Teaching ICT With Inquiry – Competition

Are you excited to hear all about TIWI competition?

Teaching ICT with Inquiry project is supporting the 2020 STEM Discovery Campaign and invites teachers to participate in the competition that aims to reward the best implementation stories.

Here is what you need to know:

  • About TIWI

The main goal of the Teaching ICT with Inquiry (TIWI) project is to provide teachers with tools and skills in order to enable them, with the use of the inquiry-based approach, to teach coding in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. The main target group includes in-service upper primary (9-11 year-old students) and secondary (12-19 year-old students) school teachers, as well as pre-service teachers. The project will also showcase future career opportunities in computer sciences and real-life application of programming and other STEM subjects.

Link: http://tiwi.eun.org/

About STEM Discovery Campaign 2020

STEM Discovery Campaign 2020 is a joint international initiative that invites projects, organisations and schools across Europe and around the world, to celebrate careers and studies in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The tagline for this year’s campaign is “Innovative Trends in Education”

Link: http://www.scientix.eu/events/campaigns/sdc20

What is this competition all about?

We are looking for teachers who are eager to share their experience and best practices of classroom implementation of inquiry-based science teaching in ICT and STEM subjects. In this competition we ask teachers to create a TIWI implementation story – a transversal report describing the processes and impact of introducing ICT with inquiry method by using collaborative spaces as personal learning environments for students to work on research projects and particular tasks and Go-Lab as a teaching methodology.

So, if you are interested in sharing with us your implementation story by 30 April 2020, then you are eligible to participate to the competition!

How to apply?

The first thing you need to do is to submit your implementation story to the STEM Discovery Campaign activities map.

Seen the current developments at European level in relation to COVID-19 and measures that were put in place in many countries that affect the way teachers work, for this competition we will be accepting both face to face and online implementations. What does it mean for teachers? Teachers may ask students to interact with an Inquiry Learning Space either in a classroom or virtually/on distance (for instance, students can follow a lesson in a shape of an ILS at home), and we will accept the stories of implementation regardless if a teacher carried out an implementation online or face to face.

Within the online submission form for all STEM activities, you will be able to fill out your details and the details of your implementation (more specifically, when and where it happened). After filling in these details, in order to participate in TIWI competition please select the corresponding option “I would like to submit TIWI implementation story” for this purpose. Once you have filled in the form with TIWI implementation story, you will have to submit your story by clicking the “Submit” button. We will get back to you in case we have any additional questions regarding the content of your activity.

SUBMIT YOUR IMPLEMENTATION STORY HERE

In order to enter the contest, your entry will need to fulfil the following criteria:

  • Your activity should be featured within the 2020 STEM Discovery Campaign activities map, meaning that your (online) classroom implementation has to take place at any day between 1 February and 30 April 2020
  • The implementation story should be submitted via the form latest by the 30th of April 2020, 23:59
  • The report must be submitted via the competition online form and should include the following aspects:
    • Relevance to ICT and/or STEM education: indication of a subject or multiple subjects your ILS is covering, online laboratories usage or/and the use of coding elements in your ILS;
    • Evidence of implementation: a link to the ILS you have created in Graasp and implemented in your classroom plus any relevant material like pictures or even social media posts that can serve as an evidence your classroom implementation took place;
    • Students’ experience: specific information about what went well and what can be improved in terms of engaging students in an ILS implementation, have you noticed any differences between how students perceive the info through the ILS in comparison with traditional way of introducing the same material;
    • Methodology: Description of your approach to introducing ICT and STEM with the help of inquiry, your experience in introducing the ILS to your students, maintaining their interests, involvement of your colleagues in the process, etc.

Please provide us with any possible details relevant to your (online) classroom implementation in a concise and structured way.

We advise you to keep a back-up copy of your submission, so make sure you save the text of your submission before clicking the “Submit” button.

The prizes

The jurors will select the best five stories, and these stories will be published in the final publication of the project giving great recognition to the teachers’ achievements. On top of this, the winners will be invited to the webinar concluding the project as well as receive the certificates of award.

Those submissions, which will be qualified for the competition but do not win, will get a recognition of their participation –  their ILSs submitted as part of this competition will be published on TIWI website as a good example of inquiry learning space and become project’s legacy.

Looking forward to your submissions!