchallenge.no) is an experiential learning tool that facilitates and supports insights and reflections on solutions to environmental problems through a 30-day commitment to one sustainability-related experiment with change. The resource was further developed into multiple translations (Belgian, English, Estonian, and Norwegian), a Pen and Paper version, and cCHALLENGE Classroom, a teaching program of ca. 6 weeks duration which guides teachers in supporting their students.

LORET (loret.se) is a didactical tool that represents a methodology for co-creating locally relevant themes and curricula for open schooling. LORET allows for providing shared reference points for pathways of emerging learning trajectories. During the SEAS project, means to support participants in identifying and selecting a locally relevant sustainability problem were strengthened.

Key resources for establishing and supporting open schooling have been developed through a range of resources for varied stakeholders, including:

A guideline document for implementing and following up Change-Laboratory Workshops

Models for 1) Establishing and implementing open schooling partnerships, 2) Transformational engagement, scientific literacies and motivation, 3) teaching and learning scientific literacy.

An assessment framework for open schooling

A white paper for policy makers

Guideline for the establishment of a SME on open schooling for science learning

The tools and resources produced, communicated, and disseminated throughout the project include the innovative digital story (https://thisisopenschooling.org) which is elaborated in a Summary (https://www.seas.uio.no/key-findings/seas-summary-report-2022.pdf). More information and resources can be found at www.seas.uio.no.

School strike 4 climate. Photo: Goran Horvat/Pixabay