CARE: We created a course on Google Classroom platform to facilitate teacher-student, student-student, teacher-student-parents interaction. The course is entitled CONNECT with SCIENCE. The support materials offered within the project were presented. The choice of the representative species for the study was based on a Google forms questionnaire. Following the analysis of the questionnaire, the species chosen by the students was the Lynx. 

KNOW: The activities proposed in the project were in correlation with the specific competences of the Biology subject and contribute to the formation of the profile of the secondary school graduate. From this point of view, the activities developed in the students the ability to 

• solve problems and problem situations in everyday life;
• design and carry out an investigative approach to test a working hypothesis;
• process, graph and interpret experimental data and evidence;
• imagine and make some useful products for current activities;
• show an interest in healthy living and keeping the environment clean.

DO: The students actively participated in all the proposed activities and showed interest and enthusiasm. They worked as a team and successfully completed the proposed activities. Among the activities carried out: 

• reading texts from atlases, magazines, etc. in order to extract information, summarise or make a logical outline of the content;
• watching films of different ecosystems/living environments to observe the characteristics of this species;
• completing worksheets and observation sheets based on information from various sources;
• graphical representation of food webs and food webs in which the species of interest is included;
• analysis of problem situations using graphical models (e.g. identification of the consequences of the disappearance of a species from a food web/introduction of a new species on the other living organisms in the food web).

Open Schooling findings: The project activities were attended by students who are interested in studying, students who like science and therefore the project activities were not stressful. In the first stage of the project, the students were satisfied with the activities carried out, they did not express any dissatisfaction, on the contrary they are looking forward to new topics of discussion to direct them in research and investigation activities. 

Students’ results: The pupils adapted to the project activities along the way. They worked as a team and helped each other, cooperating successfully within the group. They produce promotional material for the species of interest – flyer.  

CARE: It was difficult at first to get them interested, but with patience, slowly, things started to come together. Of course, there was also competition between teams, who could make the most successful plea for the introduction of a species, who made the best campaign, etc. 

KNOW: The most important relationships that are established between living things in a biocenosis are feeding relationships, also called trophic relationships. Students were able to highlight food chains in different possible scenarios depending on the species proposed for rewilding. Applications such as this were very well folded into the respective biology and ecology curricula. 

DO: The students worked in teams and tried to document and analyse evidence provided by researchers to support different claims. The results were presented in an activity attended by three experts from the Valahia University of Targoviste. 

Open Schooling findings: The open educational resources were a support for teachers as they followed the competences of the curriculum in several subjects: biology, ecology, biodiversity conservation. Most of the activities carried out used open educational resources because they were easy to use, we had free access and they were in an accessible format. 

Students’ results: The students have produced various products as a result of this project, such as posters, posters for the promotion of animal species, a poster and a calendar for the year 2022 with the species canis lupus. They worked in teams and tried to document and analyse evidence provided by researchers to support different claims. 

CARE: In the activities, we followed the following steps, according to the teacher’s guide CARE, students were engaged with the socio-scientific issue: Which animal should we select to return to Romania for rewilding? The activities were attractive, engaging for the students, we discussed each theme proposed in the guide. 

KNOW: Students learned about the following curriculum topics: Renaturalisation of wolf, lynx, fallow deer – food chains, trophic relationships in terrestrial ecosystems ( Biology, 5th grade ).   The main activities, which led to the achievement of the learning objectives according to the curriculum, were on food chains, food webs, trophic relationships in terrestrial ecosystems. 

DO: The pupils solved homework, an activity in which they also involved their families, they made reports, leaflets, evidence sheets on the animals proposed for rewilding. 

Open Schooling findings: The resources provided were easy to use, the activities were clearly explained, the interaction with all project participants was continuous.The results were presented in a demonstration lesson with the participation of three research experts from Valahia University in Targoviste. 

Students’ results: Students Learned through understanding and application, stimulating interest in knowledge, developing communication skills, thinking and creativity. 

CARE: The socio-scientific issue was on how to improve the prevention of Covid.19 at the school. The professionals that gave support were the scientific community from Escoles Sentinella project: science communicators, biologists, epidemiologists, paediatricians among others, helping on the facilitation of the participatory research. From an invitation letter to the project and with some previous knowledge explorations the students get fully committed to the project. 

KNOW: As the activities were implemented from the tutoring sessions, the debate competence and also the citizenship education topic (social values content) were the aspects more worked using this CONNECT resource. Despite we did not go in depth with biological issues, the students also learned a lot about how the coronavirus is spread and why do we need those preventions measures to protect everybody from the transmission.  

DO: Students developed communication skills and skills to create, design and edit video, as they chose disseminate their results through a video. Students also developed iinquiry skills, participation skills and transdisciplinary methodologies. The science actions included teamwork, collaborative learning within the class and with other stakeholders and that science useful to solve real-life challenges. 

Findings about open schooling: The activity they did was adapted to the curriculum of Obligatory Secondary Education (ESO) and it was implemented at the tutoring sessions. 

Results for students: Students get more confident on debating and on presenting their own opinions to the group. The activity has led to greater awareness of Covid-19 prevention and how the measures to achieve that can be improved by a participatory research process. 

CONNECT Resources used: LINK 

CARE: The students successfully presented key questions for the continuation of the scenario.

KNOW: The main objective of the activity was to engage in a participatory research project to develop strategies for the prevention and control of Covid-19 (and other similar infectious diseases) and also to investigate how it is possible to build themselves a sensitive device to detect and study aerosols indoors using an Arduino microprocessor.

DO: The students prepared articles and presentations related to the issue that concerned them. The success of the children was the correct scientific research through articles that they presented to scientists, as well as the completion of the practical part of the scenario that concerned the design of the carbon dioxide sensor.

Findings: This initiative had the consent of parents and opened opportunities for dialogue with the family, students, and teachers.

Outcomes:  In addition, it gave the students the opportunity to escape from sterile theoretical knowledge and to think outside the box of curriculum, which gave them confidence. The children acquired a positive attitude towards research topics. It was very important for them to realize that research starts from everyday concerns.

CARE: A list of questions was sent to the scientist and through his presentation on the Webex Meet platform where answered.

KNOW: The school curriculum was satisfactorily connected with the chosen topic to work with. The greenhouse effect is integrated in their curriculum and was highly connected with the global warming issue. Discussion supported by participatory science has led to greater awareness of global warming and chemical pollution and provoked actions to confront and eventually solve these issues. It also changed the up to that point indifferent attitude of some of the pupils towards scientific methodology and science in general, to clear interest and positive attitude to science.

DO: Since we used an open scenario approach the students either found themselves sources or used some, we offered them. In this context they developed videos, presentations, and a game.

FINDINGS: This initiative had the consent of the parents and opened opportunities for dialogue with the family, pupils and teachers. After the appropriate modifications was integrated in the curriculum making the scientific approach a handy tool for the pupils to understand scientific methodology and to a certain degree apply it.

RESULTS FOR STUDENTS: The students who participated seem now more confident with science, they really enjoy science lessons and they have increased interest in scientific approach and problems.

1)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGXgNx3U9gM

2)https://pantou.sites.sch.gr/connect/%CE%A1%CF%8D%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%B9%20%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85%20%CE%B5%CE%B4%CE%AC%CF%86%CE%BF%CF%85%CF%82.pdf

3)https://pantou.sites.sch.gr/connect/%CE%A1%CF%8D%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%B9%20%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF%20%CE%88%CE%B4%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%BF%CF%82-1.pdf

4)https://pantou.sites.sch.gr/connect/%CE%98%CE%AD%CF%81%CE%BC%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%83%CE%B7%20%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9%20%CF%87%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE%20%CF%81%CF%8D%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%83%CE%B7%20on%20Scratch.html

CARE-KNOW-DO: The scenario follows the structure of Connect: CARE-KNOW-DO and the methodology of participatory science. Students & teachers are participating in all stages, scientists & parents at the stages of “Care” and “Do”, local authorities at “Do” level. The role of the scientist (University of the Aegean, Geography department) was quite critical as at the first level of “Care” he gave initiatives to students in order to start over the process of creating their digital map and at the third level of “Do” where he assisted students on how to present their results, how to make proposals, to discuss in total student’s investigations and to reply to any student’s question about this map creation. The role of teacher is to support students in all stages and motivate them for their personal growth, for further investigating, to encourage them for spatial thinking etc. The role of parents is to communicate, participate, assist, and help students with their questions/actions as they have an active role during this process.

Outcomes: The outcome of this scenario was a variety of student’s spatial questions which are forwarded to local community for further actions and investigation. For example: environmental pollution, accessibility & proximity issues, promoting local places that are not known yet, bad roads/buildings condition, lack of spatial interactions, lack of basic infrastructure etc. The initial limitation of this scenario was the reluctancy of participation as students/their parents haven’t faced something similar before; after the completion of this scenario all students requested to have similar projects for action to other study fields.

Findings: Another benefit of this scenario was that it took place during pandemic as all students were online and they could participate with scientist meetings. Scientist intrigued student’s mind and of course broaden the knowledge for cartography and the use of maps in daily life. The fulfilment of both cartography labs led students to working in teams, to resolving problems, to spatial thinking, to be more tech-savvy and generally to encourage students for improvement. Overall, there was a great cooperation among everyone, and the scenario implementation was in benefit of all the participants.

CARE: Students discussed with their parents in the “Care” phase about the pollution from the electric plants in Greece. In the first part of the “Know” phase students used a mobile application to compute their electric energy consumption where they were helped by their parents.

KNOW:  Students prepared the questions for the scientist in the padlet for the “know” phase.

The renewable energy resources scenario was performed as a continuity in the electric energy chapter of the Physics Greek curriculum. Students showed interest and wanted to learn what are the photovoltaic systems. They had some misunderstandings as concerns the wind generators but after finalization of the project they showed confidence in science.

DO: Students made a poster (“Do” phase) divided by smaller parts in which they show the environmental problems that arise from the conventional electric plants and what are the renewable energy resources. Also, they put in the poster two small photovoltaic panels that are connected through wires with a small fan.

Findings about open schooling: The benefits of these science actions are that students become more active, and they care about problems that exist, but they never think about them. Teacher’s role was to facilitate the process and to help the students. We faced some problems during the implementation as was for example the minor participation of parents.

Results for students: Connect gave us the opportunity to relate the curriculum with a real problem. Our students learned how is possible to be “connected” in the real problems.   Students like to work in teams and to learn about real problems concerning the environment. They also want to take actions and to give solutions, they want to be more active and not pathetic as they do unfortunately during school routine.

CARE: The authentic socio-scientific issue that the students ‘worried about’ was rewilding – protecting nature by introducing species back to their environment. The science professional was a specialist Biologist who interacted with the students to answer and bring up questions, helping in the discussion with 6 students.

KNOW: The activities which are included in the “know 1 rewilding wolves –food webs competition”. First, we studied the “rewilding know 1” together. In this activity the students understood the food web competitions because there were examples about the correct way of thinking. After that the students worked with the files “apply thinking guide – beaver” and “apply thinking guide -lynx”. I assessed them using the rubric and their work was perfect.

DO: Discussion supported by participatory science have led students to do in-depth research, which changed their way of thinking.  Moreover, they learnt a new skill which is to analyse data and write their conclusion.   This initiative had the consent of the parents and opened up opportunities for dialogue with the family, students and teachers with the consensual approach that is not integrated into the curriculum, but which is important to be discussed with support from the teachers.  The only problem was that the students could not collect the data they needed, for the campaign.

Findings about open schooling: Τhe materials were very well structured and detailed so it was implemented very well within the Club. It was easy to implement because there was no curriculum or time pressure and only 4 students participated. The only difficulty was to arrange the meeting with the scientist.

The science action resources met my needs very well. I worked with the structured scenario in a Science Club. Because of the corona virus situation most of the lessons were online and most of the other Club s stopped because the students didn’t find the online Club interesting. In my club I observed the exact opposite situation. Many students from other clubs asked to come in my club because they learnt from their classmates about the open schooling and how interesting it was.

Outcomes for students: The students reported that they acquired a deeper knowledge of environmental factors. Also, they learned to do in-depth research, which changed their way of thinking. Moreover, they learned to develop an argument and rely on scientific data. They learnt a new skill which is to analyse data and write their conclusion. Finally, they reported that they found this way of learning more interesting and fun

CARE:  The authentic scientific issue that the students ‘worried about’ was the return of an endangered animal in our country, the Gypaetus barbatus barbatus. The science professional, Dr.Iasmi Stathi from the Natural History Museum of Crete, is a Biologist, who interacted with the students to answer and bring up questions, helping in the discussion with 15 young people.

KNOW: Students learned to work in a scientific way. They learned to cooperate and to find solutions to problems. They enjoyed learning in a different way. The amount of time was proper and the whole implementation was really interesting for students.

DO: Students created, with the help of the teacher:

1. A map of the population of Gypaetus barbatus barbatus by country, created with the ArcGIS mapping program:

• https://tinyurl.com/55z3enrr

1. A poster that was posted in the bulletin board of the school, in the Facebook page of the school and presented in the exhibition of the European School Projects of Crete, by the RDE of Crete:

• https://tinyurl.com/4df6jpd3
• https://tinyurl.com/6kcf9bxm
• https://tinyurl.com/u5b47ryu
• https://tinyurl.com/p8vs8sv

The framework that was implemented followed the “Care-Know-Do” methodology. Discussion supported by participatory science has led to greater awareness of endangered species and environment. This initiative had the consent of the parents and opened opportunities for dialogue with the family, students, teachers and scientists.

Findings about open schooling:  There were no many limitations with the curriculum, as we managed to embody the practice in our lessons (Biology, food chains, food webs, ecosystems, environmental sciences etc.). The whole project carried out with support from the teacher. The main problem was the lack of time and the pressure to complete the material of curriculum. Furthermore, the limitations of the covid-19 pandemic. Science-action resources absolutely met teacher’s needs.

Results for students: Students learned to work in a scientific way. They learned to cooperate and to find solutions to problems. They enjoyed learning in a different way.

CARE: We started it during the second lockdown, using on-line teaching; however, the biggest part of the CONNECT scenario was applied in the classroom at the end of the second pandemic. The only online part of the Rewilding Greece scenario was the online meeting (1hour) with the invited scientist Dr. Iasmi Stathi from the Natural Museum of History at Heracleio, Crete. Dr. Iasmi had a great interaction with all 19 students participating at the programme and there was a bombardment of questions during that hour. The family was involved in the learning process and their task was to discuss with students and choose the animal for rewilding Greece.

KNOW: Teachers need to have their teaching a priority and that pushes the implementation of CONNECT towards the second half of the teaching year. However, the procedures needed to follow were clear.

DO: the last `DO` part really made a difference for having the students organize their learning for a purpose. However, it took a burden on curriculum programme, and it left us with the aftertaste of having fewer hours for applying the scenario.

We decided to make an action writing a letter of intent to government departments responsible for the environment.

Black Francolin:
https://connect-eu.exus.co.uk/?attachment=805&document_type=document&download_document_file=1&document_file=91

Lynx :
https://connect-eu.exus.co.uk/?attachment=804&document_type=document&download_document_file=1&document_file=90

Findings about open schooling: The science needed to make a scientific argument was easy to incorporate, however the task to fit the programme into school curriculum was cumbersome.

Outcomes for students: It took some effort to keep the students focus on the scientific argument when the initial joy of participation passed. The science was not difficult; however the students found the competition a long process. During the teaching the students never complaint about not being able to complete the task.

CARE: The socio-scientific issue was on how to improve the prevention of Covid.19 at the school. The professionals that gave support were the scientific community from Escoles Sentinella project: science communicators, biologists, epidemiologists, paediatricians among others, helping on the dynamization of the participatory research activities and interacting with students at the final congress to support with the creation of the final recommendations.

KNOW: The activity we did is adapted to the curriculum, for example, in the subject Sciences of the Contemporary World in the 1st year of Baccalaureate, we work on the concept of Science and Pseudoscience and the importance of the working the scientific method. This is also worked on throughout different Obligatory Secondary Education (ESO, from 12- to 16-year-old) science subjects. The transdisciplinary knowledge included the following areas: social, technology, environment, economic, politics and Microbiology.

DO: Students developed Inquiry skills, communication skills, participation skills and transdisciplinary methodologies. The science actions included teamwork, collaborative learning within the class and with other stakeholders and that science useful to solve real-life challenges.

Findings about open schooling: Most of the skills and attitudes addressed in this activity are described at the curriculum, but far from that, as a teacher said, this is a need for the educational community.

Results for students: Discussion supported by participatory science has led to greater awareness of Covid-19 prevention and how the measures to achieve that can be improved by a participatory research process.