CONNECT - Inclusive open schooling with future oriented science

CONNECT: Inclusive Open Schooling through Engaging and Future-oriented Science is a sustainable model for enabling more secondary schools to adopt open schooling by embedding science-action in the core curriculum through fun participatory approaches. Our Research Questions To make open schooling inclusive and widespread in science education, we believe 3 research questions need to be addressed: Q1. How can open schooling increase the value and priority of partnership activities and reduce the barriers to entry so more schools are willing and able to adopt them ? Q2. How can open schooling facilitate the interaction between all partners (science professionals, teachers, students and their families) to result in effective learning experiences linked to Research and Innovation? Q3. How can open schooling make science careers more inclusive by giving disadvantaged students more experience and insight into professional STEM jobs, supported by professionals and their families? Our Methodology CONNECT targets learners who lack science capital, making them more confident with using science, giving them contact with science professionals and engaging family members to improve their attitudes towards science careers. To achieve these, there are 5 outputs: a structured partnership system to give partners a step-by-step process to follow, with induction and coaching a partners-projects database to provide participants with information and best practice guidance about partnership options a Care-Know-Do framework for embedding a science-action within a science topics Customizable project resources about future-orientated scenarios Partnership policies for schools, universities and enterprises. CONNECT will create partnerships in Europe, Africa and South America including 1,000 teachers and 500 science professionals. It will spread to new organisations by establishing a persuasive evidence base and disseminate science-actions globally. Consortium The CONNECT consortium comprises 10 leading partners in the areas of Science Education, Science with and for Society, Responsible Research and Innovation, Technology and Communication ( 4 Universities, 3 Industrial/Business Companies, 2 Research Institutions, 1 large association of Schools )