In this section you can find news about science education. Xplora is open to contributions. Send your news to science-news@eun.org.
Teach Copyright Right - New Curriculum for Educators Industry materials have routinely compared downloading music to stealing a bicycle, even though many downloads are lawful, and making videos using short clips from other sources is treated as probably illegal even though many such videos are also lawful. The Read more
European study shows when teachers like science, students do too Did you ever blame your teacher for hating science? New research shows that the shrinking number of students in Europe who choose to study science is influenced by how schools and teachers shape their attitudes. The research findings were applied in the EU-supported POLLEN ('Pollen... Read more
Launch of the Metaschool project: Towards Teacher Competence on Metadata and Online Resources Metaschool (Towards Teacher Competence on Metadata and Online Resources) is a collaborative European project funded by the Comenius programme and focused on improving the in-service training of school teachers and school ICT staff on topics related to digital learning resources. Read more
Final stage of INSPIRE started The partners of INSPIRE (Innovative Science Pedagogy in Research and Education) met on 30-31 March 2009 in Vienna, Austria, to discuss the final stage of the project. The testing of the Learning Objects provided on the INSPIRE website (http://inspire.eun.org)... Read more
Ocean Acidification, the other CO2 problem: How far will life resist? EPOCA, the European Project on Ocean Acidification and CarboSchools, promoting teacher-scientist partnerships about global change research, has released a new 8-page educational leaflet introducing Ocean Acidification research challenges to teachers of all levels and subjects. Read more
Share your best tips for science education on the STELLA web portal The STELLA web portal (www.stella-science.eu) has launched new tools for teachers and experts to share their best practices on science education in Europe. By joining the STELLA forums and submitting initiatives to the STELLA catalogue you can share your experiences and exchange... Read more
Safer Internet tackles cyberbullying On 10 February 2009, the sixth annual edition of Safer Internet Day was celebrated all around the world. Thousands of online and offline events run simultaneously across 50 countries of the world, with one common topic, cyberbullying. Read more
PENCIL key findings published The three-year project Pencil (Permanent European Resource Centre for Informal Learning) has released a publication bringing together its key findings. A digital copy of the publication and the final deliverables of the project are now available online at Read more
Safer Internet Day 2009: A New Edition of the Internet Literacy Handbook On the occasion of the Safer Internet Day 2009 the Council of Europe launched a new edition of The Internet Literacy Handbook, which offers teachers, parents and students a full guide on getting the most out of the Internet while being protected from its risks. Read more
Personalising the European classroom The new personalised learning platform iClass is making waves across Europe. This EU-backed project, ran from 2004 to mid-2008, created a learner-centred ICT platform that enables pupils to take more control of the learning process. Lately the iClass platform has been demonstrated,... Read more
The third Data Protection Day: The best "Surf the net - think Privacy" videos awarded The winners of the “Surf the net – think Privacy” competition – a pan-European video competition run by EUN and powered by Microsoft - were awarded on the third Data Protection Day event
on 28 January 2009. The competition invited young people to express... Read more
Xperimania activities in Physics and Chemistry for a whole class The first entries in this year’s Xperimania competition “Check out the property” show a good example of how to benefit of the activities in a class room: in the French Collège La Fontaine several groups of students under the guidance of their teacher, conducted... Read more
Schools from Slovenia and Greece winners in the MST categories of the 2008 eLearning Awards “Digi DT” from Slovenia won the Intel award for Technology and “Reduce – Reuse – Recycle” from Greece wan the SMART Award for Mathematics and Science in the 2008 eLearning Awards announced in the annual EMINENT conference in Rome... Read more
Young Europeans are enthusiastic about science – but still reluctant to pursue scientific careers Science tops the table of young Europeans' interests, but that does not seem to be enough to make them consider a scientific career, indicates a new ‘Eurobarometer’, published in November 2008. Young people's recommendations how to get young Europeans more involved in... Read more
Improving Europe’s skill base: new IT career portal launched Leaders of the IT sector have launched a new initiative to promote e-Skills in Europe, at the e-Skills conference held in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Set up under the leadership of the e-Skills Industry Leadership Board (ILB) and supported by the European Commission’s DG Enterprise... Read more
Students debate with role models at Sci-Tech Girls Day On 15 October, more than 100 girls from across Europe attended the Sci Tech Girls day to meet female scientific and technological role models and think about their future. The Sci-Tech Girls event was held in conjunction with the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society and... Read more
European industry leaders look to closer collaboration between business and schools Increasing
young
people’s
interest
in Mathematics,
Science
and
Technology
(MST)
is essential for sustainable economic
growth
and
competitiveness in Europe, according to the European Round
Table of Industrialists (ERT), a group of 45 industrial leaders from across... Read more
Xperimania science competition for schools starts: explore the properties of every day objects To help teachers make science lessons more fun and interesting, Xperimania (www.xperimania.net), now in its second year, will concentrate on the properties of familiar objects and how chemistry contributes to them. Xperimania is for 10-20 year old students in secondary schools from... Read more
Women in IT: High level debate in Paris The Women in IT session which took place in Paris on 7 July 2008 in cooperation with the French Presidency, the Women’s Forum and European Schoolnet, featured a high level debate on how to raise awareness and develop specific policy to address the need of promoting deeper participation... Read more
Winners of Xperimania recognised in Brussels: girls come out on top in science competition The winning students of the first Xperimania – from molecules to materials –competitions were awarded prizes at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels on 16 September 2008. The 10 winners and runners-up coming from Bulgaria, Malta, Hungary, Poland and Cyprus were... Read more
Survey on Games in Schools European Schoolnet has launched in close cooperation with the Interactive software federation of Europe (ISFE) the first European study on the use of games in schools. Twenty eight countries will be screened and a more detailed analysis will focus on Denmark, Estonia, Spain, France,... Read more
Rebuilding a European environmental website for young people – your opinion is needed! This July young Europeans and their teachers are invited to give their opinion in rebuilding an EU environmental website for young people. The European Commission’s DG Environment oversees the initiative and has launched a survey to rate proposals for fresh layout, structure,... Read more
PREMA - Reflecting & acting on the Maths Gender Gap Girls have equal abilities to boys, they often even get better grades. True as this may be, gender differences in the area of maths education still exist. Promoting Equality in Math Achievements (PREMA) aims at understanding the socio-cultural and pedagogic factors responsible for... Read more
Hats Off to Science This new feature on the Planet Science website aims to show how science education has much more to offer than just facts: it allows students to develop many transferable skills such as good communication, team working and problem solving, which are valuable in the job market in general. Read more
Council of Europe’s Wild Web Woods game hits one million milestone The number of connections to Wild Web Woods - Europe's first internet safety game for children - has topped one million worldwide and is expected to grow even further. The Wild Web Woods game has been developed to help children learn the rules of internet safety in a fun format,... Read more
Sweden’s Teknikens Hus celebrates “You don’t stop playing because you are old, you grow old because you stop playing”. In 2008, Teknikens Hus in Luleå Sweden celebrates its 20th anniversary. The science centre opened in May 1988 and has until today welcomed over 3 million curious visitors... Read more
Launch of INSPIRE project A new project, under the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme, INSPIRE, has been launched! INSPIRE (Innovative Science Pedagogy in Research and Education) will set up a validation observatory where 60 schools in Europe will test and analyse the use of new didactical... Read more
Nuffield Foundation’s report on Science Education in Europe Why in recent times do fewer young people seem to be interested in science and technical subjects? Does this problem lie in wider socio-cultural changes or within science education itself? Is the issue common across Europe, or are there differences between countries? The Nuffield... Read more
New technologies – we’d like to hear your views! European Schoolnet is currently working closely with key names in the mobile and internet industry to create an online information centre to guide teachers through the multiple opportunities and challenges that the virtual world brings. A core element of the centre will be the availability... Read more
Launch of STELLA – Science Teaching in Lifelong Learning Approach Started in January 2008, STELLA will aim to contribute to the improvement of science teaching in European schools, in particular in order to stimulate young people to undertake science studies and carriers, with a special focus also on girls. The Project has been funded with support... Read more
Online Survey on organic agriculture and agroecology What do you think about the way organic agriculture and agroecology topics are being included in formal educational programs today? Where could additional subjects be introduced? How can digital educational content and Internet-based services help? Help us to answer these questions... Read more
Report on teaching and learning of mathematics in Europe – industrial initiative proposals This recently published report from the National Center for Mathematics Education in Göteborg, Sweden gives an overview of the trends in interest and knowledge of mathematics among European pupils and students, examples of industrial efforts to increase young people’s... Read more
Industry stakeholders discussed MST education European Schoolnet organised 6 December 2007 a maths, science and technology (MST) education meeting with high-level participants from the industry. The purpose of the meeting was to exchange knowledge about industrial cooperation with education in the field of MST. In their statements... Read more
EMINENT Conference on Political Priorities for Education and the Role of Technology 230 participants from all over Europe and beyond met on 6-7 December 2007 in Brussels for the seventh edition of European Schoolnet’s EMINENT (Experts' Meeting in Education Networking) conference. The conference theme was “Political priorities for education and the role... Read more
Futurenergia chats on how to turn a desert into a fertile land by using plastics Eleven schools across Europe participated in the fourth online chat of Futurenergia project in January. The chat focused on how to turn a desert into a fertile land by using plastics. Read more
Take part in the Development Youth Prize 2007 and win a trip to Africa! Young people aged 16-18 from around Europe are invited to participate by submitting a piece of artwork which for them best highlights the impact of environmental change on developing countries. Their creative vision can help raise awareness among fellow pupils, teachers, families... Read more
Make science education a fun experience with Xperimania Europe is facing a crisis in science education with fewer and fewer students pursuing studies or careers in science. Xperimania (www.xperimania.net) aims to combat students’ bad perception of chemistry by offering fun yet simple hands-on activities to help teachers revitalise... Read more
CERN Programmes for Physics Teachers CERN is now accepting applications from Physics High School Teachers to attend its spring 3-day weekend and 3-week summer residential programmes. Read more
Catch a Star 2008 This exciting international competition for school students returns for its sixth year. It is run by ESO (the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere) and the EAAE (European Association for Astronomy Education). Read more
Xplora – DVD Knoppix: make science accessible for schools The Xplora team has developed a live bootable DVD – Xplora Knoppix, based on the Linux Debian distribution and completely contained on a self booting DVD. Read more
Celebrate achievement with technology: Enter the 2007 eLearning Awards The seventh eLearning Awards competition is now open and schools are invited to submit entries for the eLearning Awards 2007 that exemplify the best use of ICT in education. Entries are welcome from schools or teachers in EU Member States, EEA Countries, EU Applicant Countries as... Read more
Call for science teachers European Schoolnet is soon launching a new web-based project in the area of science, particularly focusing on the topics of materials, chemistry and physics. We are seeking science teachers, who are interested to help European Schoolnet run the project including chats, a competition... Read more
Xplora hands out the Millikan web experiment to Helsingin Yhteislyseo Xplora – the European Gateway for Science Education has received a grant from Agilent foundation to develop the web version of a classical Nobel prize winning experiment, which deploys the full potential of web technology in physics education. After more than a year of development... Read more
EMBO Award for Communication in the Life Sciences Call for entries EMBO is accepting entries for its sixth Award for Communication in the Life Sciences. Presented annually to a life scientist in Europe, the award highlights the exceptional efforts made by many scientists to combine science communication activities with a full-time research career. Read more
Tracking the ISS Starting in August this year, pupils from class 10 upwards (Age 16 and older) are invited to participate in a competition, in which pupils try to calculate the position of the ISS (International Space Station) by triangulation. Read more
Software from pupils for pupils The German "Klaus Tschira Stiftung" has setup a competition for pupils to write documentation or simulation software on science topics. Read more
Hands-On Guide for Science Communicators released Are you looking for tips and advice to communicate about science? Lars Lindberg Christensen, an experienced science communicator from the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre, has just released a new book aimed to change attitudes towards science communication in Europe.... Read more
New EU Commission book investigates how to improve science communication The European Commission has recently published a book which offers a useful insight into the current debate on the various aspects of communication about science. Edited by Michel Claessens, "Communicating European Research 2005" offers a series of 40 articles written by speakers... Read more
International Stockholm Junior Water Prize The International Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition aims to encourage young people’s interest in issues concerning water and the environment. The national and international competitions are open to pre-university young people between 15-20 years of age. Read more
6 February: Safer Internet Day 2007 The fourth edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) will be celebrated on 6 February 2007. Starting as an initiative in 2004, SID has become a major annual event crowning the awareness activities of Insafe, the European safer internet network. The growing network of nodes from Europe... Read more
Report on Internet as Resource for Science More and more people rely on the internet as their primary source for news and information about science and 87% of online users have at one time used the internet to carry out research on a scientific topic or concept.
Those findings come from a national survey conducted in the... Read more
Survey: Xplora needs your feedback Since Xplora announced the launch of its new and improved portal, the number of visitors has been increasing.
To continue improving the website, the Xplora team is launching a survey to give you the chance to add your feedback and comments. Read more
Millikan oil drop experiment ready to be installed Xplora has got a grant from the Agilent foundation in order to develop, together with the University of Kaiserslautern, the Millikan oil drop experiment. This development should enable physics teachers and students to easily run the experiment and to insert their results into a database... Read more
The Virtual Telescope:
an educational resource for pupils and teachers Have you ever dreamt to control a telescope via your computer and getting unlimited real time observing? A team of
astronomers have launched “The Virtual Telescope”, a new initiative bringing the exploration of the universe accessible to everyone. The objective of the... Read more
Science in Public Areas “Science in Public Areas” is the name of a project developed by the European Physical Society (EPS) in order to promote science awareness within the wide public, through attractive series of questions and answers, displayed in public areas. Read more
edutain@grid “edutain@grid” is a new project funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme. Intended to use Grid technology, traditionally applied to "big science", it aims to improve user experiences in both online gaming and distance e-learning systems.
It... Read more
Schools and Open Source Software - Cost and Time Saving Educational organisations have recently been pointing out the huge potential benefits to schools of Open Source software: they can save time and money.
This fact was acknowledged by a leading independent public school in the UK, King's College School, Cambridge, which is starting... Read more
Eggietalk- a project to improve communication between European primary schools pupils Wil Boxman and Ariël Meeusen, the initiators of the European Eggiedoll website, acknowledged the same fact: having 20 different languages within the European Union is a barrier to foster communication between the 60 million schoolchildren in primary schools. That is why they... Read more
SkyWatch 2007: an International Astronomy Contest Supported by European Schoolnet (EUN) and European Distance E-learning Network (EDEN), SkyWatch 2007 is an international astronomy competition organized within the framework of the DSpace project (e-Ten program of the European Commission). Participants (high-school students, teachers,... Read more
European Schoolnet Launches New Xplora Portal European Schoolnet is pleased to announce the launch of its new and improved Xplora website, a major European hub for the science education community.
It has been updated to enhance usability and accessibility, expand functionality and boost awareness of important news items.... Read more
European Seminar on Open source and Open Content for Learning- 25 October 2006 The first Bazaar seminar– called ‘Hey Dude, Where’s My Data?‘ will be held in Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday 25 October 2006 between 1.30 and 5 pm and will be hosted by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Read more
Agilent supports Xplora for web experiments Agilent Technologies Foundation has made possible the development of an exciting new web experiment, the Millikan oil drop experiment. The foundation has provided a grant to Xplora, the European Science Education Gateway carried by European... Read more
CONNECT 2006 Contest is now launched! CONNECT is an IST project aims at designing the classroom of tomorrow by using advanced technologies to connect formal and informal learning environments. The CONNECT consortium launches the CONNECT 2006 Contest, to motivate teachers to actively participate in the process of constructing... Read more
The Environment on the Serres Doorstep Schools in the prefecture of Serres - Greece, have achieved great results during the current academic year (2005/2006) by participating in a global environmental education programme facilitated by UNESCO Serron. Read more
Maths competitions and more Competitions in mathematics and other science topics are important, as they are a way of teaching by discovering and investigating.
There are a lot of maths competitions: some are individual and others are team competitions. In this overview, prepared by Benito Buas Ares,
a... Read more
The UNESCO SchoolNet CD and project The UNESCO SchoolNet CD is a set of ICT-based resources for teaching and learning of science, mathematics and language for secondary-level students. Read more
European Vascular Genomics Network (EVGN): focus on education European Vascular Genomics Network (EVGN), a Network of Excellence funded by the European Union within its sixth Framework Programme, has dedicated a specific section of its website to secondary schools and teachers, to the general... Read more
Science in school: a new journal for science teachers The first issue of Science in School, a new European journal to promote inspiring science teaching, is now available to read and download at www.scienceinschool.org. Read more
European Space Agency and Education Education is an important theme for the European Space Agency - ESA, which tries to support European educators in their work, providing simple, practical and modular educational material to use. ESA has now launched a new Education Kit about space. It's for primary and secondary... Read more
Real teachers for real science in Antarctica The Fuchs Foundation is announcing plans to recruit teachers in the UK for a unique expedition to Antarctica. To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Commonwealth Trans Antarctic expedition, teachers will conduct a science programme in Antarctica, in the spirit and ethos of past... Read more
Europe’s premiere prizes for scientific excellence and communication In a glitzy ceremony befitting the Nobel Prize, the EU announced the 2005 Descartes Prize-winning scientists and science communicators. This year, research teams in astronomy, climate change, genetic diseases, physics and the social sciences received the top honours, while a host... Read more
Science upd8: download science activities The UK's Science UPD8 website proposes a new approach, which tries to translate the latest science news into inspiring activities which teachers and students can easily download and try! You just need to register first. Then you will also be alerted when new initiatives are online. Read more
The Galileo Compass on the net The Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence is publishing an interactive eLearning module called “The instruments of Science” (Gli strumenti della Scienza), to encourage a greater interest for the historic and scientific culture. Read more
Resource centre for women in sciences in UK A new website ‘Science, Engineering, Technology - SET for Women’ – developed by the JIVE consortium of Bradford College, Sheffield Hallam, Open and Cambridge Universities – aims to support the UK government’s ten-year investment framework for ‘Science... Read more
New school projects on Xplora This autumn Xplora is launching new science projects for schools. To signal your interest to take part, please contact Karl Sarnow . There is no deadline for registration. Read more
Digital Contents at School You can now learn Italian, maths and other school subjects in digital lessons! A pilot project "Cipe Scuola" from the Italian Ministry of Education and the Italian Ministry for Innovation and
Technologies is starting in September, addressed to the high schools of the following Italian... Read more
Good Practices
in Science Teaching: the Grid Project Do you teach science in a primary or secondary school? The Grid Project - Growing Interest in the Development of Teaching Science, founded within the Socrates Programs, is creating a network to exchange good practices aimed to make more attractive the learning of science and maths. Read more
Hydrogen and fuel-cell: courses for students and teachers Hydro2Power, an Italian website dedicated to hydrogen and fuel-cells, promotes some didactic activities for the new school year. The courses are aimed at teachers and secondary school students. Read more
World's largest research ice breaker ship ready for virtual visits The research ice breaker ship "Polarstern", from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), is now ready for virtual visits. The project was realised in cooperation with AWI and the High School of Bremerhaven in Germany. A 3D virtual visit website is now available. Read more
Learning by doing: student architects Why not help your students experience the creativity and challenge of being an architect? The US-based Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust offers teachers and students the chance to expand their knowledge of architecture and the design process, using ArchitectStudio3D. Activities... Read more
Max Planck society opens portal for teachers and students in German The famous German Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG) has opened a portal for teachers and students of science. This event comes just in time to celebrate 10 years of MAX, a publication series on public science. The portal covers all areas of science. Read more
Nature observers online Science4You, a German language website, reports about observations of butterflies, flowers, birds, other animals and plants. It includes many beautiful images of natural organisms, plus explanations. It's a good resource for nature lovers. Read more
Historical works by famous researchers in maths The German "Electronic Research Archive for Mathematics" (ERAM) project for the digitisation of mathematical publications has won a prize from the section of physics, astronomy and mathematics of the American "Special Libraries Association". It offers original work by famous scientists... Read more
Nanotechnology for science teachers Do you want to include nanotechnology in your science lessons? The Network of Excellence for Chemical Nanomaterials- CC-NanoChem has prepared an experimental kit in cooperation with teachers. There will be a workshop to explain how to use nanotechnology in the classroom. Read more
Fit for maths at university The University of Hannover in Germany has started a cooperation programme with schools called Uni:fit.
It enables students to join intensive courses in mathematics. Read more
Summer school on renewable energies: register by August 5 2005 The summer school on renewable energies will take place at the solar campus of the Aachen university of applied sciences from August 24 to September 9 2005. There will be a total of 40 participants and there are still free places available. The deadline for registration is August... Read more
Robot sports – designing winners At the Annual World Championship for Robotic Football in Osaka/Japan, the Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin) robotic football team defended their world champion title from 2004 in the class of small robots (up to 18cm diameter) with a win of 4-0 against the Cornell team from the... Read more
Competition for secondary teachers: create a course on biomaterials Teachers are challenged to create a course covering the cutting edge topic of biomaterials, by the German Agency of Renewable Resources. The courses should give an overview of how biomaterials can be used in forestry, farming and energy. Prizes are an offer for the best courses,... Read more
ECSITE conference proceedings The ECSITE Annual Conference 2005 was held at Heureka, Finland on 10-12 June 2005. Read more
SkyWatch: turning pupils into researchers with a global network of robotic telescopes SkyWatch invites everyone to design projects and activities involving the use of high powered robotic telescopes, made available for schools to use. Through the activity, pupils get the chance to work like real researchers in universities, and make the most of the advanced equipment. Read more
New website for Science Education Today sees the launch of the Xplora portal, a new European gateway for science education. Such initiatives will be an important part of improving Europe’s economic position in coming years, as more researchers are needed to drive innovation. “Xplora” provides resources... Read more
Free climate change handbook for teachers The Swedish science centre, Teknikens Hus, offers a new handbook for teachers to download. It's available in English and Swedish. Read more
ENO progamme is growing ENO-Environment Online is a global virtual school for environmental awareness where environmental themes are studied through out the school year on a weekly basis. ENO programme is growing. About 200 schools in 75 countries will take part from August 2005. ENO is the most international... Read more
Call for pilot schools - Survey on environmental website for kids To raise awareness on environmental issues with youth, the DG Environment of the European Commission wishes to review its website for young Europeans. To carry out this mission at local level, Gellis Communications and European Schoolnet seek to recruit Pilot Schools in Denmark,... Read more
Energy is our Future goes on The first year of the “Energy is our Future” school programme was a great success. Through its website and online activities, the programme reached approximately 60 000 schools in 34 countries across Europe. For the upcoming 2007-2008 school year, European Schoolnet and... Read more
Xperimania - new project on materials and chemistry
PUT A TEASER HERE Read more
The SCIENCE HOUSE opens The SCIENCE HOUSE, an exposition with more than 80 interactive science exhibits will open on Thursday, March 29 at 14:00. Read more
WONDERS 2007: Xplora coordinates the DECIDE game The European Science Festival WONDERS - Welcome to Observations, News & Demonstrations of European Research and Science - , held for the first time in 2006, aims to promote science for the general public. WONDERS is back in 2007 with new features including “DECIDE”,... Read more
4-6 October 2006: Learning Lab on "Challenging Molecules" The next Learning Lab organised by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) will be held from 4 to 6 October 2006 at the EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany. The theme retained for this edition is “Challenging... Read more
Tuttoscuola, news and information about the Italian educational world Tuttoscuola is an Italian educational monthly magazine for teachers, students and parents. Founded in 1975, it is one of the leading magazines within the educational Italian system, with a circulation of about 45.000 copies. It counts, within its readers, the most part of the... Read more
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In this section you can find news about science education. Xplora is open to contributions. Send your news to 
Industry materials have routinely compared downloading music to stealing a bicycle, even though many downloads are lawful, and making videos using short clips from other sources is treated as probably illegal even though many such videos are also lawful. The 
Did you ever blame your teacher for hating science? New research shows that the shrinking number of students in Europe who choose to study science is influenced by how schools and teachers shape their attitudes. The research findings were applied in the EU-supported POLLEN ('Pollen...
Metaschool (Towards Teacher Competence on Metadata and Online Resources) is a collaborative European project funded by the Comenius programme and focused on improving the in-service training of school teachers and school ICT staff on topics related to digital learning resources.
The partners of INSPIRE (Innovative Science Pedagogy in Research and Education) met on 30-31 March 2009 in Vienna, Austria, to discuss the final stage of the project. The testing of the Learning Objects provided on the INSPIRE website (
EPOCA, the European Project on Ocean Acidification and CarboSchools, promoting teacher-scientist partnerships about global change research, has released a new 8-page educational leaflet introducing Ocean Acidification research challenges to teachers of all levels and subjects.
The STELLA web portal (www.stella-science.eu) has launched new tools for teachers and experts to share their best practices on science education in Europe. By joining the STELLA forums and submitting initiatives to the STELLA catalogue you can share your experiences and exchange...
On 10 February 2009, the sixth annual edition of Safer Internet Day was celebrated all around the world. Thousands of online and offline events run simultaneously across 50 countries of the world, with one common topic, cyberbullying.
The three-year project Pencil (Permanent European Resource Centre for Informal Learning) has released a publication bringing together its key findings. A digital copy of the publication and the final deliverables of the project are now available online at 
On the occasion of the Safer Internet Day 2009 the Council of Europe launched a new edition of The Internet Literacy Handbook, which offers teachers, parents and students a full guide on getting the most out of the Internet while being protected from its risks.
The new personalised learning platform iClass is making waves across Europe. This EU-backed project, ran from 2004 to mid-2008, created a learner-centred ICT platform that enables pupils to take more control of the learning process. Lately the iClass platform has been demonstrated,...
The winners of the “Surf the net – think Privacy” competition – a pan-European video competition run by EUN and powered by Microsoft - were awarded on the third Data Protection Day event
on 28 January 2009. The competition invited young people to express...
The first entries in this year’s Xperimania competition “Check out the property” show a good example of how to benefit of the activities in a class room: in the French Collège La Fontaine several groups of students under the guidance of their teacher, conducted...
“Digi DT” from Slovenia won the Intel award for Technology and “Reduce – Reuse – Recycle” from Greece wan the SMART Award for Mathematics and Science in the 2008 eLearning Awards announced in the annual EMINENT conference in Rome...
Science tops the table of young Europeans' interests, but that does not seem to be enough to make them consider a scientific career, indicates a new ‘Eurobarometer’, published in November 2008. Young people's recommendations how to get young Europeans more involved in...
Leaders of the IT sector have launched a new initiative to promote e-Skills in Europe, at the e-Skills conference held in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Set up under the leadership of the e-Skills Industry Leadership Board (ILB) and supported by the European Commission’s DG Enterprise...
On 15 October, more than 100 girls from across Europe attended the Sci Tech Girls day to meet female scientific and technological role models and think about their future. The Sci-Tech Girls event was held in conjunction with the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society and...
Increasing
young
people’s
interest
in Mathematics,
Science
and
Technology
(MST)
is essential for sustainable economic
growth
and
competitiveness in Europe, according to the European Round
Table of Industrialists (ERT), a group of 45 industrial leaders from across...
To help teachers make science lessons more fun and interesting, Xperimania (www.xperimania.net), now in its second year, will concentrate on the properties of familiar objects and how chemistry contributes to them. Xperimania is for 10-20 year old students in secondary schools from...
The Women in IT session which took place in Paris on 7 July 2008 in cooperation with the French Presidency, the Women’s Forum and European Schoolnet, featured a high level debate on how to raise awareness and develop specific policy to address the need of promoting deeper participation...
The winning students of the first Xperimania – from molecules to materials –competitions were awarded prizes at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels on 16 September 2008. The 10 winners and runners-up coming from Bulgaria, Malta, Hungary, Poland and Cyprus were...
European Schoolnet has launched in close cooperation with the Interactive software federation of Europe (ISFE) the first European study on the use of games in schools. Twenty eight countries will be screened and a more detailed analysis will focus on Denmark, Estonia, Spain, France,...
This July young Europeans and their teachers are invited to give their opinion in rebuilding an EU environmental website for young people. The European Commission’s DG Environment oversees the initiative and has launched a survey to rate proposals for fresh layout, structure,...
Girls have equal abilities to boys, they often even get better grades. True as this may be, gender differences in the area of maths education still exist. Promoting Equality in Math Achievements (PREMA) aims at understanding the socio-cultural and pedagogic factors responsible for...
This new feature on the Planet Science website aims to show how science education has much more to offer than just facts: it allows students to develop many transferable skills such as good communication, team working and problem solving, which are valuable in the job market in general.
The number of connections to Wild Web Woods - Europe's first internet safety game for children - has topped one million worldwide and is expected to grow even further. The Wild Web Woods game has been developed to help children learn the rules of internet safety in a fun format,...
“You don’t stop playing because you are old, you grow old because you stop playing”. In 2008, Teknikens Hus in Luleå Sweden celebrates its 20th anniversary. The science centre opened in May 1988 and has until today welcomed over 3 million curious visitors...
A new project, under the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme, INSPIRE, has been launched! INSPIRE (Innovative Science Pedagogy in Research and Education) will set up a validation observatory where 60 schools in Europe will test and analyse the use of new didactical...
Why in recent times do fewer young people seem to be interested in science and technical subjects? Does this problem lie in wider socio-cultural changes or within science education itself? Is the issue common across Europe, or are there differences between countries? The Nuffield...
European Schoolnet is currently working closely with key names in the mobile and internet industry to create an online information centre to guide teachers through the multiple opportunities and challenges that the virtual world brings. A core element of the centre will be the availability...
Started in January 2008, STELLA will aim to contribute to the improvement of science teaching in European schools, in particular in order to stimulate young people to undertake science studies and carriers, with a special focus also on girls. The Project has been funded with support...
What do you think about the way organic agriculture and agroecology topics are being included in formal educational programs today? Where could additional subjects be introduced? How can digital educational content and Internet-based services help? Help us to answer these questions...
This recently published report from the National Center for Mathematics Education in Göteborg, Sweden gives an overview of the trends in interest and knowledge of mathematics among European pupils and students, examples of industrial efforts to increase young people’s...
European Schoolnet organised 6 December 2007 a maths, science and technology (MST) education meeting with high-level participants from the industry. The purpose of the meeting was to exchange knowledge about industrial cooperation with education in the field of MST. In their statements...
230 participants from all over Europe and beyond met on 6-7 December 2007 in Brussels for the seventh edition of European Schoolnet’s EMINENT (Experts' Meeting in Education Networking) conference. The conference theme was “Political priorities for education and the role...
Eleven schools across Europe participated in the fourth online chat of Futurenergia project in January. The chat focused on how to turn a desert into a fertile land by using plastics.
Young people aged 16-18 from around Europe are invited to participate by submitting a piece of artwork which for them best highlights the impact of environmental change on developing countries. Their creative vision can help raise awareness among fellow pupils, teachers, families...
CERN is now accepting applications from Physics High School Teachers to attend its spring 3-day weekend and 3-week summer residential programmes.
This exciting international competition for school students returns for its sixth year. It is run by ESO (the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere) and the EAAE (European Association for Astronomy Education).
The Xplora team has developed a live bootable DVD – Xplora Knoppix, based on the Linux Debian distribution and completely contained on a self booting DVD.
The seventh eLearning Awards competition is now open and schools are invited to submit entries for the eLearning Awards 2007 that exemplify the best use of ICT in education. Entries are welcome from schools or teachers in EU Member States, EEA Countries, EU Applicant Countries as...
European Schoolnet is soon launching a new web-based project in the area of science, particularly focusing on the topics of materials, chemistry and physics. We are seeking science teachers, who are interested to help European Schoolnet run the project including chats, a competition...
Xplora – the European Gateway for Science Education has received a grant from Agilent foundation to develop the web version of a classical Nobel prize winning experiment, which deploys the full potential of web technology in physics education. After more than a year of development...
EMBO is accepting entries for its sixth Award for Communication in the Life Sciences. Presented annually to a life scientist in Europe, the award highlights the exceptional efforts made by many scientists to combine science communication activities with a full-time research career.
Starting in August this year, pupils from class 10 upwards (Age 16 and older) are invited to participate in a competition, in which pupils try to calculate the position of the ISS (International Space Station) by triangulation.
The German "Klaus Tschira Stiftung" has setup a competition for pupils to write documentation or simulation software on science topics.
Are you looking for tips and advice to communicate about science? Lars Lindberg Christensen, an experienced science communicator from the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre, has just released a new book aimed to change attitudes towards science communication in Europe....
The European Commission has recently published a book which offers a useful insight into the current debate on the various aspects of communication about science. Edited by Michel Claessens, "Communicating European Research 2005" offers a series of 40 articles written by speakers...
The International Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition aims to encourage young people’s interest in issues concerning water and the environment. The national and international competitions are open to pre-university young people between 15-20 years of age.
The fourth edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) will be celebrated on 6 February 2007. Starting as an initiative in 2004, SID has become a major annual event crowning the awareness activities of Insafe, the European safer internet network. The growing network of nodes from Europe...
More and more people rely on the internet as their primary source for news and information about science and 87% of online users have at one time used the internet to carry out research on a scientific topic or concept.
Those findings come from a national survey conducted in the...
Since Xplora announced the launch of its new and improved portal, the number of visitors has been increasing.
To continue improving the website, the Xplora team is launching a survey to give you the chance to add your feedback and comments.
Xplora has got a grant from the Agilent foundation in order to develop, together with the University of Kaiserslautern, the Millikan oil drop experiment. This development should enable physics teachers and students to easily run the experiment and to insert their results into a database...
Have you ever dreamt to control a telescope via your computer and getting unlimited real time observing? A team of
astronomers have launched “The Virtual Telescope”, a new initiative bringing the exploration of the universe accessible to everyone. The objective of the...
“Science in Public Areas” is the name of a project developed by the European Physical Society (EPS) in order to promote science awareness within the wide public, through attractive series of questions and answers, displayed in public areas.
“edutain@grid” is a new project funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme. Intended to use Grid technology, traditionally applied to "big science", it aims to improve user experiences in both online gaming and distance e-learning systems.
It...
Educational organisations have recently been pointing out the huge potential benefits to schools of Open Source software: they can save time and money.
This fact was acknowledged by a leading independent public school in the UK, King's College School, Cambridge, which is starting...
Wil Boxman and Ariël Meeusen, the initiators of the European Eggiedoll website, acknowledged the same fact: having 20 different languages within the European Union is a barrier to foster communication between the 60 million schoolchildren in primary schools. That is why they...
Supported by European Schoolnet (EUN) and European Distance E-learning Network (EDEN), SkyWatch 2007 is an international astronomy competition organized within the framework of the DSpace project (e-Ten program of the European Commission). Participants (high-school students, teachers,...
European Schoolnet is pleased to announce the launch of its new and improved Xplora website, a major European hub for the science education community.
The first Bazaar seminar– called ‘Hey Dude, Where’s My Data?‘ will be held in Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday 25 October 2006 between 1.30 and 5 pm and will be hosted by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
Agilent Technologies Foundation has made possible the development of an exciting new web experiment, the Millikan oil drop experiment. The foundation has provided a grant to Xplora, the European Science Education Gateway carried by 
CONNECT is an IST project aims at designing the classroom of tomorrow by using advanced technologies to connect formal and informal learning environments. The CONNECT consortium launches the CONNECT 2006 Contest, to motivate teachers to actively participate in the process of constructing...
Schools in the prefecture of Serres - Greece, have achieved great results during the current academic year (2005/2006) by participating in a global environmental education programme facilitated by UNESCO Serron.
Competitions in mathematics and other science topics are important, as they are a way of teaching by discovering and investigating.
There are a lot of maths competitions: some are individual and others are team competitions. 
The UNESCO SchoolNet CD is a set of ICT-based resources for teaching and learning of science, mathematics and language for secondary-level students.
European Vascular Genomics Network (EVGN), a Network of Excellence funded by the European Union within its sixth Framework Programme, has dedicated a specific section of its 
The first issue of Science in School, a new European journal to promote inspiring science teaching, is now available to read and download at 
Education is an important theme for the European Space Agency - ESA, which tries to support European educators in their work, providing simple, practical and modular educational material to use. ESA has now launched a new Education Kit about space. It's for primary and secondary...
The Fuchs Foundation is announcing plans to recruit teachers in the UK for a unique expedition to Antarctica. To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Commonwealth Trans Antarctic expedition, teachers will conduct a science programme in Antarctica, in the spirit and ethos of past...
In a glitzy ceremony befitting the Nobel Prize, the EU announced the 2005 Descartes Prize-winning scientists and science communicators. This year, research teams in astronomy, climate change, genetic diseases, physics and the social sciences received the top honours, while a host...
The UK's Science UPD8 website proposes a new approach, which tries to translate the latest science news into inspiring activities which teachers and students can easily download and try! You just need to register first. Then you will also be alerted when new initiatives are online.
The Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence is publishing an interactive eLearning module called “The instruments of Science” (Gli strumenti della Scienza), to encourage a greater interest for the historic and scientific culture.
A new website ‘Science, Engineering, Technology - SET for Women’ – developed by the JIVE consortium of Bradford College, Sheffield Hallam, Open and Cambridge Universities – aims to support the UK government’s ten-year investment framework for ‘Science...
This autumn 
You can now learn Italian, maths and other school subjects in digital lessons! A pilot project "Cipe Scuola" from the Italian Ministry of Education and the Italian Ministry for Innovation and
Technologies is starting in September, addressed to the high schools of the following Italian...
Do you teach science in a primary or secondary school? The Grid Project - Growing Interest in the Development of Teaching Science, founded within the Socrates Programs, is creating a network to exchange good practices aimed to make more attractive the learning of science and maths.
Hydro2Power, an Italian website dedicated to hydrogen and fuel-cells, promotes some didactic activities for the new school year. The courses are aimed at teachers and secondary school students.
The research ice breaker ship "Polarstern", from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), is now ready for virtual visits. The project was realised in cooperation with AWI and the High School of Bremerhaven in Germany. A 3D virtual visit website is now available.
Why not help your students experience the creativity and challenge of being an architect? The US-based Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust offers teachers and students the chance to expand their knowledge of architecture and the design process, using ArchitectStudio3D. Activities...
The famous German Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG) has opened a portal for teachers and students of science. This event comes just in time to celebrate 10 years of MAX, a publication series on public science. The portal covers all areas of science.
Science4You, a German language website, reports about observations of butterflies, flowers, birds, other animals and plants. It includes many beautiful images of natural organisms, plus explanations. It's a good resource for nature lovers.
The German "Electronic Research Archive for Mathematics" (ERAM) project for the digitisation of mathematical publications has won a prize from the section of physics, astronomy and mathematics of the American "Special Libraries Association". It offers original work by famous scientists...
Do you want to include nanotechnology in your science lessons? The Network of Excellence for Chemical Nanomaterials- CC-NanoChem has prepared an experimental kit in cooperation with teachers. There will be a workshop to explain how to use nanotechnology in the classroom.
The University of Hannover in Germany has started a cooperation programme with schools called Uni:fit.
It enables students to join intensive courses in mathematics.
The summer school on renewable energies will take place at the solar campus of the Aachen university of applied sciences from August 24 to September 9 2005. There will be a total of 40 participants and there are still free places available. The deadline for registration is August...
At the Annual World Championship for Robotic Football in Osaka/Japan, the Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin) robotic football team defended their world champion title from 2004 in the class of small robots (up to 18cm diameter) with a win of 4-0 against the Cornell team from the...
Teachers are challenged to create a course covering the cutting edge topic of biomaterials, by the German Agency of Renewable Resources. The courses should give an overview of how biomaterials can be used in forestry, farming and energy. Prizes are an offer for the best courses,...
The ECSITE Annual Conference 2005 was held at Heureka, Finland on 10-12 June 2005.
SkyWatch invites everyone to design projects and activities involving the use of high powered robotic telescopes, made available for schools to use. Through the activity, pupils get the chance to work like real researchers in universities, and make the most of the advanced equipment.
Today sees the launch of the Xplora portal, a new European gateway for science education. Such initiatives will be an important part of improving Europe’s economic position in coming years, as more researchers are needed to drive innovation. “Xplora” provides resources...
The Swedish science centre, Teknikens Hus, offers a new handbook for teachers to download. It's available in English and Swedish.
ENO-Environment Online is a global virtual school for environmental awareness where environmental themes are studied through out the school year on a weekly basis. ENO programme is growing. About 200 schools in 75 countries will take part from August 2005. ENO is the most international...
To raise awareness on environmental issues with youth, the DG Environment of the European Commission wishes to review its website for young Europeans. To carry out this mission at local level, Gellis Communications and European Schoolnet seek to recruit Pilot Schools in Denmark,...
The first year of the “Energy is our Future” school programme was a great success. Through its website and online activities, the programme reached approximately 60 000 schools in 34 countries across Europe. For the upcoming 2007-2008 school year, European Schoolnet and...
The SCIENCE HOUSE, an exposition with more than 80 interactive science exhibits will open on Thursday, March 29 at 14:00.
The European Science Festival WONDERS - Welcome to Observations, News & Demonstrations of European Research and Science - , held for the first time in 2006, aims to promote science for the general public.
The next Learning Lab organised by the 
Tuttoscuola is an Italian educational monthly magazine for teachers, students and parents.
