MULTIPLIERS promotes Open Schooling across Europe, a new way to learn that makes science more meaningful and directly relevant to everyday life & real-world challenges.
The goal of the MULTIPLIERS project is to create opportunities for students to engage in research projects that are significant for sustainability, healthy living, and active, responsible care for others, the environment, and the future. MULTIPLIERS also aims to involve students and citizens in discussions about complex societal challenges, including climate change, energy transition, clean water, healthy nutrition, public health, and forest protection.
Why MULTIPLIERS?
Science is one of the pillars of modern society, and as such, is deeply interwoven with societal and environmental challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. In schools, however, it is often presented to students in an abstract way, lacking practical context. To make science more tangible and appealing, the MULTIPLIERS Horizon 2020 project is establishing novel Open Science Communities (OSCs), expanding opportunities for science learning in collaboration with schools, universities, informal education providers, museums, local associations, industry, civil society, policymakers and media across six European countries.
Initially, OSCs will be set up in Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. These communities will develop science projects with real-life challenges as starting points to be implemented in schools. Students will interact with a broad spectrum of science experts, jointly working on science-based solutions for societal and environmental issues. Via open community events and activities, they will then share their findings and experiences with their families and communities, acting as science multipliers.
What we do?
- We increase students’ interest in science by exploring societal and environmental challenges and making scientific findings relevant to their everyday lives
- We make science more tangible by involving students in data collection and decision-making processes
- We support students in developing analytical and critical thinking skills to ultimately make them knowledge multipliers
- We help students evaluate the benefits and consequences of multi-faceted issues and foster interactions with science professionals
- We actively involve families and wider communities in the project through our open-school science learning approach
- We establish sustainable Open Science Communities (OSCs) by engaging different societal actors in science-learning processes
- We influence school and curriculum development by providing educators and policymakers with guidelines and recommendations (the upcoming ‘MULTIPLIERS White Book’) for adopting open schooling
The lead institution for the project is the University of Bonn (Germany), the project coordinator in Slovenia is the Faculty of Education at the University of Ljubljana, and Slovenian Forestry Institute is participating as an associated partner.
Project flyer (click to download)
