StarT events
StarT Days
StarT Days are events where the joy of learning is shared on a local level. The goal of the day is to share and celebrate the students’ creations with your own learning community, and possibly also with parents, relatives or others from the outside of the learning community!
We encourage every StarT learning community to organize their own StarT Day to give the students the possibility to show what they have created as their StarT project! The StarT Day can be carried out exactly the way you want to, at any time and any form – you can also integrate it into an existing event or include it in your teaching plans as an annual event.
Your own StarT Day could be for example…
- A part of a science/technology/mathematics week
- A part of an existing event
- A StarT Day for the whole town/community
- An activity during a break
You can also find ideas on how others have organized their StarT Days from the best practices from previous seasons (2018 and 2017). Remember that you can share your StarT Day as a part of your learning community’s best educational practice!
Share the fun with us and others in social media using #startluma and @lumasuomi!
StarT Festival
StarT Festivals are regional, larger-scale science, technology and mathematics festivals where young people get to share and celebrate their StarT project creations with an even wider audience than during local StarT-Days. In Finland, StarT Festivals are organized regionally all around Finland by the regional LUMA Centres so that all of Finland is covered. Also a few other countries have started organizing national StarT Festivals – read more about our partner countries here!
However, even if there is not yet a national StarT Festival in your country, we are warmly encouraging those interested to start organizing one! During StarT Festivals the students get to share what they have created as their StarT project with a jury that constitutes of experts from different fields, such as universities, corporations or organizations, and naturally with other students in the region. Students will also peer-assess each others’ creations. This way making the projects becomes even more realistic, exciting and motivating!
What is more, in Finnish regional StarT Festivals students often get encouragement prizes from our cooperation partners. For example, a regional company might give a prize for a team that has created a project that is relevant for their industry, resulting in greater cooperation between industries and schools. The Finnish StarT Festivals also include fun and exciting workshops for both teachers and students. Students might for example conduct exciting chemistry experiments, build robots or code games, and teachers have pedagogical cafes where they get to share their best practices and experiences.
International public voting – sharing the joy of learning!
We have now published videos of the StarT projects and best practices that the learning communities have produced on Padlet. The videos celebrate the joy of learning and share the excitement of students’ discoveries!
The goal of the public voting is to share joy and ideas but also to make it possible for everyone to participate. Everyone can vote simply by giving a like for their favourite project or best practice video on Padlet.
Voting pays off as your likes will be considered when the nominees for the International LUMA StarT Awards are chosen by the StarT jury. The winners of the public voting will also be awarded with a diploma at the international StarT gala.
How does the international public voting work?
After the reporting period has ended, the StarT jury will go through all the projects and best practices that have been reported within the reporting period. The StarT jury will choose the projects and best practices that continue on to the international public voting on Padlet in accordance to the assessment criteria.
The international public voting is organized in order to celebrate and share the work that has been done in the classrooms (and outside of them!) all around the world. Sharing the videos on Padlet allows both educators and students to get recognition for the work they have done. Furthermore, we hope that by sharing the wonderful videos describing the work of students and teachers we inspire more people to carry out interdisciplinary and collaborative science, technology and mathematics projects!
Everyone will have a chance to vote for their favourite project and best practice videos. Voting happens simply by giving your favourites a like on Padlet.
The public’s favourite teams will be announced at the StarT gala and they will receive a diploma of their success.
The International StarT Gala
The StarT Gala is a memorable award ceremony organized annually to celebrate the joy of learning in StarT. At the same time we will be all learning together at LUMAT Research symposium. All are welcome! In the gala the top three project teams will be awarded with the International LUMA StarT Award and top three best practices with the International LUMA StarT Education Award (read more about the awards here).
You are warmly welcome to participate and watch the livestreaming together with participants from around the world.
The winners of the International LUMA StarT Awards and Education Awards 2018 and Olli-Pekka Heinonen, the Director General of the Finnish National Agency for Education
