MARCH – Report on the 2nd International MARCH Conference in Berlin 2015

I. Date & Location

5th November 2015 | 9.00 – 17.00

Podewil Berlin (Klosterstraße 68, 10179 Berlin)

II. Programme

09:00 – 09:30 Registration & Coffee

09:30 – 09:45 FameLab Live Act: Fighting With The David & Goliath Trick Against The Ebola in

West Africa

Hewad Laraway

09:45 – 10:00 Welcome and Introduction to the MARCH Project

Anastasia Andritsou

10:00 – 10:30 Keynote: STEM WHAT? The Misconceptions Of Science, Technology,

Engineering And Maths

Professor Elena Rodriguez-Flacon

10:30 – 10:45 Defining A Good Practice in STEM Education Within The Framework Of MARCH

Loreta Statauskiene

10:45 – 12:15 Round Tables with Expert Discussions

1) European STEM Initiatives

• Experts: Stefanie Schlunk & Spyridon Papadakis

• Moderation: Julia Rawlins

2) Innovative STEM Teaching at School

• Experts: Dr. Frank Walter & Snezana Markovic

• Moderator: Fátima Pinto

3) Out-of-school STEM projects

• Expert: Dr. Cornelia Stärkel

• Moderator: Theo Agnostopoulos

4) Projects on the Topic of Sustainable Cities

   

• Expert: Hanna Burckhardt & Júlia Colomer

• Moderator: Lyubov Kostova

5) STEM Competitions

• Experts: Daniel Borowski & Stefanie Hauffe

• Moderator: Maria Rossini

6) Girls in STEM

• Expert: Elena Rodriguez-Falcon

• Moderator: Zorana Kurbalija Novicic

12:15 – 12:45 Results from the Round Tables

12:45 – 13:45 Lunch

13:45 – 14:00 International Students Present Their Visions of STEM Education

I. Students from the MINTis project, Gymasium am Kattenberge, Germany

II. Julius Wittlich & Jonas Rechlin, MARCH workshops

14:00 – 15:30 Panel I: The Situation Of STEM Education in Europe:

Deficiencies, Challenges, Wishes

Irina Damnjanovic, Cesar Marques, Brigitte Muntermann, Virgilijus Saulius

Panel II: Working On STEM Education With A European Perspective: Findings,

Accomplishments, Goals

Adrian Fenton, Lyubov Kostova, Sofia Papadimitriou

Moderation: Tim Slingsby

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee

16:00 – 16:30 Live-Interviews with STEM Stakeholders from Science, Politics, and Economy STEM

Education From A Political Point Of View

Snezana Markovic, Eulália Alexandre, Zlatina Karova

STEM Education From A Scientific Point Of View

Rebecca Dixon Watmough

STEM Education From An Econoic Point Of View

Maxim & Raffael Nitsche

16:30 – 17:00 FameLab Live Act: The Memory Of Soil

Dimitar Zhelev

   

III. List of speakers

Theo Agnostopoulos, Head of Science on Society, Greece Eulália Alexandre, Deputy Director, Directorate General for Education, Ministry for Education and Science, Portugal Anastasia Andritsou, Head Partnerships and Programmes, British Council Greece Daniel Borowski, CanSat by ESA, Germany Hanna Burckhardt, Project “School Gardens” by Prinzessinengärten, Germany Júlia Colomer, Project “School Gardens” by Prinzessinengärten, Germany Irina Damnjanovic, Teacher, Serbia Adrian Fenton, British Science Association, UK Stefanie Hauffe, Project Manager Hands on Technologoy, Germany Zlatina Karova, Director of Science Directorate, Ministry of Education and Science, Bulgaria Lyubov Kostova, British Council Bulgaria Hewad Laraway, Life Science Technician, Robert Koch Institute, Germany Snezana Markovic, Science and Technological Development, Ministry of Education Serbia Cesar Marques, Teacher, Portugal Brigitte Muntermann, Teacher, Germany Maxim & Raffael Nitsche, Founders of MATH 42, Germany Zorana Kurbalija Novicic, Centre for Science and Art Promotion, Serbia Spyridon Papadakis, School Adviser in ICT for the Greek Ministry of Education Sofia Papadimitriou, Educational Radio-Television Directorate, Ministry of Education, Greece Fátima Pinto, Project Leader, Ciencia Viva, Portugal Julia Rawlins, Head of Education, British Council Germany Jonas Rechlin, Student, Germany Professor Elena Rodriguez-Flacon, Professor of Enterprise and Engineering Education, Director of Enterprise Education, and Faculty Director of Communications and External Relations, University of Sheffield, UK

    Maria Rossini, Project Manager British Science Association, U.K. Virgilijus Saulius, Teacher, Lithuania Stefanie Schlunk, Manager Science on Stage, Germany Tim Slingsby, Advisor, Public Engagement in Science, British Council, UK Dr. Cornelia Stärkel, Student Lab “Gläsernes Labor”, Project “Energiewende in Schülerhände”, Germany Loreta Statauskiene, Head of the Curriculum Department, Education Development Centre Vilnius, Lithuania Dr. Frank Walter, Teacher, Winner of the European Science Teacher Award 2015, Germany Rebecca Dixon Watmough, Association for Science Education, UK Julius Wittlich, Student, Germany Dimitar Zhelev, Sofia University (Faculty of Geology and Geography, Landscape and Environmental Protection Department), Bulgaria

IV. List of participants

NAME FIRST NAME INSTITUTION Ach Friedrich Eichsfeld Gymnasium Duderstadt Agnostopoulos Theo Science on Society

Alexandre Eulália Deputy Director, Directorate General for Education, Ministry for Education and Science

Andritsou Anastasia British Council Baumhekel Ralf Dietrich Bonhoeffer Gymnasium Beck Soraya Stipendiatin FundaMINT Beer Kerstin Native Scientist Bengtsson Dr. Luiza Max-Delbrück-Centrum für molekulare Medizin Bergmann Hans Parler-Gymnasium Bergner Nadine InfoSphere – Schülerlabor Informatik (an der RWTH Aachen) Biebert Yannik Gymnasium am Kattenberge Bögner Florian Wissenschaft im Dialog Böhm Gerald Böhme Robert Deutsches Jungforschernetzwerk - juFORUM e.V. Borowski Daniel CanSat by ESA Boving Luk Gymnasium am Kattenberge Brandt Holger Phoenix Gymnasium Brinkmann-Kremp Inga Stadtteilschule Walddörfer

    Burckhardt

Hanna

“School Gardens” by Prinzessinengärten

Busert Dr. Barbara Liebfrauenschule Bonn Chariopolitou Aikaterini EduTV Christodoulou Anna Science on Society

Colomer Júlia “School Gardens” by Prinzessinengärten

Croasdale Michael British Council Dahab Saliha Fatima Brüder-Grimm-Schule Damnjanovic Irina Elementary School "Kreativno pero" Detampel Ilka Willy-Brand-Gesamtschule Dias Fátima British Council Dimitrov Ivaylo Forum Democrit Dißelmeyer Robert Gymnasium Heißen Dixon Watmough Rebecca Association for Science Education (ASE) Dombrowski Angela Sophie-Scholl-Schule Draeger Iken Wissenschaftsladen Bonn e.V. Projekt Serena Fenton Adrian British Science Association Fricker Barbara Diesterwegschule Burgstädt-Oberschule Gathmann Detlef VDI / Arbeitskreis „Technik in Schulen“ Gattner Annette Phoenix Gymnasium Gläser Andreas Louise-Otto-Peters-Gymnasium Groll Judith Karl-Meichelbeck-Realschule Gronemeyer Jan Ratsgymnasium Minden Hamilton Eilidh British Council Hartenstein Marieluise Julius-Motteler-Gymnasium Hassel Ulf Willy-Brand-Gesamtschule Hauffe Stefanie HANDS on TECHNOLOGY e.V. Haupt Katharina Gymnasium am Kattenberge Heidemann Sandra Deutsche Telekom Stiftung Herrmann David Gymnasium am Kattenberge Herrmann Judith MINT Zukunft schaffen Hienz Dietmar Erich-Kästner Schule Rosbach- Rodheim

Jankuniene Vilma Venta Project manager. Project "Development in service Training and Retraining of Teachers"

Jensen Eric University of Warwick Karnahl Julia jungvornweg - Verlag für Kinder- und Jugendkommunikation

Karova Zlatina Director of Science Directorate, Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science

Kazan Murat Stipendiat FundaMINT Kienberger Ailsa British Council Kilian Lotta Fotografin Knoll Melanie Friedrich-Schelling-Schule Kolodziej Eugen Kooperative Gesamtschule

    Konar

Merve

Stipendiatin FundaMINT / RWTH Aachen

Konar Sinem Stipendiatin FundaMINT / RWTH Aachen Kostova Lyubov British Council Kranz Joachim Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft Kraus Dr. Mario H Kreativitätsschulzentrum Berlin gGmbH Kresse Manfred Ratsgymnasium Minden Krohner Meinholf Hauptschule am Eppmannsweg Kroker Maria jungvornweg - Verlag für Kinder- und Jugendkommunikation Kurbalija Novicic Zorana Centre for Science and Art Promotion Langrock Dr. Uwe KGS Stuhr-Brinkum Larawy Hewad Robert Koch Institute Lauer Alexander Freie christliche Schule Siegen Kaan-Marienborn Leinhoß Gunter jungvornweg - Verlag für Kinder- und Jugendkommunikation Leontarakis Konstantin Oberschule Calberlah Lösch Marieke Gymnasium am Kattenberge Ludwig Alf Ingmar Verein Deutscher Ingeniuere

Lützenkirchen Kerstin Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen

Machadinho Daniel KGS Stuhr-Brinkum

Markovic Snezana Science and Technological Development, Ministry of Education Serbia

Marques Cesar Escola Profissional de Almada Müller Dr. Kai Bildungsunternehmen Dr. Jordan Private Realschule

Müller Dr. Norbert Biotechnologisches Gymnasium Bertha-von-Suttner-Schule

Muntermann Dr. Brigitte Gymnasium am Kattenberge Neßler Katherine Technische Universität Kaiserslautern Nicolin-Sroka Eva Gymnasium Schloß Neuhaus Nitsche Maxim MATH 42 Nitsche Raphael MATH 42 Oberländer Arne Projekt schulkontext.de der FU Berlin Oliveira Rosário Ciência Viva Opiolla Renate Friedrich-Schelling-Schule Pantelic Tamara Centre for Science and Art Promotion Papadakis Spyridon School Advisor in ICT - Ministry of Education, Research and RA Papadimitriou Sofia EduTV Pinnecke Iris OBS Gehrden Pinto Fátima Ciência Viva Pitter Harald Staatliche Realschule Gerolzhofen Poth Kai Sophie-Scholl-Gemeinschaftsschule Rahm Andrea Sophie-Scholl-Schule Rawlins Julia British Council Rechlin Jonas Freie Waldorfschule Kreuzberg Rehli Dr. Frank Paul-Winter-Realschule

    Rhiemeier

Eva

British Council

Richter Olga Bildungsunternehmen Dr. Jordan Private Realschule Rieger Rainer Zukunftswerkstatt Buchholz Rodriguez-Falcon Elena University of Sheffield Rönisch Sibylle jungvornweg - Verlag für Kinder- und Jugendkommunikation Rosenthal Sarah jungvornweg - Verlag für Kinder- und Jugendkommunikation Rossini Maria British Science Association Ruepp Urban St. Meinrad Gymnasium Sarantidou Dr. Niki MINT-EC Saulius Virgilijus Director/ Teacher of Physics. Kaunas Jezuitai gymnasium Schabel Michaela Conrad-Graf-Preysing-Realschule Plattling Schlegelmilch Dr. Tobias MINTforum Hamburg und GanztagsGymnasium Klosterschule Schlunk Stefanie Science on Stage Deutschland e.V. Schmidt Laura Christine Freie Universität Berlin

Schmutz Dr. Cornelia Biotechnologisches Gymnasium Bertha-von-Suttner-Schule

Schneider Simon GeoEd - GeoWissen für Schulen Scholz Dr. Nicola Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung Schubert Kay Christliche Schule Dresden Schuhmann André Willy-Brand-Gesamtschule Schulz René Privates Internatsgymasium Schloss Torgelow Schweiger Christina St. Ursula Gymnasium Schwerdtfeger Yvonne Niedersächsisches Kultusministerium Seifert Stefan Fraunhofer IZM

Seim Julia Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit

Seuffert Christine Realschule Schonungen Seyerlein-Klug Annegrit VDI

Shaw Robert “School Gardens” by Prinzessinengärten

Slingsby Tim British Council

Stärkel Dr. Cornelia Student Lab “Gläsernes Labor”, Project “Energiewende in Schülerhände”

Statauskiene Loreta Education Development Centre Steinhoff Dr. Christine Deutscher Bundestag Strohschein Kristin ScienceBox

Turali Selda WHK an der Universität Leipzig - Erziehungswissenschaftliche Fakultät

Wagner Marcus Marie-Curier-Gymnasium Wagner Verena Science on Stage Deutschland e.V. Walter Dr. Frank Christian-von-Dohm-Gymnasium Weber Stefan Erzbischöflich St.-Ursula-Gymnasium Weise Bastian Deutsche Telekom Stiftung / Uni Leipzig Wittlich Julius Marcel-Breuer-Schule Berlin Xia Yunzi Stipendiatin FundaMINT

    Zehl

Susann

HANDS on TECHNOLOGY e.V.

Zetzmann Julia Friedrich-Weinbrenner-Schule Zhelev Dimitar Sofia University

V. Objectives

The conference aimed to bring together protagonists of STEM education from the different fields (school,

out-of-school engagement, politics, etc.) from different parts of Europe to present and then discuss the best

practices in science teaching which the MARCH project has collected and chosen.

Education leaders and visionaries from around Europe convened to advance the agenda for better STEM

education, policy and workforce development.

VI. Topics discussed

26 speakers from seven countries presented their innovative educational concepts on the Berlin conference.

More than 140 participants from national as well as international ministries, schools and universities,

research institutions, and STEM organisations discussed European challenges and fields of action in STEM

education. In creative formats such as round tables, live interviews, science slams, and audience surveys,

they developed shared visions for a better STEM education in Europe.

Adrian Fenton from the British Science Association said during a panel discussion: “MARCH is a catalyst

to try things in a different way and to bring people together. The flagship of the project is to see how a

student’s mind changes by the way of teaching.“

Elena Rodriguez-Falcon, Professor of Enterprise and Engineering Education at the University of Sheffield,

stated in her keynote speech: “If we want to engage young people and especially young women in STEM, we

have to start as early as possible. Otherwise we won’t make a difference!“

“STEM is one of Europe’s huge future topics. It is important to activate the exchange and collaboration

between European countries in order to join efforts to enhance STEM education”, said Julia Karnahl, STEM

responsible for jungvornweg. She invited all German protagonists to engage in a European collaboration in

the STEM area. “Our aim was to initiate this exchange, and we are very happy that so many prominent

participants from different spheres of STEM action engaged in our conference.”

   

VII. Outcomes

At the end of the conference, the network achieved the following:

• Provision of best practices in science education in secondary schools throughout Europe.

• International exchange of ideas, insights on the situation, challenges, and accomplishments in

other countries.

• Motivation of all participants to engage in a European approach for better science education.

• Establishment of links with key European networks in science education.

• Networking among all participants and new ideas for joined projects.

• Assistance in the networking and content support of projects and networks that are thematically

related and funded by the EU Life Long Learning programme.

• Promotion of innovative methodologies, insights and best practices in science education that

allow dynamic interaction between teachers, young people, researchers and other experts in

science education and science communication.

The overall result: All European partners present want to continue working on the enhancement of STEM

education and initiate joint projects in order to take the topic to a European level.

Answers on the Pingo survey asking “How can we inspire students to get engaged in STEM?” during the

conference:

“With good teaching!”

“Use interesting real life examples”

“Through arts”

“Link it to the real world – their experiences and futures.”

“Creative curiosity with out of school experiences”

“Make it relevant to their lives”

“Students teaching students”

“School Labs”

“I think we need to motivate the students with all-day science.”

“Do hands-on projects”

“Use more media! Whether it’s videos or other materials.”

   

“It has to be ‘fashionable’.”

“Teachers need to be inspired themselves.”

“Out-of-school learning spaces”

“Practical works”

“Competition”

“Own business ideas resulting from science projects”

“Problem solving”

“Make it more fun”

“Real world role models”

“Go outside and have contact with real sciences”

“Team work and participation”

“Experience the world outside school. Feel it, smell it, explore it.”

“Role models”

“Contexts”

“Get in contact with experts outside the school”

“Motivate by doing experiments”

“We have to motivate them to join in STEM and let them be free with the topics”

“Fun”

“Relevance”

“Opportunities to recognise their work”

“Sparks!”

“Time and money for teachers”

“Do more with local companies”

“Offering out-of-school activities, starting from age 0!”

“Educate teachers about gender, role models, self-concept.”

“Really support schools/the educational system, not only talk about it if it seems opportune.”

“More time for non-curricular topics.”

“Make it interesting to all”

“Give them functional knowledge and science allocation.”

“Try to show them that it concerns them.”

“Show them STEM in their everyday life.”

“We have to motivate them that it is important AND fun.”

“By showing them role models, especially people who have made a difference.”

   

VIII. Feedback

Feedbacks via e-mail:

Dear Ms. Karnahl, dear Ms. Rosenthal,

I want to thank you again for the wonderful conference! Everything was organized perfectly, the

multifaceted topics and speakers were very interesting, entertaining and well chosen. I took home a lot of

new aspects and ideas.

Kind regards

Judith Herrmann

Dear jungvornweg team,

thank you very much for the successful conference.

I would love to see some pictures of it.

Best wishes

Sinem Konar

Dear organizers,

Thank you very much for the opportunity to participate in the 2nd MARCH Conference.

Congratulation. It was a really fruitful and successful conference.

I really enjoy my participation and everything was OK.

Best Regards.

Spyros Papadakis

Answers on the Pingo survey asking “What will you be taking home from this conference?” during the

conference:

“The exciting project Math 42”

“Contacts”

“New friends”

“We should break the rules in teaching”

“I loved the 1st speaker, the round tables, and the polite and effective host.”

“Listen to students”

“Science needs to be relevant.”

   

“We need to learn from and work together.”

“Teaching methods and opinions from others.”

“Cooperations”

“Creativity”

“Motivation, innovation, and contacts.”

“I have to think about the importance of reading.”

“Some cool websites, a lot of inspiration, and well-needed insights from students’ point of view.”

“Collaboration creates momentum.”

“Space for innovation – break the rules!”

“Preaching to converted is good – inspirational teachers need inspirational coaches.”

“As the students!”

“Our students are amazing!”

“The opinions of Julius Wittlich & Jonas Rechlin were very interesting.”

“Many impressions and much work”

“Inspired to see great teachers straining against the system. Let’s help them!”

“Sharing of experiences”

“Networking”

“Helpful information on teaching methods”

“More communication between students and teachers”

Feedback from MARCH partners as discussed in the consortium’s meeting one day after the conference:

All colleagues provided their views on the 2nd International Conference, with what they considered

the highlights and concerns. Some of the highlights:

• The format was considered perfect because it enabled active participation from the

audience.

• The content was also very good and relevant, with some inspiring conversations and

communications.

• Round tables worked very well, getting people to actively participate.

• Some were impressed with the session on the MATH 42 app. And also impressed to hear

that soon we will not need textbooks any more.

• The people in the audience were really happy about the opportunity to network and really

happy about the event overall and for the relevant and fruitful discussions.

•

   

• The preparation stage was also commendable, all the work done by jungvornweg, Tim, and

the people involved in the various sessions.

• Good mix of speakers, and not just from Berlin, but from all over Germany. The mix of

teachers from several different countries was really useful.

• Some were particularly impressed by the participation from students.

• There was the feeling that we are improving all the time in organising the events, pushing

ourselves in the MARCH team to do better and better.

• Great to see that members of the team have managed to get the relevant stakeholders on

board and participating; we all know that getting senior key stakeholders is not always easy

to achieve.

IX. Evaluation

On a scale from 1 to 5 (1 being “very good”, 5 being “very poor”), participants rated the conference 1,75

altogether. The organization and the programme got very good evaluation results.

Most participants felt that they had gained new valuable insights on science education in Europe from

attending the conference and that it gave them valuable insights on innovative science education methods.

They also appreciated the opportunity to network with other STEM stakeholders.

Asked what they liked best about the conference, participants answered (e.g.):

• very interesting content, short presentations of scientists

• The possibility to meet diverse people which are involved in STEM education but with different

interests... looking at the problem from the different perspective then me.

• new insights - especially the "urban gardening" round table!

• good mix of methods (presentation, discussion, working groups, panels, interview and, not to

forget: break-time to communicate!) and the excellent moderation!

• The workshops and talks were very good. And I had a several possibilites to network. And this time

it was not only with Germans. I got in contact to a lot of people from other European contries. This

was very special.

• the panels after lunch

• The participation of the students

   

• The spirit, openness, enthusiasm of participants

• very good prepared moderators at group discussions

Some points of criticism were (e.g.):

• most the interviews close to the end of the conference did not seem to aim at teachers or schools in

any way

• round tables: too many people

• The school students had few time to discuss with other participants.

• two days would be great to increase networing opportunities, political statement from German

Government would be helpful

• Although it was a international conference, a small time slice for making contacts local to Germany

would have been a benefit. I haven't met colleges from schools nearby.

Asked what ideas stood out most from the conference, participants answered (e.g.):

• Startups in student population.

• the flip-the-classroom concept

• To see different sights of view, how other countries are coping with the "STEM-Problem".

• Bring real world into classroom or students outside

• Student-lead teaching

• school gardening

• 1. The role of gender in STEM education calls for attention. 2. The students nowadays are much

different than students maybe 10 years ago.

• topical round tabels with a framing overall question (all tables discussed about making science

attractive), including FamLab into the conference

• a differentiated substantive documentation

• During the journey we developed an idea to fit STEM related challenges in the time table of our

school.

(For the evaluation form and detailed results, please see attachment.)

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X. Communication

Prior to the conference, teachers, STEM activists, policy makers and other stakeholders were in invited to

the conference via direct mailing, social networks, the British Council Germany, and jungvornweg’s

website:

http://www.jungvornweg.de/einladung-zur-internationalen-mint-bildungskonferenz-in-berlin/

After the conference, there was a press release on the results – please see attachment.

XI. Coverage

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