GSO4SCHOOL aims to create a network of school students and teachers to work together and develop trans-disciplinary activities in science and arts, based on the already existing initiative the Global Science Opera. “The Global Science Opera for School: Leverage students’ participation and engagement in science through art practices” (GSO4SCHOOL) will contribute to the engagement of school students and teachers in a range of cultural, educational and scientific disciplines.
– GSO4SCHOOL is an inclusive school education initiative. One of the project’s priorities is to address diversity in school education, developing social, civic, inter-cultural competences and media literacy by providing an innovative integrated approach. By setting a concrete educational framework based on pedagogical principles centred on creativity collaboration and inquiry-based learning, GSO4SCHOOL will create a European network of educational and cultural exchange reaching out to learners from underprivileged communities and enhancing the access to isolate areas in the participating countries. This will work as a starting point so after the project’s life time the project participants will act as agents of outreach beyond the participating countries and sustain the project’s activities in the future.
– GSO4SCHOOL involves and engages teachers and school students in the development of 2 main performances. To do so the project will train and support the participating teachers with relevant
materials that will help them develop cross-sectoral skills in science education and art education. The school students will be involved in activities where they will be invited to collaborate, lead and cocreate their own performances from scratch, while investigating specific issues related to science subjects of their curricula. Based on science themes they are going to go through all the steps of an opera/theatrical production while the consortium will support them with all the relevant scheduled activities. Through this approach the participants will learn to collaborate, lead and manage in order to develop a full-scale production. During this process they will need to be innovative, exchange new ideas and to develop cross sectoral skills such as entrepreneurship skills, teamwork, communication skills, while at the same time they will become more motivated and familiar with concepts of science.
– GSO4SCHOOL promotes the cross-sectoral collaboration (teachers, students, young researchers,
artists, creative industry) and involves them in truly engaging activities. A strong focus will be given to teachers’ support during the implementation of the project, thus enhancing their professional development. Three professional development courses (Summer Schools) will be organised and will be the starting point for equipping them with the competences they need to act successfully as change agents in their settings. Also, continuous support is foreseen via national workshops, organised by the consortium’s experts, in order to support teachers in dealing with diversity in the classroom (including students from underprivileged communities) and in adopting collaborative, innovative and transdisciplinary science-arts practices. Collaborative professional development is expected to have a positive impact on teachers’ repertoire of teaching and learning strategies, their ability to match these to their students’ needs, their self‐esteem and confidence and their commitment to continuous learning and development.