Lifelong Learning Programme

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This material reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

Also available in: bg es it lv pl ro sk en fb

Relevant initiatives

Homepage > Relevant initiatives

RELEVANT INITIATIVES FORM

Title of Initiative / Project
The Fibonacci project. Disseminating inquiry-based science and mathematics education in Europe.
Name of Organiser
Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne/ARMINES
Start and ending date of the Initiative
2010-2012
Level
European
Was the initiative carried out in the framework of a funded project?
Yes
Funding Programme
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
Title of the project
The Fibonacci Project
Promoter
Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne/ARMINES
Project number
SiS-2009-2.2.3.1
Type of deliverables
Online course, Teaching Methodology
Thematic area
Chemistry, Maths, Physics, Science
Language of the deliverable
Italian, Polish, Other EU, Romanian, English
Target Group
Teachers
Description of the initiative
The ambition of the Fibonacci Project is to contribute to the dissemination of such approaches throughout the European Union, in ways that fit with national or local specificities.
It defines a process of dissemination from 12 Reference Centres to 25 Twin Centres, based on quality and a global approach. This is done through the pairing of Reference Centres selected for their extensive school coverage and capacities for transfer of IBSME with 12 Twin Centres 1 and 13 Twin Centres 2, considered as Reference Centres-in-progress.
A scientific committee of acknowledged experts in science and mathematics education supervises the work. An external evaluation is also included to check the achievement and impact of the project.
The Fibonacci Project will result in a blueprint for a transfer methodology valid for building further Reference Centres in Europe.
The project, started on January 1, 2010 for a duration of 3 years, is coordinated by the French La main à la pâte programme (Académie des sciences, Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique, École normale supérieure – the latter being the legal entity in charge of Fibonacci); scientific coordination is shared with Bayreuth University (Germany).
The Consortium includes 25 members from 21 countries with endorsement from major scientific institutions such as Academies of Sciences. It will be subsidised up to 4.78 million euros by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme.
The project is composed by thre main pillars:
- Pillar I. Inquiry-based science and mathematics education for scientific literacy. IBSME goes beyond the learning of concepts and basic manipulation to the key factor of engaging students in identifying relevant evidence and reflecting on its interpretations. Through IBSME:
• students develop concepts that enable them to understand the scientific aspects of the world around them through their own thinking, using critical and logical reasoning about evidence that they have gathered.
• teachers lead students to develop the skills necessary for inquiry and the understanding of science concepts through their own activity and reasoning.
- Pillar II. Local initiative for innovation and sustainability. Local and regional initiatives are particularly appropriate to the reform of scientific education in Europe:
• the potential for innovation is strong because of the reduced scale, the greater concentration of actors, and better integration into local policies.
• capitalisation of resources from different actors inside and outside the formal education system is possible, progressively involving the whole local community in a joint effort.
• schemes and tools can be tested previous to their replication on a larger scale.
- Pillar III. Twinning strategy for IBSME dissemination. Dissemination of innovation is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather a transfer of semi-formalised practices and experiences that have reached a satisfactory level of recognition, expertise and sustainability on a local scale. Consequently:
• special efforts must be made with regard to the application of successful strategies inspired by Reference Centres.
• twinning and peer-learning through visits, tutoring, sharing resources and strategy transfer are the key to a broad and successful dissemination.
• focussing both on the strategy for implementation and on the pedagogical content is important.
The project portal www.fibonacci‐project.eu provides information, resources and tools for the project. All the materials are available for free in English into the Resources section. Other documents are also available for the scientific educational community on the multilingual European platform Scientix (http://scientix.eu).
More Information
Consistent with the project’s purpose, the website proposes examples of didactic, that is based on investigation and research (IBSE - Inquiry Based Science Education) in mathematic field (http://fibonacci.uni-bayreuth.de/resources/examples-of-activities/in-mathematics.html) and sciences (http://fibonacci.uni-bayreuth.de/resources/examples-of-activities/in-science.html). From the latter links PDF sheets, that offer a guided didactic path, can be downloaded.
An example of the previous statement is shown at the link http://fibonacci.uni-bayreuth.de/index.php?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&u=0&file=uploads/media/fibo_16.pdf&t=1414079169&hash=118c98420e64ed695f549e001c6e18de that refers to the study of microorganism world.
Teachers and students can put themselves to the test with this new didactic methodology as well as to improve linguistic skills with the help of English material.
For teachers, who are interested to deepen the theoretical structure of IBSE methodology, sections of a dedicated booklet are available at the link: http://fibonacci.uni-bayreuth.de/resources/resources-for-implementing-inquiry.html.
Teachers’ Opinion
The Fibonacci project portal is in English. For this reason it is difficult to use it directly with pupils of the first years of the high school. The Italian version is available and it helps to understand and to agree with the aims of the project.
The resources available on the website are addressed to the teachers and are focused on the research of new didactic strategies. Unfortunately, these resources cannot be directly used in class.
Students’ Opinion
Weaknesses: the website is in English, hard to understand and not much engaging.
Strengths: the website can be useful to strengthen English language skill, thanks to the availability of several resources in English
We, the pupils, are not so interested in this website because it is not directly addressed to us.

Comments on this Relevant initiatives

In order to post a comment it is compulsory to be logged in.

News

Dissemination Seminar in Florence

31 October 2015 The seminar has been held in ITIS “A. Meucci” one of the schools involved within Goerudio project activities. Its main aim was to promote the results of the project toward a broad sample of stakeholders even overcrossing the number of people directly involved in the production of project outcomes. This purpose has been totally achieved especially thanks to the participation of students and teachers coming from different schools or from other classes instead of those ones directly involved within the project activities.