SCIENCE EDUCATION IN ROMANIA THROUGH HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES

SCIENCE EDUCATION IN ROMANIA THROUGH HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES D. Sporea and Adelina Sporea National In sti tute for La sers, Plasma and Ra di a tion Phys ics, Bu cha rest, Ro ma nia, sporea@ifin.nipne.ro or dan.sporea@inflpr.ro Abstract The pa per re views our achieve ments in sci ence ed u ca tion in Ro ma nian schools through ex tra cur ric u lar ac tiv i ties such as sci ence clubs, sci ence fairs, stu dent con - tests and teach ers train ing courses. These ac tiv i ties run in the frame of the Eu ro - pean Un ion s Comenius pro ject Hands-on Sci ence and of the pro ject Sci ence Ed u ca tion and Train ing in a Knowl edge-based So ci ety SET 2010 funded by the Ro ma nian Au thor ity for Sci en tific Re search. Em pha sis is placed on real and vir tual ex per i ments de vel oped un der the LabVIEW graph i cal pro gram ming en vi ron ment for data ac qui si tion and sen sors con trol. Dif fer ent means to ad dress sci ence sub - jects are pre sented, start ing from hands-on ex per i ments, to drama, mu sic and vi - sual arts. Fi nally, our ef forts to pro mote our re sults at Eu ro pean level are dis - cussed. Key words: Hands-on science, Science club, Science education, Science fair Introduction One of the many chal lenges our so ci ety is fac ing in the mod ern world is the grow ing dis crep ancy ex ist ing be tween the ris ing de mand of highly qual i fied man power (in the field of sci ence and tech nol ogy de vel op ment) and the low num ber of young, tal - ented peo ple grad u at ing tech ni cal schools. This is a con cern on both sides of the At lan tic, and gov ern ments, com pa nies and pro fes sional so ci et ies make ef forts to over come this sit u a tion. Al most ev ery one re al ized now that, in or der to have stu dents in ter ested to study sci ence, we have to con sider more care fully the prob lem at all lev els of the ed u ca tion pyr - a mid: pri mary, sec ond ary and high school [1]. The way chil dren are trained to ap proach sci ence un der stand ing as they grow-up has a ma jor im pact on their fu ture op tions and af - fin i ties. In the North Amer ica, a con sor tium built around SPIE, OSA, MESA and NOAO ob tained just few years ago an im por tant fi nan cial sup port ($1.7 mil lion grant) from the Na tional Sci ence Foun da tion in or der to de sign and im ple ment an op tics-based ed u ca - tional en rich ment pro gram for mid dle school stu dents in the United States [2]. Ma jor pro fes sional bod ies have so ci et ies ded i cated to teach ing ac tiv i ties, and in some cases they 15

D. Spores and A. Sporea have a spe cial fo cus on the im prove ment of tech nol ogy teach ing in high schools [3]. The Eu ro pean Un ion rec og nized the im por tance of sci ence lit er acy by sup port ing var i ous pro jects in the frame of Soc ra tes Programme (Le o nardo da Vinci, Eras mus, Comenius [4]), an an nual con test for young sci en tists [5], a ma jor con fer ence [6] and a fo rum for the dis sem i na tion of sci ence re sults among teach ers in Eu rope [7]. The Na tional In sti tute for La sers, Plasma and Ra di a tion Phys ics is co or di nat ing in Ro ma nia at na tional level, through the Cen ter for Sci ence Ed u ca tion and Train ing, two ed u ca tional pro jects: the Romanian project of the European Comenius Hands-on Science network; the Romanian project Science Education and Training in a Knowledge-Based Society SET 2010. The Comenius Hands-on Sci ence net work main fo cus is [8]: to invite local communities and authorities to be involved in debates on science education; to promote and deliver training courses for school teachers and educators in different languages and countries on science related curricula; to promote Hands-on-Science contests and fairs at national and EU level; to promote science clubs activities in schools; to develop and disseminate new ICT and multimedia education materials; to create a network of teachers interested on this subject to serve as possible disseminators; to organize international conferences and thematic workshops on this subject. As it con cerns the na tional pro ject SET 2010 its tar get is more gen eral: the sci - ence ed u ca tion in the frame of life long learn ing and sci en tific lit er acy. Nev er the less the two pro jects over lap in our ef forts to build a bridge be tween ac a de mia and re search in sti - tutes on one side and the pre-uni ver sity teach ing infrastructures. In de sign ing the plan for our main ac tiv i ties we started form the Eu ro pean Un - ion s Agenda on Sci ence Teach ing. The of fi cial doc u ments rec og nize that an ad e quate sup ply of sci en tists is cru cial for a knowl edge-based econ omy, and for this rea son, the Coun cil has set two ob jec tives: to bring about an in crease of at least 15% in the num ber of grad u ates in these fields by 2010 and at the same time to re dress the im bal ance be - tween women and men [9]. The Lis bon Eu ro pean Coun cil iden ti fied among the 5 ar eas of new ba sic skills for the knowl edge-based econ omy: ICT, tech no log i cal cul ture [10]. Sci en tific lit er acy is viewed as a di men sion of the Dem o cratic cit i zen ship, as far as an in formed cit i zen can better con trib ute to the de ci sions of the com mu nity he/her be - longs to. A Eu ro pean Com mis sion doc u ment is sued in 2002 in di cates clearly some paths to fol low in the field of school ed u ca tion along with some pre cise tar gets [11]: Europe must do more to encourage children and young people to take a greater interest in science and mathematics, and to ensure that those already working in scientific and research fields find their careers, prospects and rewards sufficiently satisfactory to keep them there. Motivating more young people to choose studies 16

Science Education in Romania Through Hands-On Activities and careers in the scientific and technical fields in a short and medium term perspective ; By 2010, the percentage of low-achieving 15 year-olds in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy will be at least halved in each Member State, compared to the year 2000 ; By 2010, the EU-average level of participation in lifelong learning should be at least 15% of the adult working age population (25-64 age group) and in no country should it be lower than 10%. In the framework of the education development, some of the key competencies to be reached by the EC Work Programme under way are mathematical literacy and basic competence in science and technology, ICT, learning-to-learn [12]. In the mean time, Eu ro pean Un ion Re search Ad vi sory Board EURAB rec om - mended in its 2002 Re port the sus tained sup port for sci ence ed u ca tion in schools: the in - tro duc tion of in no va tive, hands-on sci ence ed u ca tion into all Eu rope s pri mary schools; the in tro duc tion of Cre ative Sci ence Teach ing mod ules into the for mal train ing pe riod of all pri mary school teach ers; con certed ef forts to main stream sci ence, en gi neer ing and tech nol ogy cur ric u lum and teach ing in no va tion into sec ond ary school sys tems; all sci - ence, en gi neer ing and tech nol ogy or ga ni za tions in dus trial, ac a demic, pro fes sional, gov ern men tal re as sess and strengthen their com mit ment at a lo cal, na tional and Eu ro - pean level to sup port ing the de vel op ment of school sci ence, en gi neer ing and tech nol - ogy ed u ca tion. All such or ga ni za tions should pub lish its pol icy and ac tiv i ties in sup port of school sci ence, en gi neer ing and tech nol ogy on its Web site. Re gional, na tional and Eu ro pean awards might be de vel oped for such ac tiv i ties. Activities In a pro gram matic doc u ment re leased just at the be gin ning of our work on the Comenius pro ject, we stated clearly our main goals [4]: 1. to transform the school (teachers and students) from classical end-users of teaching and training aids into active designers and developers of such materials; 2. to use IT & C technologies as efficient tools for the democratization of science teaching, by open the door to the knowledge treasure to less favored players and by assisting with funds/ consultancy/ advertising those able to craft an other face to the traditional teaching schemes and to create new, unexpected teaching aids; 3. to promote as much as possible the generous ideas of the project into a large pool of recipients and beneficiaries (students, parents, teachers, central and local authorities, NGOs, companies involved in the teaching process). In de sign ing the work ing plan for the Ro ma nian par tic i pa tion to the pro ject we fo cused on sev eral di rec tions which can bring the max i mum ben e fit both for the pro ject and for the coun try, on its way to EU integration: 17

D. Spores and A. Sporea a. to build strategic partnerships with organizations and companies which can assist us to run the project, either through direct financial support or by associating the project name with their image; b. to support the inclusion of virtual instrumentation programming teaching in high schools; c. to assist high schools in developing virtual experiments; d. to encourage high school teachers to train students in developing their own experimental set-ups and training aids; e. to prepare teaching materials in electronic and multimedia format; f. to facilitate the access to experiment-based teaching to less favoured groups (minorities, orphan children, students form rural areas); g. to disseminate the project results though lectures, conferences, communication sessions. Within this set up frame, at the be gin ning, our ef forts were di rected to ward the train ing of school teach ers on the use of PC-based data ac qui si tion as sisted by vir tual in - stru men ta tion de vel oped with the Na tional In stru ments graph i cal pro gram ming en vi ron - ment LabVIEW. Sev eral schools in Ro ma nia em ploy data ac qui si tion boards in con nec - tion with sen sors and ac tu a tors to han dle lab o ra tory ex per i ments, fact which is a pre miere at Eu ro pean level. They are run ning com plex ex per i ments de signed to study me chan ics, elec tric ity, op tics and even plant and small an i mals life hab its. Fig ure 1 de picts the in - ves ti ga tion per formed on the sounds emit ted by tur tles dur ing day time ac tiv i ties, while in Fig. 2 are il lus trated some ap pli ca tions on data ac qui si tion in study ing mo tion and elec - tric ity. Vir tual in stru men ta tion was also ex ten sively used in de sign ing vir tual ex per i - ments to dem on strate some phys ics prin ci ples. In these cases, the teach ers de vel oped in - ter ac tive an i mated ex per i ments into which some short films of real ex per i ments are em bed ded (Fig. 3). The train ing on the use of vir tual in stru men ta tion and PC con trol of Figure 1. The investigation in the school Laboratory of sounds emitted by pets: a the automatic data acquisition; b the analysis of the captured signal (Courtesy Mrs. Mihaela Garabet and Mr. Ion Neacsu, teachers at the G. Moisil High Theoretical School in Bucharest). 18

Science Education in Romania Through Hands-On Activities the Lab ex per i ments is quite ad vanced so that teams of teach ers and stu dents are dem on - strat ing their skills at na tional and in ter na tional con fer ences [13-15], and in some cases de liver life demo ses sions across the coun try in less priv i leged area or poor or mi nor ity com mu ni ties. For this last purpose we prepared a small mobile laboratory with major experiments run under LabVIEW. Figure 2. The use of virtual instrumentation in the study of: a different bodies fall through the measurements of the currents induced in coils placed along the object falling path; b the Ohm s laws (Courtesy Mrs. Emilia Pausan, teacher at the T. Vladimirescu High School in Bucharest, Mrs. Mihaela Garabet and Mr. Ion Neacsu, teachers at the G. Moisil High Theoretical School in Bucharest) We even have a spe cial ses sion for school teach ers at the An nual Na tional Con - fer ence of LabVIEW Us ers. The train ing we are of fer ing on the im ple men ta tion of PC-based ex per i ments ex tended be yond the na tional board ers. We de liv ered short pre - Figure 3. Virtual experiments on physics run under LabVIEW (Courtesy Mrs. Mihaela Garabet and Mr. Ion Neacsu, teachers at the G. Moisil High Theoretical School in Bucharest) 19

D. Spores and A. Sporea sen ta tion and tu to rial at two high schools in Brussels and a train ing work shop at the In ter - na tional Con fer ence of the Hands-on Sci ence pro ject in Por tu gal [16]. An other line of our ex tra cur ric u lum sci ence teach ing pol icy is rep re sented by the or ga ni za tion of sci ence club ac tiv i ties dur ing week-ends. Within these ac tiv i ties sev - eral schools in the same neigh bour hood host one af ter the other sci ence re lated pre sen ta - tions, demo ex per i ments, ex hi bi tions, and some ar tis tic events. The pre sen ta tions cover a broad spec trum of sub jects start ing from ar chae ol ogy, to as tron omy, food, lab o ra tory safety or ge net ics. Gen er ally, the pre sen ta tions are based on web-based re search. Demo ex per i ments are fo cused on a spe cific sub ject (i.e. the qual ity of the drink ing wa ter in dif - fer ent parts of Bu cha rest Fig. 4 a; iden ti fi ca tion of fake food staff Fig. 4 b) and are de - vel oped by the stu dents us ing triv ial ma te ri als they can pro cure in their sur round ing en vi - ron ment. Figure 4. Science club hands-on activities: a environmental experts testing the quality of the drinking water; b training on consumer protection, testing coffee quality; c homemade set-up for optics training; d device for the evaluation of the solar constant prepared by teacher Augustin Dvoracsek and his students at Bethlen Gabor College, Aiud (photos from authors collection) 20

Science Education in Romania Through Hands-On Activities The school teams we are work ing with or ga nized var i ous ex hi bi tions on sub jects such as: the safety use of house ap pli ances; a flash-back into sci en tific in stru ments his - tory; math e mat ics and the gar den dec o ra tion; se lec tion of draw ings on chem is try ap pli ca - tions; a se lec tion of post ers re lated to the World Year of Phys ics and Al bert Ein stein Cel - e bra tion. Some of the ex hi bi tions are real and some of them are vir tual, in e-for mat. In the last two cases, the ex hibit col lec tions are the re sults of a lo cal or na tional con test. In the mean time, we pro moted the re sults de liv ered in the Comenius pro ject by par tic i pat ing with a booth at the Com mu ni cat ing the Eu ro pean Re search Con fer ence, or ga nized by the Eu ro pean Com mis sion in Brussels, on No vem ber 14-15, 2005. The ex pres sion means we used go from vi sual arts, to thea tre per for mances based on sci en tific sub jects (i.e. a di a log with Al bert Ein stein; Ar chi me des prin ci ple; fa - mous Ro ma nian chem ists; chem is try in ev ery day life), and life mu si cal per for mances with songs on sub jects on Math e mat ics (i.e. Py thag o ras s the o rem; prime num bers; num - ber Pi, etc.). In the field of Pho ton ics we started some ac tiv i ties re lated to hands-on ba sic op - tics, op ti cal spec tros copy and op ti cal fi ber com mu ni ca tions (Figs. 4 c and 4 d). This part of the pro ject was sup ported through do na tions by EXFO (Can ada) and Ocean Op tics (The Neth er lands). Re search ers from our In sti tute de liv ered lec tures on la sers and their ap pli ca tions, and groups of young stu dents paid visits to our facilities. Acknowledgments The au thors want to ac knowl edge the fi nan cial sup port of the Eu ro pean Un - ion through the Comenius Hands-on Sci ence, Pro ject No. 110157-CP-1-2003-1-PT-COMENIUS-C3 and of the Ro ma nian Au thor ity for Sci en - tific Re search, Pro ject Sci ence Ed u ca tion and Train ing in a Knowl edge-based So ci - ety SET 2010, con tract No. 58/2006. References [1] The Royal So ci ety, State ment on the As sess ment of Sci ence Learn ing 14-19, at www.royalsoc.ac.uk/education/assessment [2] spie.org/communityservices/studentsandeducators/in dex.cfm?fuseaction=hoo [3] www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/es/ [4] D. Sporea and Adelina Sporea, Comenius Hands-on Sci ence Bi an nual Re port, June 2004 & Fi nal Re port, Oc to ber 2006 [5] ica.cordis.lu/search/in - dex.cfm?fuseaction=events.simpledocument&ev_rcn=2518&cfid=491862&cftoke N=72613083 [6] ica.cordis.lu/search/in - dex.cfm?fuseaction=events.simpledocument&ev_rcn=15558&cfid=491862&cftok EN=72613083 [7] www.eiroforum.org [8] www.hsci.info 21

D. Spores and A. Sporea [9] Com mis sion of the Eu ro pean Com mu ni ties, Com mis sion Staff Work ing Pa per. Brussels, 22 March 2005 [10] Im ple men ta tion of Ed u ca tion and Train ing 2010, Work Programme, Work ing Group B, Key competences, Prog ress Re port, No vem ber 2004 [11] Com mis sion of the Eu ro pean Com mu ni ties, Brussels, 20 No vem ber 2002 [12] Com mis sion of the Eu ro pean Com mu ni ties, Com mis sion Staff Work ing Pa per. New In di ca - tors on Ed u ca tion and Train ing, Brussels, 29 Novemebr 2004 [13] Prima Conferinta Nationala de Instrumentatie Virtuala, May 24, 2004, Bu cha rest, Ro ma nia [14] 1 st In ter na tional Con fer ence Hands-on sci ence teach ing and learn ing sci ence in the XXI cen tury, July 5-8, 2004, Ljubljana, Slovenia [15 2 nd Hands-on sci ence Con fer ence, July 13-16, 2005, Crete, Geece [16] R. Sporea, Data ac qui si tion and pro cess ing in school lab o ra to ries us ing vir tual in stru men - ta tion, 3rd In ter na tional Con fer ence on Hands-on sci ence Sci ence ed u ca tion and Sus tain - able De vel op ment, Sep tem ber 4-9, 2006, Braga, Por tu gal. Participants of the Workshop in the Museum Nikola Tesla 22