The COVID-19 crisis made interactions between CERN scientists and primary school students much more difficult for two main reasons:
- CERN scientists are no longer allowed to travel to local classes (duty travel prohibited).
- Local primary schools have very limited means to set up, for example, a videoconference (no WiFi, no microphone, no camera - computer, projector and speaker possible).
However, the visits of scientists to local schools for pupils aged 8-12 (https://voisins.cern/en/talk-cern-researcher-your-classroom [1]) are a very popular offer with schools and benefit from the following advantages:
- Little preparation required from the speaker, no need for prior training to participate (we provide presentation templates).
- Pupils discover about the profession of researcher and about CERN activities.
- Ability to reach many students at once (between 21 and 25 students per class).
Now that all the activities for schools taking place at CERN are canceled, a situation which could recur in the future, can the offer of "presentations of scientists in classrooms" be redesigned so that CERN continue to do outreach activities inside local schools?
Can we reshape the offer so that it meets current constraints (limited travel for scientists, limited computer equipment in classrooms), but maintains as many advantages as possible (limited preparation, possible to reach 24 students at a time...)?
If the solution includes IT equipment, it should be EXTREMELY easy to set up in the classroom. Many teachers give up activities as soon as they ask for a tiny bit of computer skills (eg: plugging in a microphone or a camera are considered complicated).
- Pedagogy
- Outreach
- IT
- Technical skills
[1] https://voisins.cern/en/talk-cern-researcher-your-classroom
[2] https://voisins.cern/en/talk-cern-researcher-your-classroom
[3] Template of a presentation :
https://espace.cern.ch/fds-interne/Cannevas%20par%20institution/2020_CERN_EN_Presentation%2010-15%20yo.pptx?Web=1
[4] Image: https://cds.cern.ch/images/CERN-HOMEWEB-PHO-2019-153-1