ESTABLISH (European Science and Technology in Action: Building Links with Industry, Schools and Home) Project has received funding from the European Commission's Framework 7 Programme to actively engage and contribute to the mission of Science in Society.
ESTABLISH has, over its lifetime (2010-2014), facilitated and widened the use of inquiry-based science education (IBSE) for second level students (age 12-18 years) across Europe by bringing together, within a collaborative environment, the key stakeholders in science education to generate a suite of substantial teaching and learning materials (Units) as well as a series of educational supports for both in-service and pre-service teachers.
Specifically the ESTABLISH partners have sought to:
- Identify, develop and localise inquiry-based teaching and learning materials;
- Provide supports for teachers to successfully implement IBSE;
- Share inquiry approaches and learn from one another’s experiences to promote IBSE across Europe;
- Stimulate student learning and promote careers opportunities in science to young people;
- Foster a mutually beneficial relationships between industrial, scientific, teaching and educational communities;
- Promote the experiential and educational benefits of IBSE.
The result of these collaborations have been a number of teaching and learning materials (ESTABLISH Units) enriched with industrial contexts and knowledge together with a series of educational supports for both in-service and pre-service teachers (ESTABLISH Teacher Education Programmes) designed to promote the use of Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) in classrooms across Europe. In addition ESTABLISH co-hosted the international Science and Mathematics Education Conference in 2012 in Dublin. During this conference, teachers from each of the ESTABLISH beneficiary countries travelled to Dublin to share and learn from one another experiences of using inquiry in their classrooms.