The Iberian Science-Technology-Society seminar in the Teaching of
Science has been taking place every two years, alternately, in Portugal
and Spain and each year, has been counting on the participation of a
greater number of researchers and teachers. On the other hand, the
growing membership of teachers/researchers from Latin America, indicates
their interest and contributes to the rejuvenation of the important role
it plays in the approaching of scientific and social relations between
those communities, facilitated by the proximity of the languages in
which they communicate. Consequently, the Organizing Committee has
decided that the V Iberian and I Seminar Ibero-American Seminar would
focus on this dynamic scientific-educational model.

The seminar will take place again at the University of Aveiro, between 3
and 5 of July, 2008 and renews its goals.

I ACT is going to present a poster, in Portuguese language, about the
project co-authored by Orlando Figueiredo (I ACT Portugal) and Brigitte
Lundin (I ACT France). We hope to promote the project not only in
Portugal and Spain but also across Latin America, from Mexico to
Argentina – Portuguese and Spanish speakers from overseas.

One of her classes, IIF ( pupils aged 12-13) chose ‘living together’ as main issue, and they are going to Investigate about street and road safety in their city and Europe. Too many pupils have accidents when they cycle to school, so they feel that street and road safety is an important factor to make our life together better.

They would like to work together with other schools who are interested in this issue.

They have just launched their own blog, follow what they are doing at:

http://www.orlandofigueiredo.net/iactreport/

Mrs. Spierings and Mr Blom, teachers at Visser ‘t Hooft Lyceum, Netherlands, will use the I ACT methodology to work on the issue of the Netherlands and water management. They are very happy because I ACT can easily be integrated to their project idea.

Welcome to our new colleagues!

Welcome to I ACT!

In a first step, the students studied her website and found out which are her special fields of research. In a second step, the students (in small groups) drafted questions they want to ask her after her lecture, which will take place on February 20.

The students of the 3BK

The third step, which we are still working on, is really fascinating: We all try to calculate our own personal “eco-footprint”. For this goal we use a website created by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation: http://fussabdruck.orf.at. The results have so far been very interesting. Two classes have done the work already, another class will follow in the next few days.

Then we will spend the rest of the semester (until the first week of February) reading some articles which deal with an environment friendly school, ecological agriculture and the question what we can do to minimize our eco-footprints.

The students of the 4AK

Text and photos: Susanne Pratscher

Since the beginning of January, about 100 pupils, aged 15 to 17, are involved in I ACT under the guidance of their teacher of English and in collaboration with the city of Béziers.

The Lycée Jean Moulin in Béziers is a huge school where about 4000 people work and learn every day. The school has recently been granted the regional status of “Lycée 21″ because of its strong involvement in environmental issues.

We are currently going through the Investigation phase. Two classes are harvesting information on Climate Change, one class on Biodiversity and one class on Inter cultural and Interfaith diversity.

The themes of the I ACT activities were chosen to match the profiles of the different groups of pupils. The four classes have already spent time in the library and on the Internet, at home and at school, to get a better understanding of their themes. To help the pupils understand the link between the global dimension and their own local environment, we will soon organise a meeting with experts from the municipality who will explain how practices are currently being adapted to the global issues tackled in I ACT.

A small web team has volunteered to maintain a school I ACT blog to share what they do with other pupils. The project clearly motivates everyone!

BG DE ES FI FR GR IT PL RO SE TK

We are a group of teachers from different European countries. Today we launch the I ACT action and we call upon all teachers in Europe and beyond who share our belief in our responsibility as teachers for the future of young people to join it.

Read more