Today, students aren’t just passive knowledge recipients, sitting in class and listening to their teachers. With apps like Instagram and TikTok, many students in middle and high school are creating their own content and even becoming “influencers” on social media.
At the same time, they are in contact with lots of information online, including “fake news” and differing opinions on important issues for society such as climate change, protecting nature, getting enough clean water and energy, staying healthy, and stopping diseases from spreading.
Learning and talking about science has always been important for kids to excel at school.
But nowadays, it is even more important for students to make sense of the world around them. They need to know how to tell what’s true or false online and help society solve big problems using knowledge based on real evidence.
The MULTIPLIERS project, funded the European Union, is helping students in six European countries become better science thinkers, learners and communicators.
The project uses fun, hands-on activities like outdoor classes, talking to scientists and doing experiments to help students better understand the connection between science, the work of researchers and real-world issues.
It also teaches students how to explain complicated science ideas clearly.
When they share what they learn, they strengthen their own understanding and help others understand complex issues too.
MULTIPLIERS connects students with “Open Science Communities” involving schools, families, museums, universities, NGOs, companies and more.
Here are some cool activities from the project that can inspire teachers and students:
- Antimicrobial Resistance:
In Cyprus, students learned about the problem of antibiotic-resistant bugs. They made quizzes, flyers, and games to teach people about it in a public square and a local mall. They even used a board game to show which medicines fight which diseases.
They also interviewed pharmacy owners, biologists and doctors in journalistic style to learn from their experiences (using a method known as “Human Libraries”).
Cyprus ranks among the countries of the European Union with the highest consumption of antibiotics and the highest rates of antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, raising public awareness of this problem is very important to keep the population healthy.
- Vaccination:
In Germany, high school students learned how diseases spread and visited a real lab to learn about the human immune system.
They made a video about vaccines and whooping cough to teach younger students.
This helped them learn about biology, making videos, telling stories and filming. A behind the scenes video documenting the process is available here.
- Forests and biodiversity:
In Slovenia and Sweden, students learned about forests, the creatures that live there and the services forests provide to humanity, such as clean air and carbon absorption.
In Sweden, they discussed the dilemma between using and protecting forests, made their own products using forest materials and had a fair presenting their inventions to family members, the public and a jury.
In Slovenia, they had outdoor classes at a training site for forestry professionals, where they used tablets to learn about different tree species and how they provide shelter to animals.
They then presented their knowledge to forest visitors.
- Air pollution:
In Spain, students studied air pollution, caused in the city of Barcelona particularly traffic. They did experiments to measure air quality at their school and shared their results at a big university conference with more than 200 students. They used puppet shows, posters, and meetings with experts to explain what they found out.
- Clean water and sanitation:
In Italy, students learned about where water comes from and how it’s cleaned. They visited water towers and a water supply system.
In a “water blind tasting” event, they compared tap and bottled water, teaching younger students and parents that tap water is just as safe as bottled water and often not significantly different in taste. On World Water Day, they also held an exhibition about historic water systems.
In sum, learning science and how to communicate is very important for students. It helps them grow, succeed in school, make good decisions, and prepare for their future.
Got interested in knowing more about the project? You can find out more about MULTIPLIERS on their website.