Promoting science outside school
A wide variety of settings across Europe promote curiosity, inquiry and exploration through various combinations of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the arts. Partners in the SySTEM 2020 project aim to build a deeper picture of science learning initiatives outside the classroom, and their importance in boosting scientific literacy, as Mairéad Hurley explains. Many of the
jobs in tomorrow’s world are likely to require specialised technical knowledge, as scientific research progresses and innovation continues apace. While schools, colleges and universities all have important roles to play in helping students acquire and develop scientific skills, education also takes place outside formal settings, a point central to the work of the SySTEM 2020 project. “In the project we aim to highlight the extensive science education that happens outside the formal system, and to highlight the value that it can have in developing scientific literacy,” says Dr Mairéad Hurley, Head of Research & Learning at Science Gallery Dublin, the project coordinator. There are many opportunities to learn about science outside the classroom, be that attending a family festival and encountering a science show, regularly taking part in a coding club, or occasionally joining a workshop at a science centre or an art museum, all of which can help people to think about the presence of science in their lives. “You’re exposed to, or you’re practising, the kinds of critical skills that are needed for everyday science,” outlines Hurley.
SySTEM 2020 project This doesn’t mean just technical, scientific skills but also core competencies like critical thinking, communication and collaboration. “Some young people are more comfortable developing and exercising these competencies
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in an out-of-school setting than they are in formal education, where they may feel greater pressures,” says Hurley. These are important not just in terms of employment prospects, but also in evaluating data and identifying misinformation, skills which are becoming increasingly crucial for all citizens as we face a climate crisis, widespread vaccine denial, and the prevalence of digital data misuse. “Science education has to be about educating the scientists of the future – but equally it also has to get people excited about science and able to engage with it. This will then put them in a position to use it in their everyday lives to benefit them and make evidence-based decisions,” continues Hurley. The wider aim in the project is to generate a broad picture of the different STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) learning opportunities available across Europe, and to study in greater depth the learning happening in a subset of these. The project consortium brings together 22 different organisations involved in science education outside the classroom, including researchers and practitioners. The consortium has developed a map covering 19 countries across Europe & Israel which shows over 1,400 organisations active in informal science learning and describes the activities they provide. “We want educators, funders and scientists to know about the kinds of activities going on in their locality,” outlines
Figure 1: SySTEM 2020 map.
Hurley. With an effective means of sharing information about learning activities, SySTEM 2020 hopes to support these organisations and help them work together more effectively. “There’s a valuable network to be tapped into, and the map has gathered a wealth of openlyaccessible data. It’s a snapshot of the vibrancy of the informal science education sector in Europe & Israel,” says Hurley (Figure 1). There are thousands of organisations across Europe which provide these kinds of learning opportunities for young people, now researchers hope to strengthen the relationships between them and encourage greater participation. SySTEM 2020 is coordinated by Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin, a space which aims to make science and the arts accessible to all. “We want to create a much more neutral space, where the sciences and the arts are on an equal footing and where people learn by exploring their interests,” says Hurley. The other organisations in the consortium also have similar interests. “Ars Electronica in
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SySTEM 2020
Learner perspectives
Figure 2: Ars Electronia’s Create your World Festival: A yearly programme for young people up to the age of 19 to give them the opportunity to produce and present their concepts and ideas of the world of tomorrow.
Austria is a world-leading organisation dedicated to art, technology and society – they run a huge international festival every year and have a large centre in Linz,” (Figure 2) continues Hurley. “We have a partner, Kersnikova Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia who run amazing exhibitions and learning programmes connecting art, science and technology” A major priority in the project has been to link the underlying research in this field with the expertise and knowledge of consortium members who are practitioners working directly with young people, to design and deliver their learning programmes. This partnership has led to the development of a set of tools and guidelines for informal science educators to engage learners more effectively, and more equitably. “Not everybody has the same access to science learning outside school. If the opportunities are limited to a physical location there are geographical barriers. If the activities are online, there may be a digital divide between those with access to internet infrastructure, and those without. If the learning activities and interactions are designed by those who are representative of the dominant social groups in science, and we don’t listen to the voices of a diverse audience when designing such activities, we risk reproducing existing inequities, and instead of making science more diverse, more equitable and more inclusive, we do the opposite, and increase the gaps,” says Hurley. “As well as taking these factors into consideration we are strongly interested in transdisciplinary spaces which try to break down the boundaries between science and other disciplines, and highlight the creativity
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and curiosity inherent to science. We are trying to prove that having the freedom and opportunity to learn through creative exploration in an informal setting can stimulate an interest in science that may not take hold in the classroom.” Such an experience may lead to improved formal outcomes, but that is only one part of a bigger picture for the consortium. “Ultimately we want science at all levels to be representative of our diverse society, and by being more diverse, lead to better outcomes for everyone,” emphasises Hurley. To address this lofty vision, one of the outputs of the project is a set of design principles to support the development of activities related to science learning outside the classroom, available on the project website. These design principles are aimed at practitioners within the informal science learning sphere, for example staff of science centres or science museums, as well as those who work to engage the public with cutting edge scientific research. Alongside the design principles, there are use-case examples from the project partners highlighting some of the work they are doing to extend educational opportunities to marginalised groups and reduce inequity. “For example LATRA, our partner on the island of Lesvos – Greece – works with a number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum as well as children and young people living in refugee camps (Figure 3). They have gathered evidence that the positive impact that informal science learning has on these young people includes building up their confidence in their abilities, increasing their trust towards educators as well as self-appreciation of their thoughts and opinions.’’
The perspective of the learners themselves and their attitude towards scientific subjects is also an important consideration in terms of improving overall scientific literacy, with evidence showing that many of the learners are highly self-motivated. In one part of the project, researchers surveyed students over a period of two years, aiming to build a deeper picture of their science learning and how it connects into their wider world. “We were looking at attitudes towards science both in and out of school, and we also gathered socio-demographic information about the learners to try to understand the role science plays in their lives,” outlines Hurley. “Unsurprisingly, we found evidence of persistent inequality - male learners from highly educated families are the most likely to connect with science. The analysis points to a need for inequities to be addressed at a systemic level, tackled together by educators, families, and policy makers.” Learners may pick up a lot of knowledge and skills outside the classroom, but it’s also important that they are able to reflect on what they have learned. “The development of core competencies is really important, to point learners towards self-reflection, which then leads towards self-directed or autonomous learning. Within SySTEM 2020, we have been developing a tool which can be used in informal science learning settings to allow students to monitor their own progress in areas such as collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication.” These competencies are highly valued by employers, yet progress or achievement in them is quite difficult to capture and accredit. Young people across the different locations in the project have worked with the tool, from which the team hope to gain fresh insights. “We’re working on the data analysis at the moment, in terms of what we can gather from the young people who have tried it,” says Hurley. “Initial results show that Figure 3: Exhibition curated by the Center for Refugee Art Technology & Environment, established by LATRA in 2018 as a refugee-led contemporary arts centre to assist the social and cultural integration of diverse young refugees. This initiative empowers the refugee participants with access to resources, funding and expertise.
EU Research
SySTEM 2020: Connecting Science Learning Outside The Classroom
Project Objectives
SySTEM 2020 is examining science learning outside the classroom in more than 19 countries across Europe and Israel to highlight the value that it can have in developing scientific literacy. The project brings together 22 different organisations involved in this field, from research to practitioners, to produce new tools and approaches in supporting the development of flexible and rich learning ecosystems for students.
Project Funding Figure 4: A sample of zines created by SySTEM 2020 workshop participants in Science Gallery Dublin and Ars Electronica, allowing ideas to emerge which may be difficult to communicate through text alone.
creativity, collaboration, and communication are activated during participation in the STEAM activities of the SySTEM 2020 partners, and awareness is raised concerning critical thinking. The activation seems to be connected to the task in question: a creative learner in, say, electronics, may not be so in 3D printing. This implies that the good pedagogical design of activities may boost attainment in these areas.” Researchers also gathered learners’ opinions on whether they wanted accreditation for the learning activities they had participated in, and gained mixed
the content of what they had learned, and how the topic affected them (Figure 4). This helps us to evaluate our programme, while simultaneously allowing them to be creative, and to reflect on what they have learned, and how it fits into the wider context of their life, and society as a whole” This research is part of the wider goal of improving scientific literacy and helping all learners to develop the competencies they will need to deal with the complex challenges of the future. As well as resources and articles aimed at practitioners and others interested in informal science learning,
In SySTEM 2020 we aim to highlight the extensive science learning that happens outside the formal education system, and to highlight the value that it can have in
developing scientific literacy for all.
results. “Learners were not uninterested in paper or digital credentials for their activities, on the condition that these would bear some future utility,” Hurley states. “In general, they can see that it could be useful, but right now, many cannot think of a practical setting in which they would use such a certification.” A more creative reflective tool has also been developed in the project, which involved getting participants in STEAM learning settings to develop learning portfolios based on their experiences. “For example, in Science Gallery Dublin we run programmes where 15-16 year-olds come in for five consecutive days and participate in art-science workshops,” outlines Hurley. “We trialled a learning portfolio method called zines, which are little hand-folded booklets. Through drawing, collage, or even poetry, learners responded to daily prompts that were crafted to help them reflect on
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SySTEM 2020 also has a forthcoming policy recommendation. “We’ve got a white paper on equity-focused science learning outside the classroom, which will be available on the project website in March 2021,” says Hurley. The project itself is nearing its conclusion, but in advance of that, the consortium is planning the publication of a final report which will highlight the scale of the project, and act as an advocacy tool for the informal science learning sector, outlining the vision of the project partners for a more equitable future. “The SySTEM 2020 project has shown the value of the work that happens in the out-of-school science and STEAM learning space, and overall, that there is a need for structured and systematic partnerships between all the relevant stakeholders if we are to address the persistent inequities in science learning” says Hurley. “As a community, we’re going to carry on working together on these topics.”
SySTEM 2020 has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement no. 788317
Project Partners
• Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland • WAAG, Netherlands • Aalto University, Finland • Ecsite – the European Network of Science Centres and Museums, Belgium • Ars Electronica, Austria • Bloomfield Science Museum, Israel • Kersnikova, Slovenia • Centre for the Promotion of Science, Serbia • Museo Nazionale Della Scienza E Della Tecnologia Leonardo Da Vinci, Italy • Noesis – Thessaloniki Science Centre, Greece • Parque de las Ciencias, Spain • Technopolis, Belgium • Science Gallery London, United Kingdom • Traces, France • Raumschiff, Switzerland • EMBL – European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany • Tom Tits Experiment, Sweden • Museiko, Bulgaria • Fundação Da Juventude, Portugal • ZSI, Austria • Latra, Greece • Utesla, Czech Republic https://system2020.education/about-partners/
Contact Details
SySTEM 2020 T: +353 86 379 7272 E: system2020project@gmail.com W: www.system2020.education : @system2020eu : @system2020eu : @SySTEM2020 Mairéad Hurley
Mairéad Hurley is Head of Research & Learning at Science Gallery Dublin. She holds a PhD in astronomy and is a qualified science teacher. At Science Gallery Dublin, she oversees the development of art-science learning programmes, and is Principal Investigator of the SySTEM 2020 project, through which a team of researchers and practitioners are investigating science learning in informal contexts.
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