CARE: The students were involved in the discussion about the COVID-19 contingency plan. The participants were 104 students, aged between 14 and 16, from the 2nd grade of high school, 78 of them having completed the scientific action, along with their families, a teacher, a researcher, and a scientist who shared their concerns about COVID-19. Everyone involved in the action of identifying problematic situations in urban spaces that favor the spread of the virus, inspired by the study of great inventions, especially architectural works, at the time of the Renaissance, in particular the project by Leonardo Da Vinci, “the city of future”, created from the epidemic of the Black Death in Europe.

KNOW: Curricular knowledge was worked, in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary way, emphasizing the analysis of historical and scientific data in the disciplines of Art and Science. This made it possible, in a practical way, for students to interact and play a leading role in the learning process. Research, discussion, and application of concepts on quality of life, health, prevention, art and science, language and communication, architecture and urbanism, pandemic, great inventions of the Renaissance period and model making permeated all the actions of the project.

The skills of reflection, discussion and construction were developed through individual and collective practices contemplating the analysis and experiences that addressed the artistic and cultural heritage monuments contextualized with COVID-19. The result shows the students’ perceptions when speaking with property about the coronavirus, attitudes, and habits to combat contamination in school, family and society and the combative architectural needs in the spread of viruses.

As attitudes to be developed, emphasis was placed on valuing urban spaces; in creating ideas to solve problem situations in architecture and urbanism; to identify preventive measures against COVID-19 in urban spaces; in the act of resignifying the school curriculum with theories and practices in times of COVID-19; the one of valuing the knowledge built in the school environment for life in society and the one of promoting reflections with a scientific nature in the school, family and community on human innovations.

DO: Students were involved in the following activities:

• Observation, together with family members, of the urban spaces of the cities and their architectures, identifying the problems encountered (whether in houses, buildings, hospitals, public transport, parks, squares, schools, gyms, among others), which DO NOT offer quality life and protection from COVID-19.
• Research and discussion in groups about art and science and the great inventions in the renaissance.
• Reading and interpretation of the 15th century Epidemic, which inspired Leonardo Da Vinci to create the “city of the future” project.
• Presentation of videos and websites about COVID-19.
• Construction of a model and presentation of the problem with a possible solution:

1. Ex: the PROBLEM is in the care of recovery of contaminated patients. How could a new hospital, or park with cozy, welcoming spaces, offer a joyful and harmonious environment with therapeutic medicine to overcome fear, panic, anguish, physical and emotional difficulties?
2. Ex: the PROBLEM is in public transport. What is the solution to improve public transport since the distance of the seats does not correspond to the distance of 1.00 meters?
3. Ex: the PROBLEM is in the size of the internal spaces of the house, thinking about work “home office”. What is the innovation of house and apartment projects to meet this new type of work that COVID-19 has caused overnight changes along with digital technology, internet?

FINDINGS: The open scenario methodology used was project-based collaborative learning. Students brought their own questions, discussed with the scientists and their families. Teachers found the open learning activity useful and as the school offers teaching by areas of knowledge, it facilitated the planning of actions and the applicability of learning activities. The adaptations took place in accordance with the New High School learning theories and practices. Teachers meet weekly and seek theories and practices compatible with the subject addressed, technological resources that expand the possibilities of access to science. In general, addressing socio-scientific issues fit perfectly into the school curriculum by exploring and complementing actions already developed and based on competences and skills in teaching by areas of knowledge.

OUTCOMES: The participation of students was significant in carrying out the activities. It was evident that the dialogue between the areas of knowledge was relevant for the engagement, interaction, and production of scientific knowledge. Students felt protagonists in the learning processes. There have been changes in attitudes and habits in relation to care in the prevention of COVID-19 in school, family, and society spaces. However, it is not always possible to achieve the participation of all, however, it is observed that the number of students who were not included in the learning process is minimal.

During the making of the model, it was visible that the students embraced the proposal, as they were confident in their ability to think, create and produce. The freedom of creation in the model aroused more interest in the students because they felt subjects in the process. Trust asserts itself when actors identify themselves as protagonists with autonomy in responsible decisions.

However, the very social distancing generated by the pandemic period caused many disruptions in the school routine, among which contacted scientists impossible. The return of face-to-face classes with 50% of the students, in the form of a rotation, reduced the time for carrying out the learning activities.

Find out more here: Our report.

CARE: The students were involved in the discussion about the COVID-19 contingency plan. The participants were 96 students, aged between 14 and 16, from the 2nd grade of high school, 20 of whom completed the scientific action, along with their families, a teacher, a researcher, and a scientist who shared their concerns about COVID-19. All were involved in the objective of analysis and study actions on the problem of creating a school newspaper, based on media journalism for the dissemination of learning activities carried out during the 2021 school year, especially activities integrated by areas of knowledge, provided for the New High School and actions on COVID-19.

KNOW: Curricular activities were developed, in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary way, between the components of the area of ​​Languages ​​and their Technologies, with an emphasis on the scientific content of Portuguese, English and Spanish, especially in the analysis of the information collected and transformed into media language to be disseminated. in the school newspaper. The responsible decisions of those involved in curating the news to be edited and made public was an essential learning experience. The mastery of what journalistic-media texts is, questions about Science and Technologies, especially the topic of COVID-19, the difference and complementarity between written and visual language and the mastery of digital authoring tools such as Scribus and Adobe Fireworks digital resources anchored the learning in the teaching-learning process.

As skills to be developed in the learning processes, the student’s ability to have decision-making autonomy was addressed in the face of challenges in/of society; to be a subject in the construction of individual and collective knowledge; the resourcefulness of reading, orality and writing and the mastery of digital authoring tools.

Regarding attitudes, the focus was on identifying information and opinion as phenomena, fake news, and post-truth; the valorization of communication in the social and cultural context in the journalistic-media field, as well as improving the practices of curation, organization and dissemination of information to the public, in a critical and ethical way.

DO: Students were involved in the following activities:

• Presentation of videos and websites on the field of media-journalism, digital technological resources, and access to a diversity of scientific content.
• Reading of material available on the role of the media-journalism field in/of society.
• Investigation of forms of contemporary journalism and identifying the veracity of facts and identifying fake news, post-truth and its effects.
• Construction of the digital and printed newspaper with learning activities developed in the school environment covering several areas of knowledge.
• Elaboration and layout of the digital and printed literary newspaper covering what the New High School is and the learning activities that cover the different areas of knowledge that were carried out at the school during the 2021 school year;
• Printing and dissemination on the newspaper’s social networks for access by families, educational institutions, and the community in general.

FINDINGS: The open scenario methodology used was project-based collaborative learning. Adjustments to the school curriculum happened naturally during the learning process, given the needs and interests of students. Due to the teaching modality that the school offers in the New High School, which is based on the development of skills and abilities by areas of knowledge, it was possible to adjust the learning necessary for the development of the project. As the school offers teaching by areas of knowledge, it facilitated the planning of actions, the applicability of learning activities targeting technological resources and curricular interaction through projects.

OUTCOMES: The creation of the newspaper was a valuable idea as a motivation and appreciation for the students to feel themselves actors in the production of knowledge and subject to the curation of information to be published in a media. The students involved participated actively and responsibly in the creation of the newspaper. Always attentive and helpful in the orientation and collection of information based on media journalism. This activity motivated the students to have autonomy and mastery in the writing and layout of news through printed and digital language.

The sparkle in the eyes and the smile on the students’ faces when delivering the printed newspaper was proof that they were satisfied and confident in the work carried out.

The very social distancing caused by the pandemic caused many disruptions in the school routine, which contacted scientists, newspaper editors and even visits to a space for journalistic production impossible. A The return to face-to-face classes with 50% of the students, in a rotation way, reduced the time for carrying out the learning activities.

Find out more here: Our report.

CARE: Students were involved in the discussion about the COVID-19 contingency plan and sought to understand the historical, social, and cultural context of epidemics and pandemics. The participants were 180 students, aged between 14 and 17, from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades of high school, with 162 of them having completed the scientific actions, their family members, a teacher, a researcher, and a scientist who shared their concerns about COVID-19. and ideas to reduce transmission supported by the Brazilian Federal Declaration of human and citizen rights and duties. Together with family members, students sought to understand and collected information from bibliographic sources about what would be epidemics and pandemics, their differences, in which societies this phenomenon has already happened, when and why. They also sought to raise causes and effects in the social context in different bibliographic sources, especially the ethical challenges of health, economics, politics, and human rights that have become relevant points in decision-making.

KNOW:  In the classroom, the students shared the previous information gathered for the elaboration of a timeline, with spatial location, elaboration of concepts and debates, among other activities. In relation to knowledge, in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary way, the integration of the disciplines of History and Geography in the analysis of historical and scientific data was developed. In this way, it was possible to understand the epidemics and pandemics in the timeline, as well as the location in the geographic space. Knowing when, where and how the historical facts happened in the world was fundamental.

As skills, the student’s ability to contextualize the historical facts of the past was developed to understand the present, as well as predict new alternatives for the future that could solve other pandemics; another skill was to reflect on responsible decision-making with ethics, empathy and their social and cultural relationships.

Due to these actions in the teaching-learning process, it was observed as attitudes, the valorization of historical records for new approaches to knowledge; the possibilities that new forms of learning, in times of a pandemic, promote in social and ethical relationships and respect for life, as well as the promotion of empathy to overcome the “chaos” caused by epidemics and pandemics, through acquired knowledge.

DO: Students were involved in the following activities:

• Analyze the history of epidemics and pandemics on the timeline with the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Location on maps of countries where some epidemics have emerged;
• Identify differences and similarities between communicable diseases of the past and the pandemic in the 21st century.
• Reading of material available in texts, videos and the book “The history of humanity told by viruses”, written by Stefan Cunha Ujvari;
• Analysis of scientific articles on the social, moral and ethical relationship during pandemic periods;
• Classroom debate on the topic;
• Elaboration of concept maps;
• Documentaries relating to the history of epidemics;
• Posters or panels with elements referring to pandemics;
• Exhibition of the historical study with performance of the main epidemics and pandemics that haunted humanity.

FINDINGS: The open scenario methodology used was project-based collaborative learning. Students brought their own questions, discussed with the scientists and their families. Teachers found the open teaching activity useful for the Contextualization of the Brazilian Federal Declaration with the pandemic highlighting human and citizen rights and duties.

OUTCOMES: The integration of the school curriculum with scientific action enabled new teaching and learning practices whose adaptations served to improve the development of learning and teaching. School curriculum and scientific action complement each other. The New High School made possible several innovations in the school curriculum and in the form of planning that allows teachers to gather by areas of knowledge, which facilitates the planning of actions, the applicability of learning activities, the use of technological resources and curricular interaction based on integrated projects.

The performance presented by the students showed mastery of content on the history of epidemics and pandemics. They embraced the idea and placed themselves as the main character in the story: the different viruses. In this way, the activity instigated and motivated the study as something peaceful and fun.

However, the social distance caused by the pandemic caused many disruptions in the school routine, many changes, which, for example, contacted scientists impossible. The return of face-to-face classes with 50% of the students reduced the time for carrying out the learning activities.

Find out more here: Our report.

Care: The socio-scientific issue that the students ‘care about‘ was pregnancy at puberty and violence. Data during the pandemic shows that violence during outbreak increased particularly against women and underrepresented groups.   

Know:  To help young people be more informed during their puberty with ‘knowledge’’, their online  debate was supported by a dialogue focused on students questions, some references shared by experts on the web and informed-based recommendations developed by the participants.    

Do: 300 students interacted with five science professionals, a specialist in menstrual education, a doctor, a psychologist, a nurse and a social worker. The science action focused on an interactive dialogue with inquiry mapping to bring up questions, references and comments in the online discussion using Google Meet platform. 

Findings: The key benefit of open schooling mentioned by students was that the multi-actor dialogue led to greater awareness of teen pregnancy prevention and the forms of physical and mental violence that affect puberty. This initiative had the consent of the parents and created opportunities for dialogue between students and their family. Although this open schooling activity was not integrated into the curriculum, it was supported by teachers.  

Outcome: Youth found the dialogue with professionals useful and listen to what other student think enabled them to increase their interest about the topic. 

Find out more here: Our report. 

Care: The real problem that engaged students was to protect the biodiversity of a native forest, which was part of the school using a citizen-science platform to share photos, discuss issues and obtain feedback.  

Know: Participants were 15 students who developed their knowledge on biodiversity, identification of plants. 

DO: They formed recommendations for environmental protection. The project on citizen science was integrated with the curriculum, supported by the science teacher and an academic researcher in science. 

Findings: Open schooling supported by Citizen Science is a way of changing the role of school, from a place where students learn contents passively to where they can learn citizenship while learning school subjects. Additionally, open schooling gives them opportunity to interact with scientists.  

Outcomes: The results indicated that students enjoyed the approach and besides learning about plants. According to the teacher’s note students were able to identified environmental problems caused by the community surrounding the school area. They also discussed the need for more public policy to foster more active community participation in solving the issues using science. 

Find out more here: Our report. 

Care:  Participants concerns (what they care about) were to find possibilities for innovating education during the pandemic with new approaches.  

Know: This created opportunity for them to try new approaches such us open schooling, inquiry-based learnign with real socio scientific issues and inquiry mapping for students to discuss issues, references and provide evidence-based recommendations. Participants were 716 educators including 2 representative-students of secondary school and two researchers in Education, Science and Technology. This activity was recorded in YouTube and accessed by more than 7,000 viewers.  

Do: Participants identified key themes and pedagogies to support sustainable development projects in education during the pandemic in the Ceara semi-arid region of Brazil.  

Findings: Various topics were raised such as poverty, limited access to technology, unemployment, lack of water or food and diseases. This initiative was based on a consensus web conference adapted from the open scenario supported by researchers, policymakers, teachers, students and community-members. 

Outcomes: Students who participated in the webinar provided their views and presented their science-actions which were developing learning support for their colleagues during pandemic. They found significant to participate with their opinions about the topics that they find relevant. They also mentioned the importance of knowing what how and why they are learning natural sciences and integrated with social science. Students mentioned that  biology, chemistry, physics, maths and computing are as important as sociology, philosophy, history and geography. Science should be humanised for scientific knowledge not being misused. 

Care: Students were very engaged to investigate a real issue that they were concerned and interested in –  the heart diseases and their causes. The activities were developed with professionals in Medicine and academic students in Biology and Computer Science who prepared the activities using AR resources developed by the OU.  

Know: Approximately 360 Students aged from 11 to 15   used Augmented Reality to increase their knowledge about parts of the heart and its functions. They also explored a healthy and an unhealthy 3D heart.  

Do: After interacting with professionals, students’ science action was to provide (do) a workshop for their parents to show the effects of smoking, drugs, alcohol and unhealthy food to their hearts.  The key benefits for students were engagement, visual understanding and communication skills.  

Findings: This initiative was based on a semi-structured scenario linked to the school national curriculum. This practice was organised by “RA in schools” led by UFSC University who engaged undergraduates in Medicine to work together with undergraduates in Computer science to plan activities with the open educational resources AR developed by the OU and BBC. Teachers found the activities very supportive, attractive and linked with the school curriculum. Parents found that kids were very excited and AR created more opportunity for them to show and discuss the content with them. Undergraduate students enjoyed to interact with school community and realised that they could develop more AR resources in other topics and areas. 

Outcomes: Secondary school students found that AR helped them to increase their understanding about the heart. They also found activities with experts in Medicine and Computer Science useful for them to know about these areas, university and professional careers. They liked a lot the activities and were willing to use this approach again to learn other  topics and also in other disciplines. 

Find out more here:

Report 1/ Report 2/ Report 3/ Report 4

Care: Students cared about “Racism” in Brazil and selected it as their first topic of interest to develop a project and to act against it. 

Know:  in order to know more about it,  scientists (genetics and neuroscience), a social activist and school parents were invited to discuss science, health, history, and sociocultural issues related to Racism such as (human rights, equal opportunities, debunking science myths e.g. black and white peoples’ brain differences and links to intelligence.  

Do: Students produced, published, and disseminated a series of 14 podcasts (available on @webradiofalamadrid – 145 followers.  

Findings: 16 student representatives of the project were able to integrate non-formal learning about Racism as a socio-scientific theme; engaging local community. This process enabled them to realise that curriculum knowledge learned in different disciplines were used to produce the podcasts.  

Outcomes: Students improved their writing, reading, inquiry mapping, and argumentation skills during the process of producing the podcast. Scientific and digital cultures were reinforced by these practices in an integrated manner.