Twenty seven teachers participating in Col2 phase of a project represent various types of schools (lower and upper secondary schools, as well as vocational one) from many places in southern and central Poland. They demonstrated very different experience in IBSE (or even the lack of such experience). It was the reason, among other things, why in September 2015, at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University, a few-day-long autumn school was organized – a series of lectures, workshops, scientific tours and laboratory classes. This way we would like to prepare the Col2 teachers for the project activities.
The autumn school curriculum included e.g.:
- group exercises allowing to diagnose the existing teachers’ misconceptions and attempting to work out a common, more unified image of the strategy entitled “IBSE – do we all understand it in the same way?”,
- laboratory classes enabling the participants to experience the inquiry themselves,
- RRI workshops (one oriented more towards a chemical content – e.g. Asbestos, the second one about image of scientists and scientific method of investigation),
- Lectures: “Nanotechnology yesterday, today and tomorrow”, “Nanosilver as an antibacterial agent’
- Web 2.0 workshop,
- Visit and workshop in the science museum,
- Visits in the scientific laboratories.
Labs classes were especially valuable for those teachers who had never had an opportunity to experience real inquiry before. Experiments proposed in three IRRESISTIBLE modules, which had been selected for evaluation by Polish teachers, were conducted there. Among them teachers tried: chemical reaction of potato with hydrogen peroxide, self-cleaning materials, gold solution, ferrofluids (Greece), modeling drug release or absorption with agar cubes (Turkey), activated carbon (Poland). Evaluation questionnaires showed that teachers appreciated new knowledge and skills as well as a way the training as organized. Results will be visible in May 2016 where the interactive exhibition will be launched.