Ark of Inquiry
Science centres and museums
“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.”
(Albert Einstein)
The Ark of Inquiry project aims to build a scientifically literate and responsible society through inquiry-based science education. The project aims to raise young people’s awareness of Responsible Research and Innovation (rri) by providing them with a pool of engaging inquiry-based activities in the STEM domain (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The project aims to translate the term “rri” into real life and put it into practice in formal and informal learning environments.
The project aims to disseminate the inquiry-based activities across Europe through the Ark of Inquiry platform and to bring together inquiry-based activities, learners and supporters (teachers, science and teacher education students, and staff of universities, science centres and museums). The platform will connect formal learning settings and curricula with informal learning environments, like museums and science centres, so that pupils can take part in engaging learning activities outside schools and learn firsthand how science works.
You as staff of museums and science centres form part the supporting community, along with teachers, teacher students and researchers who all motivate and guide the pupils in their inquiry challenges. The success and sustainability of the whole project depends on the supporting community who support the pupils in learning and practicing inquiry-based activities.
In addition to providing support for the pupils and teachers, the project aims to create a strong community and network of STEM-related institutions that can provide and further develop existing or newly developed educational content with respect to engaging inquiry-based activities and assessment criteria for these activities. This community of research institutions, museums and science centres will also participate in awarding pupils at higher level events, like public science fairs, competitions, pupil conferences, etc. The community will also be involved in the training of the teachers through their existing and established education schemes or newly created training programs.
The project sees your main role in the project as 1) a contributor of existing inquiry-based activities to the Ark of Inquiry platform; and as 2) a supporter of learners in their engagement with the activities.
In exchange for your input, the project offers you the opportunity
- to be a part of a pan-European network of science centres, museums and research institutions and share expertise with other professionals working in the same field;
- to be informed about the role of Responsible Research and Innovation in the formal and informal education setting;
- to share your own educational programs activities with a very large pool of teachers and pupils from all across Europe;
- to discover and implement new engaging inquiry-based activities developed by other science centres and museums;
- to get more visibility to your organization and attract more visitors to your facilities;
- to get evidence-based evaluation about the efficacy and success of your existing educational programs;
We are glad to announce that we have now started building the Ark of Inquiry community! We are honoured to invite all interested parties to register their interest by filling out this simple survey here (in English). Please take 1-2 minutes to fill in this form and let us know what kind of information you are interested in.
We look forward to seeing you on board the Ark of Inquiry project!
Stay tuned and check back soon for latest news about the project on our website. You can also follow us on our Facebook page.
