Inspiring Science Education

A series of five Practice Reflection Workshops entitled "Inspiration for Enquiry Learning" were organised in different cities by the Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education. The workshops, led by Dr Nico Rutten who is the author of a dissertation Teaching with Simulations (2014), were held during November and December.

The purpose of the workshops was to inspire teachers by showing how teaching and learning in an inquiry approach can be supported by technology. Participants had a brief presentation followed by small group work on setting up a lesson plan structure and distinguishing the learning activities of the inquiry approach. They also discussed categories and diversity of digital, interactive tools, and the functions that these tools can fulfil in supporting teaching and learning processes. Each group then presented their lesson structures to the other groups for shared learning.

eLearning toolsLogger Pro, PhET, Second Life, Shooting Stars, Socrative, SurveyMonkey and Xmind were presented to the teachers together with associated learning scenarios -Basic Inquiry Learning, The Design Challenge, Close a Case & Problem Resolution.

You can find out more about the eLearning tools and learning scenarios on the Showcases section of this website and on the Inspiring Science Education Community portal.