Explore courses: virtual vs face-to-face

Abstract

The “EXPLORATORI” is a project from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the Berga Town Council. The main objective of the project is to bring science closer to secondary school students, their teachers and the society in general. To achieve this goal, the EXPLORATORI organizes activities related to scientific and technological topics. More specifically, the EXPLORATORI project aims to contribute to: - Engage secondary school teachers and students in science and technology, in order to promote scientific and technological vocations. - Match supply and demand for qualified workers with STEAM skills and knowledge. - Stimulate young people’s interest and attitudes in STEAM subjects and careers. - Strengthen links between research and education. The EXPLORATORI organizes activities and projects related to scientific and technological topics, with a common background: Engage secondary school teachers and students in science and technology, in order to promote scientific and technological vocations. These activities are classified in several sections. In this work the activity presented is EXPLORE Courses, a special kind of training formation for teachers. This action is addressed particularly to current science and technology teachers in Secondary level education (27 years of experience). The specific purpose is to provide tools for teachers to be used afterwards in their lectures with students. The singularity of this action consists in the fact that the theoretical lectures are complemented with sessions on site and workshops. These courses are accredited by the Department of Education of the Catalan Government (Generalitat de Catalunya). The use of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM), and Open Science Schooling (OSS) methodologies have characterized the most important activities of this Group. Firstly, it is important highlights the difficulty for secondary schools and science teachers to engage these methodologies in practical experimentation. The theory and practical lessons take place in “El Berguedà” region, located at the north-centre of Catalonia. Each course covers different aspects of the topic selected, from different disciplinary perspectives simultaneously. This multidisciplinary design activity is in line with the STEAM education model. In the 2020, due to COVID-19 problems we found the need to schedule courses in virtual format. This fact has been a challenge, as it was not known what answer there would be in the inscription. The surprise was that the registration was equal to or higher than that of the face-to-face editions. In face-to-face training, each course has a total duration of 30 hours, which are broken down into: Theoretical session (10 contact hours) / Field visits and experimental workshops with the material collected during the visits (10 hours in person) / Individual work through the UPC virtual campus (10 non-contact hours). In virtual format, each course consisted of virtual sessions for one day (8 hours) and scheduled visits that will take place in free time. Individual work activities have increased. In order to be able to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this new format, a questionnaire has been prepared that will allow us to see the differences with respect to the face-to-face format. This situation has forced us to be more imaginative and to discover new possibilities for teacher training.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version