WG3 Informal Education

This Working Group focuses on identifying and examining the best practices in science exhibits on evolution as well as effective messages increasing the understanding of evolution and scientific literacy in general across Europe.

Main Tasks of Working Group 3

To identify science exhibitions, exhibits and activities that present evolution-related topics and retrieve any available assessment data on their impact.
establish a set of best practices/guidelines for creating/restructuring museum exhibitions, exhibits and educational programs on evolution.
explore assessment strategies to evaluate evolution exhibits (in collaboration with WG1).
Establish STSMs that will focus on effective links and activities that could reinforce learning both in- and outside of the classroom.

For more information and how to join this Working Group please contact our WG Leaders.

Grant period 4 goals:

Implementing tested assessment instruments to broader range of non-formal evolution-themed activities
Development of an online workshop to explain basic evolution concepts to teachers, educators, journalists and artists + development of the assessment workshop to teach stakeholders how to assess nonformal learning activities
Analysis of the results of the assessments of non-formal evolution-themed activities
Report of pilot study of assessment of evolution exhibits and activities in informal environments
Dissemination of a selection of evolution-based activities that can be used both in and outside of the classroom for teachers and the informal education community
Establishing STSMs that will focus on effective links and activities that could reinforce learning both in- and outside of the classroom.

Upcoming Meetings

Working Group 3’ members are currently meeting every second Tuesday Thursday via Zoom, starting at 16h CET. If you would like to join us and help finish our deliverables, please contact tamara@inscied.com

Current Work

Until summer 2022 we will…

Meet in Belgrade in April 2022
Design and teach an online workshop for a broad audience and assess its impacts
Design and teach an online workshop on assessment of online workshops
Start two Virtual Mobility Grants

Complete deliverable 2 and disseminate the guide for nonformal learning activities
Advance work on deliverable 3 through the analysis of collected assessment data

Tamara Milosevic

WG Leader
Consultant in pedagogical innovation

Rhizome Association

tamara@inscied.com or tamara@rhizomeacademy.org

Tamara Milosevic is an independent consultant in pedagogical innovation for universities and president of Rhizome Association. Even though she finished her Ph.D. with studying the loss of essential genes in yeast, and seeing how 1100 yeast mutants die, her main research focus now is on the development of transversal skills in active learning environments. She is passionate about designing new pedagogical programs for adult learners, using STEM to address SDGs, and starting too many interdisciplinary international projects.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aramataTM

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aramatatm/

"As a biologist, my motto was the famous Dobzhansky quote “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”. I adapted this to teaching with “Nothing in teaching makes sense except in the light of skills development”. Ever since EvoKE 2017 meeting in Portugal, I have contributed to this vibrant community of like minded researchers and educators. I am proud to have been involved in EuroScitizen COST action from the start, to understand and enhance the teaching of scientific literacy through evolution throughout Europe and beyond."

Tanja Adnađević, Active contributor

Short Bio: Since 2006 employed as a researcher at Department of Genetic Research, Institute for Biological Research "Siniša Stanković" (IBISS), Belgrade, Serbia. In 2016 she started working at the Centre for the promotion of science (CPN) as a Head of the department for program activity with shared working hours between IBISS and CPN. From the beginning of the science career, she got enthusiastic about science promotion and science communication, especially among school kids. She coordinated Researcher's Night 2016/2017 " ReFocuS" project (EU, HORIZON 2020, MSCA-NIGHT-2016- 722341).

LinkedIn: Tanja Adnađević

"Being part of the Centre for the promotion of science a have a vast experience and knowledge in different kinds of activities that can be defined as part of non formal education can hugely contribute to different tasks in WG3. Beside working in the no formal education in Centre for the promotion of science, I also have a PhD in evolution so this action double interests me."

Johan Barstad, Active contributor

Short Bio: Head of Dept. for Economics and management, Senior lecturer and senior researcher. Teaching rural economy, circular economy and social sciences methodology. Active researcher in local community development with a focus on communicative, dialogue-based methodology. Former experience as senior researcher/research administrator at Møre og Romsdal Hospital Trust, Norway with a yearly research budget of 6-8 million €. Before that 15 years experience as full time researcher in a rural research institute in Norway

LinkedIn: Johan Barstad

" Main interest in Scientific Literacy – how knowledge is established and change over time. Am using this in my teaching is social sciences methodology, and also in the communicative planning methods used in local community development. Here we need to focus on how knowledge gets ‘petrified’ and out of sync with realities, and the need for paradigmal shifts to open up for new knowledge to enlighten the new situations. Thus, the case of evolution is useful to learn if and how ‘truth’ can develop and change on the basis of new evidence."

Despina Tsopoglou-Gkina, Active contributor

· Institution/affiliation: University of Western Macedonia, Greece · Role in the WG: Active contributor · Short Bio: Despina Tsopoglou-Gkina is a biologist working in secondary education since 2016, as bridging her scientific interests with education has always been an aspiration of her. Having a research background in Biology (B.Sc.) and Ecology and Natural Resource management (M.Sc.), she is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Didactics of Biology aiming to shift her research focus on Science Education. · Mail: despina.tg@gmail.com · Web (professional/department/institution): - · Online CV link: - · Twitter: - · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dtsopoglougkina/ · Short comment about your motivation to be part of EuroScitizen (Optional but highly recommended): “As a life-long learner myself I am continuously eager to be up-to-date with current advances in Science Education. Thus, I am eager to be a member of a network such as EuroScitizen which aims to identify targeted strategies that will raise levels of scientific literacy using evolution as a model. It is my strong belief that educators should strive to grow and continuously improve and what better way to do so in a community across Europe.”

Teresa Nogueira, Active contributor

Institution/affiliation: INIAV - National Institute for Agrarian and Veterinary Research / Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, University of Lisbon · Role in the WG: Active contributor · Short Bio: Received a PhD in Physiology and Genetics of Microorganisms (Specialization in Genes, Genomes and Cells) from the Paris-Sud University in France in 2001. Since 2007 she has been using bioinformatics to address the evolutionary dynamics of bacterial genomes, of microbial communities, and of antibiotic resistance and bacterial virulence in the human and animal gut, and environmental microbiomes. She also aims to understand the antibiotic resistance profile of microbial communities in aquatic environments and food-producing animals as part of the One Health concept. She has been lecturing Microbiology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics at higher education, and been engaged in teacher training in Microbiology and Evolution. · Mail: teresa.nogueira@iniav.pt · Web (professional/department/institution): https://ce3c.ciencias.ulisboa.pt/member/teresa-nogueira · Online CV link: https://www.cienciavitae.pt/portal/F211-4E18-2C69 · Twitter: - · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-nogueira-3a7068b3/ · Short comment about your motivation to be part of EuroScitizen (Optional but highly recommended): I am a member of the team that submitted the application for the EuroScitizen project to the COST actions call, and also a member of the board of the scientific project EvoKE - Evolutionary Knowledge for Everybody (active member of the association's structure definition taskforce), and of APBE - Portuguese Association for Evolutionary Biology, deeply committed to promoting understanding and acceptance of evolution by the public.

Lucia Martinelli, Active contributor

Institution/affiliation: MUSE – Science museum, Trento, Italy · Role in the WG: Active contributor · Short Bio: Laurea in Biological Sciences at Bologna Univ. (I), PhD at Wageningen Agricultural Univ. (NL), Master of Scientific Journalism and Communication at Ferrara Univ. (I). In a decennial experience as researcher in Italian and foreign public and industrial research institutes, I’ve developed and coordinated research in the field of biotechnology, concerning gene transfer, GMO traceability and risk communication. Since June 2011, I’ve been carrying on research in the area of Science within Society and Responsible Research and Innovation at MUSE. The topics also include gender issues. My activity counts on international multidisciplinary networks and projects. I’ve experience in text writing and in hosting programs for the radio, both public (RAI) and private nets, and author of science-theater texts. I’m member of the boards of the Italian Association of Women Scientists, of the European Platform of Women Scientists and of GEDI-Marie Curie Alumni Association. For the Autonomous Province of Trento I’ve been the president of the Commission for the Equal Opportunities and, at present, I’m member of the Supervisory Committee for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities and of the Wellbeing at Work and Against Discrimination. · Mail: lucia.martinelli@muse.it · Web (professional/department/institution): https://www.muse.it/en/Pages/default.aspx · Online CV link: https://www.muse.it/en/il-muse/chi-siamo/staff/pages/Lucia-Martinelli.aspx · ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lucia-Martinelli · Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/LuciaMartinelli · Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lucia_Martinell · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucia-martinelli-51688912/ · Short comment about your motivation to be part of EuroScitizen (Optional but highly recommended): Working at MUSE, a science museum where visitors are meant as crucial actors, non-formal education in science is a relevant issue. In WG3, with a mutual learning approach, I can contribute to developing a novel scientific culture.

Martha Georgiou, Active contributor

· Institution/affiliation: Department of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens · Role in the WG: Active contributor · Short Bio: Martha Georgiou is a Biologist with postgraduate studies in “Didactics of Biology and ICT” and she holds a PhD on adolescent pupils' argumentation on socio-scientific issues. In particular, the completion of her dissertation was funded by the State Scholarship Foundation. At 2019, she was elected as specialized laboratory teaching staff of the Biology Department of the University of Athens, which is her current post, teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students, whilst previously she had been teaching in several departments (Biology Department of Athens, Primary Education Department of Athens/ Patras/ Thessaly). At the same time, she is working as teachers’ educator on Science Education and on integrating ICT into education. She had been teaching as a permanent teacher in secondary education for 12 years with great distinctions in student’s contests. For two years she was Head of the Science Laboratory Center of Athens’ south sector and her duties included the organization of lectures and workshops for science teachers. Her research interests lie in Science Education and include argumentation skills, socioscientific issues and nonformal education issues. Simultaneously, she is interested in the communication of Science both in specialized and non-specialized audiences. Finally, she has been contributing as a member of both organizing and scientific committees of educational conferences · Mail: martgeor@biol.uoa.gr · Web (professional/department/institution): · Online CV link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martha-Georgiou · Twitter: - · LinkedIn: - · Short comment about your motivation to be part of EuroScitizen (Optional but highly recommended): Scientific literacy is a right for every citizen and at the same time is a valuable tool for active citizenship. As an educator, who supports that scientific literacy is a key expression of successful learning and simultaneously as a biologist who recognizes the value of the unifying theory of evolution, I feel lucky and proud to be part of the EuroScitizen team which aims to develop and empower scientific literacy through evolution across Europe.

Joelyn De Lima, Active contributor

Institution/affiliation: Michigan State University / EvoKE / École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Short Bio: Joelyn thinks of herself as both a scientist and an educator, and therefore she is very passionate about science education (both formal and informal). Her academic training has been both in the natural sciences (Masters in Marine Science) and in Education (PhD focused on Undergraduate Biology education). She has experience teaching science in the classroom (grades 5-undergrad), and around the campfire (children and adults). Currently, she is working as a pedagogical advisor at EPFL, and is involved in numerous science education projects across the globe. Twitter: @joelyndelima LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joelyndelima

Bojan Kenig, Active contributor

Institution/affiliation: Center for the Promotion of Science Short Bio: Bojan holds a Ph.D. in biology. Before starting his work at the Centre for the promotion of science (CPN), he was employed as a researcher at the Department for Genetics of Populations, IBISS, University of Belgrade. From the start of his research career, he has been active in science communication projects. Bojan is currently responsible for designing, organizing, and implementing informal education activities, mainly in STEAM disciplines. Furthermore, he has been continuously forming a sustainable network that brings together scientists and artists, encouraging their cooperation and the development of joint projects as a coordinator of the CPN art+science program. Twitter: @BKCPN79 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bkenig "Evolution was essential to me in my research and is an integral part of my work in science communication. Therefore, I am happy to be a part of EuroScitizen WG3, where I can work with people with similar goals and learn and exchange experiences and ideas about understanding evolution in informal education settings."