Experiential teaching of planetary sciences from kindergartens to secondary schools: the "Astronomiadi" educational project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Gardiol ◽  
Carlo Benna ◽  
Valentina Vignale ◽  
Fabrizio Radicati di Primeglio
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Astronomical Observatory ◽  
Close Collaboration ◽  
Educational Project ◽  
Experiential Teaching ◽  
Italian National Institute

<p>The Piedmontese town of Pino Torinese is one of the twelve italian locations hosting a local department of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, the Astronomical Observatory of Turin. This peculiarity led to the development of a close collaboration between researchers, teachers and local community and administration, aiming at the promotion of astronomy, and in particular planetary sciences, among students from kindergartens to secondary schools. The chosen driving approach, experiential learning, is not very common in Italy. </p>

scholarly journals Mobilizing foreign language students for multilingual crisis translation in Shanghai

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 587-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongyan Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Local Community ◽  
University Student ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Close Collaboration ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Student Volunteers ◽  
The University

AbstractThis paper examines the multilingual translation efforts of a group of university student volunteers during the COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews of the volunteer team leader, team members, and a local community health worker. Findings identified time constraints, limited language proficiency, and limited technical knowledge as the major challenges confronting the university volunteers. In order to overcome the challenges, they worked in close collaboration and used translingual and network strategies to facilitate prompt and high-quality crisis translation. Findings suggest that foreign language university students in local universities may serve as readily available multilingual resources and can be mobilized in prompt response to the grassroots multilingual needs of the local community in times of crisis. The paper ends with implications for measures and strategies to enhance effective emergency language service and crisis communication for global multilingual cities.

scholarly journals Applying Citizen Science for Sustainable Development: Rainfall Monitoring in Western Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Paul ◽  
Katarzyna Cieslik ◽  
Neeraj Sah ◽  
Puja Shakya ◽  
Binod Prasad Parajuli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Rain Gauge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Development Context ◽  
Science Clubs

We introduce a case-study agnostic framework for the application of citizen science in a sustainable development context. This framework is tested against an activity in two secondary schools in western Nepal. While the purpose of this activity is to generate locally relevant knowledge on the physical processes behind natural hazards, we concentrate here on its implementation, i.e., to obtain a better understanding of the dynamic of the activity and to learn how it should be implemented. We determined the social capital of secondary schools as a gateway to the local community: they provide a unique setting to bring different stakeholders together. We find that co-designing a teaching programme is an effective means of both complementing local curricula and ensuring continued buy-in of local stakeholders (i.e., teachers). Student engagement depends on the local relevance of teaching materials, with more holistic or global concepts, such as climate change of lesser importance. Our activity focused on rainfall, including student-led data collection. These rainfall data provide a very good fit to co-located rain gauge data, with an average difference on weekly readings of 11.8%, reducing to 8.3% when averaged over all student readings. The autonomous development of student-organized science clubs suggested that our original framework underestimated students' capacity to apply knowledge elsewhere creatively. These clubs may be used to obtain participant feedback to improve and tailor future activities. Quantitative assessment of long-term sustainability remains challenging, due in part to high levels of student turnover. We suggest that integrating scientists wherever possible within a school or local community has a direct and positive result on participant retention.

Reflections on Teaching Applied Environmental Ethics in a Philosophy Course

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 116-133
Author(s):  
Craig Derksen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Experiential Teaching ◽  
Concrete Experience ◽  
Applied Program ◽  
Ethics Course

I designed and executed an environmental ethics course intended to provide a useful product to a municipal partner. In teaching the course I had an opportunity to get concrete experience in experiential teaching. I share my experiences with being a philosopher in an applied program and tie it to the models of experiential learning. My experience indicates that the important work is not the abstract conceptualization or the concrete experience, but the bridging between them.

Involving the Local Community in the Protection of the Heritage and Archaeology of Cyrene

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 103-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Abdulkariem
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
Set Up

AbstractA project is being set up at Shahat to involve the local community in the protection of the archaeological heritage, by educating and informing the community through a series of lectures in secondary schools and guided on-site visits.

scholarly journals Mobile Radar as an Undergraduate Education and Research Tool: The ERAU C-BREESE Field Experience with the Doppler on Wheels

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (9) ◽  
pp. 1931-1948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn M. Milrad ◽  
Christopher G. Herbster
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Community Outreach ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Sea Breeze ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Convective Boundary ◽  
Central Florida ◽  
Scientific Investigations ◽  
Intensive Observation

Abstract Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Convective-Boundary Research Engaging Educational Student Experiences (ERAU C-BREESE) was an 18-day National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded educational Doppler on Wheels (DOW) deployment through the Center for Severe Weather Research in May 2015. ERAU C-BREESE had three primary areas of focus: meteorological field observations and research, undergraduate experiential learning, and local community outreach. ERAU undergraduate meteorology students had the unique opportunity to forecast for, collect, and analyze field measurements of sea-breeze processes and convection. The scientific objectives of ERAU C-BREESE were to forecast, observe, and analyze central Florida sea-breeze processes and thunderstorms by combining a DOW with more traditional tools. Specific scientific investigations were spurred by nine intensive observation periods (IOPs) throughout central Florida. Specific details are provided for IOP9, the most successful IOP, from both forecast and observational perspectives. Summaries of local community outreach, student education and responsibilities, and a discussion of the benefits of experiential learning are also provided.

scholarly journals LEARNING STRATEGIES AND SCHOOL MOTIVATION IN EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING VS. TRADITIONAL LEARNING

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camelia Mădălina Răducu ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Test Anxiety ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Academic Motivation ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Experiential Teaching ◽  
Young Students ◽  
Experimental Group

"Introduction: In recent years, European innovation policies in education have focused on preventing early school leaving and functional illiteracy. In this context of innovation in education, experiential learning has proven to have unique qualities for both teachers and students. Thus, the main motivation of this paper was to show that experiential teaching methods and techniques in primary education are able to produce significant improvements in learning strategies and school motivation in young students. Objectives: The aim of this this study was to explore the differences in learning strategies and school motivation on young students who had benefitted from Experiential Learning, in contrast with those following direct learning instructional methods Methods: This study was performed using two groups of subjects. The first group (experimental group) included 60 students taught by experiential methods and the second group (control group) included 60 students taught by traditional methods. All students were in the fourth grade in an urban school. Differences in learning strategies and school motivation were explored by applying School Motivation and Learning Strategies Inventory - SMALSI (Stroud & Reynolds, 2006) to both the experimental group and the control group. SMALSI is structured in 9 dimensions - 6 strengths: study strategies, note-taking / listening skills, reading / comprehension strategies, writing skills / research, strategies used in tests, techniques for organizing / managing time; and 3 weaknesses are: low academic motivation, test anxiety, concentration difficulties / paying attention. To determine the differences in the students’ mean scores, descriptive as well as inferential statistical analyses were performed on the data. Results: The results showed that an experiential teaching model produces positive results in all evaluated strengths and in two of the three weak points investigated, namely in academic motivation and test anxiety. Statistically insignificant effects are in terms of attention / concentration difficulties, they may be more dependent on physiological and psychological maturation and less on the teaching methods, but also may be a direction of further research. Conclusions: The findings of this study could significantly help teachers looking for viable solutions to optimize students school results, increase school motivation and improve learning strategies in primary school."

Community-Based Experiential Learning in Teacher Education

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Harfitt
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
21St Century ◽  
New Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Partners

Institutes of higher education around the world have increasingly adopted community-based experiential learning (EL) programs as pedagogy to equip their students with skills and values that make them more open to an increasingly unpredictable and ill-defined 21st-century world. Values of social justice, empathy, care, collaboration, creativity, and resilience have all been seen as potential benefits of community engagement through EL. In the field of teacher education, the goals of preparing teachers for the 21st century have undergone similar changes with the local community being positioned more and more as a knowledge space that is rich in learning opportunities for both preservice and in-service teachers. It is no longer enough for teacher educators to only focus on the teaching of classroom strategies and methods; beginning teachers’ must now move toward a critical interrogation of their role as a community-based teacher. Boundary-crossing projects established by teacher education institutes and that are embedded in local communities can complement more traditional pedagogies such as classroom-based lectures and teaching practicum. Such an approach to teacher education can allow for new teachers to draw on powerful community knowledge in order to become more inclusive and socially connected educators. In sum, community-based EL in teacher preparation programs can create a hybrid, nonhierarchical platform for academics, practitioners, and community partners who bring together different expertise that are all seen as being beneficial to teacher development in a rapidly changing and uncertain world. While research has shown that community-based EL projects can bring tangible benefits to students, universities, and community members, a number of contentious issues continue to surround the topic and need to be addressed. One concerns the very definition of community-based EL itself. There is still a need to better characterize what community-based EL is and what it involves, because too often it is seen in overly simplistic terms, such as voluntary work, or categorized loosely as another example of service-learning endeavors, including field studies and internship programs. There has also been a paucity of research on the degree to which community-based EL projects in teacher training actually help to promote subject matter teaching skills. Other ongoing issues about the case for community-based learning in teacher education today include the question of who the teacher educators are in today’s rapidly changing world and to what extent noneducation-related community partners should be positioned as co-creators of knowledge alongside teacher educators in the development of new teachers’ personal and professional development.

Using Culturally Relevant Experiential Education to Enhance Urban Children’s Knowledge and Engagement in Science

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara M. Djonko-Moore ◽  
Jacqueline Leonard ◽  
Quintaniay Holifield ◽  
Elsa B. Bailey ◽  
Sultan M. Almughyirah
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Field Trips ◽  
Science Content ◽  
Work Samples

Background: Children living in urban areas often have limited opportunities to experience informal science environments. As a result, some do not have a deep understanding of the environment, natural resources, ecosystems, and the ways human activities affect nature. Purpose: This article examines how experiential science education supported urban children’s science knowledge and engagement through cultural relevance and eco-justice during a 1-week summer camp. Methodology/Approach: Third- through sixth-grade children from African American and Latinx urban communities in Colorado participated in a weeklong program using experiential learning opportunities including environmental and climate change lessons, activities at a local community-based site, and field trips to nature- and science-themed sites. Pre- and posttests, focus group interviews, journals, and student work samples were analyzed. Findings/Conclusions: Children’s science content knowledge as well as their engagement in science lessons and field trips were positively influenced during the study. Implications: This study provides a template for establishing culturally relevant experiential learning opportunities to engage underrepresented children in science.

Schools-Based Community Networking in Uganda

2005 ◽  
pp. 628-634
Author(s):  
Daniel Stern
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Local Community ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
After Hours ◽  
Community Networking ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Computer Labs

Our NGO, Uconnect1, is distributing hundreds of refurbished computers to dozens of mostly rural primary and secondary schools in Uganda, training teachers and students to set up their own computer labs, assisting them in getting connected to the Internet and guiding them to open their schools’ labs to the parents and local community after hours on a fee-paying basis. We have attempted to develop each aspect of the project’s operations in such a way that it is sustainable, scalable and reproducible. This article will describe strategies we have used in our quest to make the Internet available to the widest number of people, and point out bottlenecks that challenge us to overcome.

The Impact of International Experiential Learning and the Community and University Partnership Supporting Global Citizenship in U.S. Schools

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Krimbill ◽  
Lawrence Scott ◽  
Amy Carter
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
South Texas ◽  
Global Citizens ◽  
Immersion Experience ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Travel Abroad ◽  
The Impact

As global citizens, we have an increasing international interdependence that now impacts the way we solve problems and interact with one another. Intentionally planed travel abroad has the potential to transform lives by creating a greater global and personal awareness, where adolescents see themselves as not just members of their local community, but also a global community. In an attempt to prepare students for an international and interdependent world, one inner-city nonprofit agency partnered with a local university in South Texas to provide overseas experiential learning opportunities paired with service-learning projects. Through one innovative program, more than 600 students have traveled to more than 20 countries as a full-immersion experience, most of which were centered on service-learning opportunities. The students in this program had the opportunity to examine their prejudices, assumptions, and fears while learning about themselves and developing deeper relationships with members of their school and local community through global outreach.

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