OSOS Final Consortium Meeting in Lisbon – A successful project is reaching the end of the beginning
OSOS is just getting started
A celebration of OSOS student-led projects in Portugal marked a hugely successful implementation in the country. Over 150 students and teachers from all corners of the country assembled in the Pavilhao Do Conhecimento on Friday the 14th of February 2020 to showcase their exciting work and share their experiences with the OSOS consortium, national policy makers, university professors and 30 school leaders from 15 European countries.
The highlight of the event included inspiring talks by the students on their work and on what they think are the real challenges in education (and in life) and a stimulating poster session with over 30 school projects, addressing climate change, local environmental issues, democracy, participation, inclusion, engagement, the defense of science, the threat of misinformation, outdoor education and other contemporary ideas. After a long but fulfilling day, the most often-repeated sentence were “What’s next in OSOS?”.
The success of the Open Schools for Open Societies initiative has been verified at the last project meeting of the OSOS consortium in the Pavilhao Do Conhecimento in Lisbon. Two days of intense inspection of all project indicators and achievements, inspiring discussions on planning for the future and how our OSOS findings can be translated into concrete educational policies in Europe, dominated the event in a celebratory atmosphere.
It has been a long, but extremely rewarding 3-year journey into the exciting and often unexplored world of school openness through a unique student-led responsible research and innovation (RRI) approach to science education and beyond. This is a type of educational innovation that is addressing real societal challenges and is cultivating stimulating synergies with museums, local governments, industries, parents, science centres, something that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.
The OSOS partners, the 1100+ schools, the 2100+ teachers, the 80.000+ students and everyone involved in this one-of-its-kind experiment consider these final steps in this endeavor not to be the end of the road, but merely the end of the beginning!
Stay tuned for updates and upcoming opportunities to take part in this fascinating project and sign up for the ESIA newsletter to stay informed!