THE SCIENTIX OBSERVATORY: ONLINE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS WITH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS - BENEFITS, PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Scientix, the European Commission’s DG Research and Innovation’s community for science education in Europe includes since January 2013 the Scientix Observatory which aims to provide short overviews on a number of topics related to Science education projects. This paper concentrates on the format, benefits and problems encountered in communities of practice (CoP) and chats carried out by four projects: inGenious, Xperimania V, DESIRE and FuturEnergia. While inGenious’ CoP last six weeks, DESIRE’s CoP are only three days long. When looking for answers to specific questions, the DESIRE format works better but requires the information to be completed by shorter events or face to face workshops. When tackling general topics, longer CoP open all the time and facilitated by teachers, ensure the participation of teachers. inGenious and Xperimania V chats have experts replying via audio, while the FuturEnergia answers from the experts provided in writing, are better for schools with older technical equipment. The most efficient chats are carried out with a maximum of two experts, address up to 20 classes (400 pupils) and the chats have associated either an additional activity (like a competition) or the transcript which furthermore serves as an additional teaching resource.