CARE: The Bird Refaunation Project of the Northeastern Semiarid of Brazil consisted of the analysis of the Phyto physiognomy of the caatinga in urban spaces, a practical study; Identification of caged birds in the city of Irecê; Exhibition of the study carried out at the event open to the community, entitled Knowledge Fair; Awareness campaign on the theme addressed in a public square in the neighborhood where the school is located. The focus of the research is to answer the following question: how can the collaborative scientific partnership be co-evaluated by those involved in open schooling for the conception and implementation of curriculum plans in public schools of basic education? 

KNOW: The study identified relevant scenarios and collaborative scientific actions to prepare young students to understand the problems of the natural environment caused by man and their consequences for the balance of the planet. The trafficking of wild animals, capture, marketing, and captivity of songbirds was chosen, because it has a strong impact on the environmental balance. The illegal transport, death and mistreatment of the birds that are the majority, many extinct and or threatened with extinction. Aim to show people how understanding the bird’s habit, the contributions given by them to the wild life. This project will help all the members of the group and thus they will all acquire more knowledge in the area. 

DO:  Activities were developed that were very significant, I can mention: 

• analysis of the Phyto physiognomy of the caatinga in the urban environment of the city of Irecê so that we could study the issue of the bird fauna existing in the environment;
• analysis and study, carried out by the students of the ACM school on the birds, of the bird type, found in the caatinga biome and subsequent diagnosis of their existence in the urban environment in the city of Irecê, Bahia.
• identification of bird-type birds used in cages in domestic environments in the city of Irecê, Bahia.
• Decision making on the importance of raising awareness in the school community through an information campaign in the neighborhood where the school is located.
• Conducting an awareness campaign for the school community in a public square. saw. Presentation of the project at the Knowledge Fair explaining the stages of the research to the entire school community

FINDINGS: The open scenario methodology used was project-based collaborative learning. The students brought their own questions, discussed with the scientists and their families, and it was remarkable how much they didn’t know the subject, at the same time they wanted to learn. Teachers found the open teaching activity useful in this controversial topic during the pandemic, and 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 of projects. 

OUTCOMES: In general, students participated and interacted in learning activities with an interest in learning and discovering curiosities about science. Several students did not know the main scientists and their contributions to planetary life, the great scientific innovations. And all the knowledge built can be evidenced in the written and visual productions distributed on the murals, contemplating all the spaces of the school and the relevance of the study. However, the very social distancing generated by the pandemic period caused many disruptions in the school routine, among which contacted scientists impossible.  

Find out more here: our report.

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 

This multi-methods study explores an integrated model that combined 300 Open Educational Resources, 60 MOOC in ten languages with 27 Communities of Practice to promote open schooling projects to foster skills for RRI supported by more than 17,000 teachers from Europe and Brazil. Findings report the different ways that the community developed open schooling projects, the changes in their practices to foster digital scientific literacy, and outcomes with implications for society.

This qualitative study presents some contributions of using inquiry mapping (OKADA, 2006) as a participatory research-action method to engage multi-partners in an open network. This exploratory study analysed six examples from the literature for developing inquiry-maps for open schooling in network projects and promoting fun in learning. Findings show useful guidelines, templates, strategies, tools and recommendations.

This qualitative study is based on narrative interviews with indigenous teachers and policymakers about Indigenous School Education. This article seeks to problematize discussions, through complex thinking, regarding the Responsible Research Innovation (RRI) approach for a significant role of indigenous communities in network education for democracy. Open Schooling emerges as a recommendation to promote partnerships for building knowledge with indigenous communities.

This article presents the theoretical foundations and practices carried out by the CONNECT project – Inclusive Open Schooling with engaging and future-oriented science; funded by the European Union with partners in Brazil. CONNECT is based on the CARE/KNOW/DO model supported by  problematization and socio-scientific narratives ‘storytelling’ to support scientific action. Preliminary results allow us to point out recommendations for promoting open schooling practices for innovation of education aimed at sustainability.

Meister, Izabel and Okada, Alexandra (2021). The knowledge in virtual networks with social media to promote open education: habitat of collective intelligences. EmRede Journal of Distance Education, 8(2)This virtual-ethnography study explores how knowledge is built in virtual networks with social media during COVID. It examined the CONNECT open schooling multi-lingual platform with real socio-scientific issues in Brazil and Europe. Findings suggest that informal learning can be enriched with the possibility of establishing participatory research based on the understanding of how knowledge is constructed democratically in social networks with the movement of collective intelligences.

This mixed methods study explores 34 secondary teachers’ practices with open schooling and emerging technologies. Findings indicated various challenges for teachers who are still focused on transmitting content, such as, teaching evidence-based argumentation with real-life problems and scientific narratives in context. Students lack opportunities to raise scientific questions, develop collaborative research project and use role-play to solve real-life problems with democratic values.

This article invites teachers to reflect about DIKR virus in the Science classrooms. DIKR refers to   Direct and Indirect Instruction Knowledge Rich. It challenges teachers to question the role of indirect instruction and the relevance of using a variety of approaches in science teaching such as problem solving, socio-scientific sensemaking and decision making, inquiry-based learning, participatory research, among others. These approaches are key for promoting new ways for students to learn and enjoy science in their lives supported by open schooling.

This symposium shows case-studies of CONNECT  school, university and society for scientific culture. It presents open schooling practices with socio-scientific issues that students ‘care’ about, need to ‘know’ about, and need to ‘do’ something about for meaning-and-decision making.  Findings from cases studies show multi-representative actors, artefacts and actions designed to promote innovation ecosystems.

This multi-methods study investigates school students’ views about what they care about, know and do in science. Data was generated through multi-language analytic open schooling platform for students-teachers-scientists partnerships supported by self-reflective questionnaires about students’ perception of their science capital, science leaning and science relevance in their lives.  Preliminary results allow us to point out some gender issues and recommendations for promoting open schooling practices to connect-science with girls’ lives for democratic societies.

Care: Students were engaged in discussing how to protect the environment by bringing back extinct UK wild animals such as wolves and bears to their natural habitat.  Participants were 30 students who contributed to discussions about which animal to rewild and prepared a campaign to persuade the public of the benefits of rewilding.  

Know: They used knowledge about interdependence and ecosystems. They also used geographic knowledge information about natural habitats for these animals. The skills that students practiced were devising questions, visual communication, data analysis and the enquiry skill of weighing up evidence to support a claim. They also used maths skills to prepare graphs and geographic information about habitat.  

Do: Students shared questions, created persuasive posters and practiced argumentation using data and facts. They were all engaged with the activities, and they enjoyed researching information and making decisions. They were keen to discuss the evidence for their chosen animal during the campaign. Students were interested in and confident in using science knowledge.  

Findings:  

Students were keen to discuss the evidence to support claims for their chosen animal during the campaign. It fitted the curriculum well and the video clips were very good. The children enjoyed it and actually wanted to know if it ‘was real’. Teacher said “ I think some thought that their votes would genuinely count towards initiated a rewilding of their animal. Having a scientist Zooming in gave the project some credibility and they were engaged by this.” 

Outcomes: The teachers reported that students were keen to discuss the evidence for their chosen animal during the campaign. All were engaged with the activities, and they enjoyed learning science. 

Ten students, between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, contributed to this open schooling research questionnair. Most students said that learning science will be useful in their daily lives, as well as that they feel confident using science to come up with questions and ideas, in addition, all of them said that they think learning science is fun. The data collected also shows that almost half of the students don’t feel confident with their knowledge in science.

More details of our report: on this link.

CARE: The students were involved in the discussion about the COVID-19 contingency plan. Participants were 180 students, aged between 14 and 17, from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades of high school, 160 of whom completed the scientific action, along with their families, a teacher, a researcher, and a scientist who shared their concerns about COVID-19, especially the functioning of the human immune system and the role of vaccines, a controversial topic from different world and life views.

KNOW: The school curriculum was worked, in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary way, integrating the areas of biology and chemistry in the analysis of historical and scientific data. Clarification was sought about the COVID-19 vaccine in the immunization of the human organism. Cause and effect, prevention and risks are discussed in the context of scientific and popular knowledge, mainly in the ideas arising from family members and the surrounding community. This provided the students’ interaction in the learning process, giving voice to the opinions built in the school, family, and society, analyzing the scientific in collective conversations. The process of teaching and learning by areas of knowledge enabled innovations in learning practices. The interaction of students in the process of unraveling the essence of the object of study motivates the interest in learning the unknown. This learning develops skills because he/she feels subject to this discovery of scientific knowledge. This helps in the perception of problems, as well as in identifying the causes and possible solutions. It was unique to develop the ability to argue in discussions about the vaccine as a reinforcement of the body’s immunity in times of COVID-19. As attitudes, we sought to value scientific knowledge, lead students to analyze and distinguish information about vaccines, scientific from fake news, as well as to enable scientific knowledge built in the school environment for life in society and to understand the function of the vaccine, as a human creation, as a reinforcement of the immunity of the human organism.

DO: Students were involved in the following activities, to develop scientific studies that raise awareness of the quality of life in times of COVID-19.

• Analyze the historical context of science, scientists and scientific method and their functions and risk in planetary life, through research and presentation to the class.
• Identify the pathogens (viruses, fungi, protozoa, or bacteria) that cause communicable diseases in epidemics and pandemics with laboratory practices.
• Understand the function of the vaccine as a reinforcement of the immunity of the human organism.
• Analyze information and discussions on social networks about the COVID-19 vaccine, differentiating scientific from opinions and fake news.
• Clarify doubts about the production of vaccines to prevent viral or bacterial diseases.
• Exhibition of murals at school with flyers about the vaccine and prevention habits against COVID-19.

FINDINGS: The open scenario methodology used was project-based collaborative learning. The students brought their own questions, discussed with the scientists and their families, and it was remarkable how much they didn’t know the subject, at the same time they wanted to learn. Teachers found the open teaching activity useful in this controversial topic during the pandemic, and 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 of projects.

OUTCOMES: In general, students participated and interacted in learning activities with an interest in learning and discovering curiosities about science. Several students did not know the main scientists and their contributions to planetary life, the great scientific innovations, vaccine advances, especially COVID-19, the functions of science as disease prevention. And all the knowledge built can be evidenced in the written and visual productions distributed on the murals, contemplating all the spaces of the school and the relevance of the study. 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. On the other hand, some students were not included in the study for reasons. But, in general, the students exceeded expectations in the development of scientific actions. The relevance of this study can be seen in the arguments of the discussions; respect for group opinions; the valorization of scientific knowledge in the solution of problems; to know the origins of science for the understanding of the pandemic, COVID-19 and responsible decision making.

Find out more here: Our report.