At the European Science on Stage Festival 2019, 450 teachers will be working together to shape the science education of the future. The best teachers from Finland will also be present with their best practices.

Whether it is digitalisation, globalisation or climate change: today’s children and young people will face enormous challenges in the future. One of the tasks of STEM teachers (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is to prepare them for these challenges. At the 11th European Science on Stage festival 2019, hosted by Science on Stage Portugal in cooperation with Science on Stage Europe, the participating teachers will be equipped with the right tools to do so.

The three-day educational festival will take place from 31 October to 3 November in the Portuguese city of Cascais. Following the motto “Skills for the Future”, 450 teachers from over 30 countries will come together to present and exchange their innovative teaching concepts in a fair, in workshops and in short lectures. From mathematical card tricks, to building an eco-friendly battery and programming a pet simulator, there will once again be a variety of practical teaching ideas from teachers for teachers.

Particularly outstanding projects will receive the European STEM Teacher Awards at the festival and will later be disseminated internationally as training courses or teaching materials. In this way, teachers reach thousands of students throughout Europe with their ideas. They encourage them across national borders to consider a career in science, IT or engineering. 

This year’s festival is under the patronage of Mr Tibor Navracsics, Member of the European Commission, and is endorsed by the Portuguese Ministry of Education.

© Science on Stage

Educational experts from Finland will attend with their best educational practice

Finland will take part at the Science on Stage festival 2019 with four teachers. The participants qualified for the national delegation by passing a preliminary selection process last year. The selection was part of the StarT 2018-2019 program. 

With exceptional ideas like combining statistics and language studies the teachers convinced the jury of the Finnish Science on Stage festival. Now they head for the international Science on Stage festival to inspire and enthuse colleagues from all across Europe with their teaching ideas.

Finland will be represented by:

• EXERCISE, WELL-BEING AND MEASURING COURSE IN TEACHER TRAINING SCHOOL, JYVÄSKYLÄN NORMAALIKOULU
• KALEVALA GOES SCIENCE, JOUTSAN YHTENÄISKOULU
• PLAY A ROLE AND LEARN, PÄIVÄKOTI PIILOMETSÄ
• YOUNG PEOPLE LEARNING STATISTICS, KEMINMAAN KESKUSKOULU

The most important for the press:

Science on Stage Festival 2019
Date: 31 October to 03 November 2019
Opening Ceremony: Thursday, 31 October, 5 p.m
Open Day for the public: Saturday, 2 November 10 a.m. to 5 p.m
Venue: Estoril Congress Center, AvenidaAmaral, 2765-192 Estoril, Portugal

For media representatives: Please register at press@science-on-stage.eu or by telephone on 030 400067-42.

Notes for the Media:

• Official homepage of the festival: www.sons2019.eu
• Contact details as well as press pictures on demand
• The Festival on Twitter: #SonS2019 
• Festival project videos at: https://www.youtube.com/user/ScienceonStageEurope

About Science on Stage Europe:

Science on Stage Europe brings together science teachers from across Europe to exchange best practice and teaching ideas and concepts with passionate colleagues from over 30 countries. Science on Stage Europe believes that the best way to improve science teaching and to encourage more schoolchildren to consider a career in science or engineering is to motivate and inform their teachers. The non-profit organisation was founded in 2000 and reaches 100,000 teachers Europe-wide.

Teachers from 30 countries come together every two years to exchange best-practice ideas. The Science on Stage festival is an educational fair that has in the past been hosted in Debrecen, London and Copenhagen.

The main supporter of the network Science on Stage is the Federation of German Employers’ Associations in the Metal and Electrical Engineering Industries (GESAMTMETALL) with its initiative think ING.

Science on Stage Finland

Science on Stage Finland spreads and promotes the best practice examples presented at the European festivals in Finland, through StarT programme. Every two years, Science on Stage Finland organizes, within the StarT programme, a national selection process for teachers to be chosen as Finnish participants for the European Science on Stage festival.

• StarT: https://start.luma.fi/en/
• LUMA-Centre Finland: https://www.luma.fi/
• Science on Stage Finland: https://www.science-on-stage.eu/page/display/2/2/122/fi/finland

More information about representatives of Finland

M. Sc. Outi Haatainen, Project manager

Anette Markula, International project manager

info@start.luma.fi 

CONTACT

Science on Stage Europe e.V.
Laila Oudray
Public Relations
Am Borsigturm 15
13507 Berlin
Phone +49 30 400067-42
press@science-on-stage.eu
www.science-on-stage.eu

The internationally awarded StarT competition is organized annually by LUMA Centre Finland, a network of Finnish science and technology universities. Everyone from around the world is welcome to participate in StarT (register here for StarT 2019-20) to get support for carrying out interdisciplinary project-based learning and to share their science, technology and mathematics related best educational practices and students’ projects. However, in a few countries StarT is organized on a national level. These countries are our partner countries and they have a national StarT office that supports the participants locally in their country. In our partner countries the participants register and report their work directly to their national StarT office that organizes the selection of the national best projects and best practices for the international competition.

In StarT 2019-20 our confirmed partner countries are:

• China
• Jordan
• Turkey

Would you like to organize StarT in your country? 

So far we have had participants in StarT from over 40 countries. We are always on the lookout for new partners from countries where there is no national StarT office yet, so if you would be interested in organizing StarT activities in your country, do not hesitate to get in touch with us at info@start.luma.fi!

In our partner countries the local StarT office does the practical arrangements and dissemination of StarT. As a result, the participants can have local support in their native language and local StarT events, such as StarT Festivals. We will provide you with the materials that you can translate, and the framework and schedule for the process.

What does a national StarT office do? 

Everyone wanting to participate in StarT from our partner countries reports their work and registers to their national StarT office, and a national StarT jury established by the national StarT office decides the best national project teams and best educational practices that will participate in the international StarT competition. Last year the LUMA Centre Finland awarded the winners of the main prizes of the international competition with a trip to Finland to receive their awards at the annual StarT gala.

As a national StarT office you can also organize a national StarT Festival in your country, where teachers and students get to present their projects and best practices with each other. In 2018-19, Estonia, China, Jordan and Turkey organized their own national StarT Festivals. In Finland the local LUMA Centres organized 10 regional StarT festivals in 2018-19. You can read below the comment of the representative of StarT Turkey, Nilgün Erentay, about the Turkish StarT Festival: 

“There were many… many students and teachers coming from very far distances by buses with huge parcels, thousands of materials in the early morning of the 27th April, Saturday. There were also parents and public from İstanbul visiting the stands all day long. There were even middle school students coming on their own from far towns in order to set up their stands and make their presentations.

During the certificate ceremony in the afternoon, the hall was so crowded with students and teachers that many people had to stand. We realised 30 workshops, educational presentations and science shows in the classrooms during the festival. There were also many science shows at the stands in the garden. There were 65 project exhibition stands from several schools across Turkey.

We received the thanking letters from teachers afterwards. They point out the fact that the students need such opportunities to expose their efforts.”

About StarT

• Read more about StarT in general here
• Read more about our partner countries
• More about StarT as a competition
• What we offer for teachers and other educators

The delegation of StarT Jordan handed a certificate of appreciation for the Director of LUMA Centre Finland, Prof. Maija Aksela for the fruitful collaboration between the Jordanian Innovation for Creativity Development Association and LUMA Centre through StarT. Photo from the LUMAT Symposium 2019 in Jyväskylä.

If you got interested, contact us at info@start.luma.fi for more information!

Register now as a StarT learning community and get support, ideas and recognition for carrying out interdisciplinary and collaborative project-based learning!

Click here to register for StarT 2019-2020!

The LUMA Centre Finland would like to invite schools, kindergartens, extracurricular activity groups and families from all around the world to share the joy of learning with us!  In StarT, teachers’ best educational practices and innovative project-work of children and youngsters are shared and celebrated internationally, with awards and publicity. What is more, along the way we offer our participants support for carrying out interdisciplinary project-based learning! Click here to learn more about the support we offer.

In StarT, children and youngsters carry out interdisciplinary projects related to science, technology or mathematics in groups. The international StarT has two categories:

1. projects by children and youngsters (3-18 y.o.)
2. best educational practices by teachers (or other instructors/parents)

The topic of the projects can be anything you can think of, as long as the project has a link to science, technology or mathematics. The StarT project themes for the upcoming year have been chosen to support participants in carrying out projects related to technology, mathematics and natural sciences. What is more, the theme “My LUMA” leaves it entirely up to the participants to choose their project topic. In the assessment the StarT jury will consider the equal representation of all themes among the nominees of the main prizes.

The StarT themes 2019-2021:

1. Sustainable development (eg. climate change and circular economy)
2. Mathematics around us (eg. mathematics in art and statistics)
3. Technology around us (eg. “This works!” a moving device, artificial intelligence and robotics)
4. My LUMA (topic free of choice)

The StarT projects are reported in the form of short videos and learning diaries at the latest in February 2020 (see the more precise schedule here). Teachers’ best educational practices are also reported as short videos and as written descriptions that serve as a “recipe” for other teachers to implement their best practice.

The project and best practice videos are shared globally through the international public voting on Youtube. The international StarT jury will decide in spring 2020 which projects and best practices will be awarded with the honoured International LUMA StarT Awards (projects) and International LUMA StarT Education Awards (best practices). In 2017, 2018 and 2019 the main prize included a trip to Finland. The grand finale of StarT is annually the International LUMA StarT Gala, where awards are given to the most distinguished teams.

Learning communities participating in StarT are also encouraged to organize StarT Days, which are events where the students and teachers share their work with their local community. StarT Festivals are bigger events, where the work of young people and teachers is shared and celebrated on a regional or national level.

The primary objective of StarT is to implement a new, interdisciplinary and collaborative StarT way of working and thinking to schools, based on research and in accordance to the newest core curriculum of Finland. The StarT process is easy to fit in your own plans and tailor suitable for you, and it is aimed for all levels of education from all around the world. In StarT, every child is a star through teamwork – welcome along!

Subscribe to the StarT newsletter here
Register as a StarT learning community here

Read our quick guide to StarT for teachers here

This year the selection of Finnish teachers for the European Science on Stage Festival was carried out through StarT – read more below to get to know the Finnish team!

Science on Stage Festival 2019 will be held from 31 October to 3 November 2019 in Cascais, Portugal. Science on Stage (=SonS) festival is the largest European educational fair for STEM teachers, and the biennual festivals gather together around 450 primary and secondary school teachers from 33 countries. Just like in StarT, also in SonS the idea is that teachers get to share their innovative STEM-related educational practices with other teachers. At the festivals the teachers share their work in a fair, workshops and performances. You can read more about SonS here.

The Finnish Science on Stage jury chose the following best practices in a two-phased assessment process to represent Finland in SonS Festival 2019:

Kalevala goes science, Joutsan yhtenäiskoulu

Kalevala goes science turns the national epic of Finland, Kalevala, into a series of science projects. The teachers thought that literature always plays a secondary role in interdisciplinary projects, and decided to take the national epic of Finland as the starting point of their science-related inquiries. Their approach produced extraordinary research projects as students researched the scientific basis for the mythical stories of Kalevala. Can you really make an instrument out of the jaw of a pike, and would it actually be possible to live inside an animal’s stomach?

You can watch the best practice video of Kalevala goes science here.

Play a role and learn, Kindergarten Piilometsä

Kindergarten Piilometsä participated with a best practice describing their educational approach that focuses on using inquiry-based approaches in which role play and outdoor learning are central. The children get to know about different topics by role play: if space is the topic of the day, they will naturally build a space station out of snow and act as the astronauts there. An important part of the activities in Piilometsä is also taking learning activities outside to the area surrounding the kindergarten.

You can watch the best practice video of Play a role and learn here. It describes four different projects Piilometsä did with their role play approach.

Young people learning statistics, Keminmaan keskuskoulu

Statistics is everywhere, and it plays a major role in research. It is also a great starting point for an interdisciplinary research project. The teachers at Keminmaan keskuskoulu have worked with their best practice for years and are still excited to see the students’s research projects every year. Their best practice is also easy to carry out in any school, as all the stages of the best practice can be carried out by using Google’s free of cost services. Students create a questionnaire with Forms, do the maths with Sheets, prepare a presentation with Slides and write their report and an article for the local paper with Docs.

Watch the best practice video of Young people learning statistics here.

Exercise, well-being and measuring course in Teacher Trainer school, University of Jyväskylä Teacher Training School

It is so much more interesting to learn about well-being, human biology and conductivity when you can make measurements from your own body! Keeping this thought in mind, the teachers at the Jyväskylä Teacher Training School created this interdisciplinary course for their upper secondary school students. During the course students measure things from their own bodies with modern sensor technology and their phones, and use the data to learn more about the studied phenomena.

The video of Exercise, well-being and measuring course in Teacher Trainer school is not available as the best practice did not proceed to the selection of the StarT nominees 2019.

The Finnish SonS jury

The Finnish SonS jury consisted of the following people:

• Prof. Maija Aksela, Director of the LUMA Centre Finland
• Outi Haatainen, PhD Candidate, National StarT Project Manager, LUMA Centre Finland
• Irma Hannula, PhD, member of the Finnish national SonS Committee
• Teijo Koljonen, Counsellor of Education, Finnish National Board of Education, member of the Finnish national SonS Committee
• Anette Markula, International StarT Project Manager, LUMA Centre Finland
• Kalle Vähä-Heikkilä, teacher at the Lauttakylä upper secondary school, Finnish SonS representative 2017

Congratulations for the winners and thank you to everyone who participated in the selection from Finland by sharing their best educational practice with us in English!

Photo credits: Young people learning statistics

We are proud to announce that the StarT programme has been awarded in an international competition that seeks best practices for education and working life collaboration!  

StarT is a science education programme by the LUMA Centre Finland and it has now been granted the Global Best Awards 2018 as Europe’s best programme bridging the gap between working life and STEM education at schools. Director of the LUMA Centre Finland prof. Maija Aksela, StarT international project manager Anette Markula, Chair of the board prof. Jan Lundell and StarT national project manager Outi Haatainen (from left to right in the photo above) travelled to Houston, Texas to receive the awards at the International Partnership Network (IPN) conference in Houston, Texas.

The Global Best Awards 2018 winners were chosen around the world in six categories, and StarT was awarded as Europe’s best in the STEM (”Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics”) category. The award was also granted to the Norwegian “Girls and Technology” project. The criteria for the award was that the winner engages young people to STEM related careers and improves their employability in these fields.

StarT is an international and collaborative education initiative in which everyone learns together through interdisciplinary project-based learning. StarT supports children and youngsters and teachers with their science, technology and mathematics projects on all levels of education internationally.

The Director of the LUMA Centre Finland, professor Maija Aksela from the University of Helsinki considers the prize as a remarkable recognition for Finnish science education.

– This international award is a fantastic recognition for the LUMA Centre Finland – a network of 11 universities – for our collaborative and international operational culture. In our initiatives the newest findings from research are creatively transformed into initiatives that benefit children and youngsters, the stars of the future. In StarT we learn from each other through different cultures and create together a better world, Aksela says.

LUMA Centre Finland launched the StarT programme together with their partners in honour of Finland’s centenary in 2016 with the President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö as the official patron of the programme. Annually over 50 cooperation partners of LUMA Centre Finland have contributed to the programme. The signing up for this year’s StarT is now open on StarT’s webpage. Since 2016 the StarT participants have been from over 40 countries around the world.

We want to thank all our collaboration partners and participants! 

More photos from the conference

Contact details for StarT team

The representatives from LUMA Centre Finland receiving the award in the Houston Space Centre. In the photo from left to right: astronaut Bill McArthur, Jan Lundell, Outi Haatainen, Johnson Space Center’s former director George Abbey, Maija Aksela, Anette Markula and the chair of the IPN2018 conference Bruce Van Dyk.

Join us in carrying out exciting projects and sharing the joy of learning! Participate in StarT 2018-19! 

Have you checked out our online courses on project-based learning yet? Participate here! 

We are proud to announce that the StarT programme  by the LUMA Centre Finland has been chosen as a nominee for the Global Best Awards of IPN2018! 

The International Partnership Network (IPN) is an international education and working life partnership network that aims to improve learning and teaching in order to boost the employability skills of young people. IPN awards the Global Best Awards biennially, and this year StarT is one of the nominees to be the global best collaboration between working life and education. 

This year the award ceremony takes place in Houston, Texas at the IPN 2018 Conference on the 19th October. LUMA Centre Finland and StarT will be represented by the Director of LUMA Centre Finland prof. Maija Aksela, the Head of Board prof. Jan Lundell, Project Manager of StarT International Anette Markula and Project Manager of StarT National Outi Haatainen.