SMEC "Science Museum and School: a cooperation for teaching, learning and discovery" will run its 12th edition in 2016 from 2 to 8 October 2016. The course aims to strengthen the relationship between museum educators and teachers in order to use more museums as recourses for science education. SMEC takes place every year and has so far trained more than 250 professionals from 29 countries. After 10 years at the Deutsches Museum in Munich Germany, from 2015 onwards it takes place at the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci in Milano Italy.
The training course is the result of the EU-funded projects SMEC (School-Museum European Cooperation) and SETAC (Science Education as Tool for Active Citizenship). It has been running since 2004, and so far has trained about 250 teachers and museum educators from 29 countries of the European Union and beyond. After 11 successful editions funded through mobility grants of the EU LLP Programme, from 2015 onwards the course continues in the context of Erasmus+. Moreover, it is open not only to participants from the EU but also to the international community of school teachers and museum educators.
SMEC aims at fostering the collaboration between teachers and museum educators as facilitators of learning and active engagement in science. It supports the use of museums as educational resources for teaching and learning in science and as tools of scientific citizenship.
The main topics coveres by the course are:
- Learning methodologies: Inguiry-based science learning, tinkering and making
- Learning with objects and with interactive activities in museums
- The Educational role of museums
- Museum and school cooperation for science education
- 'Science and Society' and scientific citizenship
- New and digital media as learning tools
The course is held at the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci, the largest science and technology museum in Italy, with a collection of 15,000 objects, 40.000 square meters dedicated to permanen exhibitions and 13 interactive laboratories. The Museum is located in the centre of Milano, a very vivid city, easy to use and ready to welcome participants for a week.
For more information about the SMEC and SETAC Projects, please visit the following links: