Project Implementation

ScienceGirls therefore offers the following basic innovations, aiming to feed into the  final results and outcomes:

CO-CREATION
The project, its work processes and its outcomes will include the full co-creation of the girls’ teams all along the project duration, as this is regarded the precondition for contributing seriously to the Commission’s Science Learning Innovation Agenda.

IDENTITY
Guided by decades of and recent research in the field of science education, the project will focus on a gender-sensitive re-thinking of what science learning is and could be based on identity, and in particular on teenage girls’ identity formation, as this has been identified as the major challenge to engagement in science learning and careering. The perspective of these efforts is the development of new and attractive science learning didactics, including a strong gender-sensitive dimension.

REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCE – OPEN SCHOOLING
Based on the open schooling approach, strongly recommended by the Commission and by recent research, the project will offer the girls’ teams 8 full months of engagement in science, research and innovation activities in their local or regional communities. Along this experience they will identify and engage with female role-models involved in science, research and innovation.

MIXED REALITY COLLABORATION
The girls’ teams will qualify their co-creation through working in mixed reality collaboration.

The mixed reality experience is provided through the combination and integration of intensive on location team work in the schools, virtual collaboration between the girls’ teams from the 6 participating secondary schools from 6 different countries, and through the co-creation climax: the ScienceGirls Science Vision Encounter.

AUTHENTIC VISIONS FOR ATTRACTIVE GENDER-SENSITIVE SCIENCE ENGAGEMENT
From a traditional standpoint guidance for innovate science learning should be delivered by academia, as teenage girls are not expected to be able to deliver valuable contributions. However, this is not in line with what the Commission and the OECD are calling for is not innovation FOR but WITH citizens and end-user involvement as co-creators in the full circle of innovation.

In short, the project’s overarching methodology is to qualify and motivate teenage girls to co-create the guidelines for gender-sensitive science learning for secondary schools across EU.