ITEMS project

Building research-based MOODLE materials in Maths, Science and CLIL

Benidorm. SPAIN. 2-6 September 2013  (Deadline for Comenius grant: 30/04/2013)

 

The course “Building research-based MOODLE materials in Maths, Science and CLIL” is about using 21st century skills in the classroom and it is aimed to disseminate and discuss the research-based and innovative pedagogical methods developed at ITEMS project.
The course is included in the Comenius in-service training course database with reference ES-2013-373-001, you can apply by filling in the following form http://goo.gl/GYuOm
It is important to note that deadline for submitting the grant application: 30/04/2013!!
For further info please contact Bernat Martínez (cabernat@gmail.com)  o Luis Gonzalez (luislgc@yahoo.es) tno: +34 965858257

Berlin, 1.12.2010. The Online Educa in Berlin is a high level annual international conference, where researchers and companies from the field of online education meet. Since 2009 a school forum has been added to the conference, which is open for those who do the daily job: Teachers. This year, ITEMS was present two times. This report is about the presentation of ITEMS in the school forum. Here Karl Sarnow presented the available ITEMS modules in German language, as the school forum was visited by German teachers. A number of teachers visited the booth and asked detailed questions about the structure of the moodle courses of ITEMS. About 50% of the visitors had an idea what Moodle is, but most visitors have never worked with Moodle. They have been informed, that ITEMS offers free access to their own ITEMS courses on the ITEMS Moodle server. It has been well accepted that they can expect help from real humans in real time. Finally teachers received the email address and link to the server in order to dive into the modules as a guest and eventually ask for their own course. A large number of copies of the flyer has been taken away in order to spread the message about ITEMS in the teachers rooms of their schools.

Frontiers of Physics is an annual conference of physics educators at second and third level.

This year there were presentations and workshops on measurement apps on ipad / iphone / ipod and various space and atmosphere science research projects based in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. ITEMS was presented as a poster and in many discussions with teachers and third level representatives. Some teachers expressed interest in using courses with students. The third picture is from the museum in Maynooth. It shows a medium size induction coil made by Callan in the 19th century.

The ITEMS Teacher Conference started on Friday, 10, September and was attended by more than 15 teachers from the partners countries. The participants teachers have been involved in the testing of the ITEMS modules in the classroom and some of they presented their experiences on using ITEMS teaching approach in the classroom. These presentations were followed by lively discussions about what has (or has not) worked in different countries.

During the Saturday evening session the discussion was focus on the future plans for integrating more schools in the ITEMS testing group  and on the project sustainability issues.

On Thursday, September 9, 2010, the ITEMS project group met in Alacant to discuss the progress in the project exploitation activities. The ITEMS modules have already been  tested in all the countries. After getting feedback from teachers involved in the testing now modules are being updated and improved in order to be tested again in the new academic course.

During the meeting was discussed the  quality criteria for the Teacher Training at European level which are starting in early October. The meeting was followed by a Conference which was attended by teachers from the partners countries.

ITEMS is organising in October 2010 two online training courses for teachers: “Electricity” and “Introduction to functions – Linear function”. Participants can re-use the ready-made courses in their own teaching.
The online courses will present digital teaching and learning materials on electricity and functions, and discuss the materials and the didactical and technical approaches behind them. The courses encourage teachers to use online materials and inquiry-based learning in their science classes.
The 20-hour courses are open for science and maths teachers and teacher trainers from across Europe. The courses will be organized online using Moodle.
There is only a limited number of places for the training, so register now for one or both of the courses!

For further information and registration please visit
Electricity course (4-29 October 2010): http://itemspro.net/courses/elec/electricity.html
Introduction to functions course (18 October – 12 November 2010): http://itemspro.net/courses/lifu/lifucourse.html