17. The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (IIT)
For more than eight decades the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology has been Israel's primary technological university and its largest centre of applied research. It is ranked among the 25 leading technological universities in the world. Many innovations in all fields of science, technology, engineering and life sciences have their origins in research conducted at the Technion. An example of one of the Technion's recent achievement is the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry granted to Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ceichanover for their pioneering research on degradation of intracellular proteins. The Technion occupies about 1,325,000 square meters and includes 100 buildings. There are about 40 research centres, 11 research institutes and 10 Centres of Excellence. At present there are approximately 8,448 undergraduate students, 2,553 M.Sc. students and 1,499 Ph.D., M.D. and D.Sc. students - a total of 12,500 students. Since 1929 79,358 students have graduated. There are over 650 faculty members and 58 spin-off companies. Since its foundation in 1965, the Department of Education in Technology and Science has been widening the range of its functions. The tasks of the department includes the training of high school mathematics, science and technology teachers, offering masters and doctoral degrees, providing in-service teacher education, as well as leading a wide range of projects, and a very active research and development centre. In addition to the scientific staff, IIT has a dedicated administrative staff with extensive experience in research management, legal issues and financial management of EU-projects. Task allocation The main tasks attributed to IIT are development and evaluation of novel pedagogical approaches based on dialogic teaching (WP7, WP8), responsibility as a national liaison point for carrying out the local surveys and studies in Israel (WP2, WP3, WP9), as well as contributing expertise particularly involving science communication (WP10). Staff members who will be undertaking the work: Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, Ph.D., Lecturer for Biology Education and Science Communication at the Department of Education in Technology and Science. Her professional background is a combination of academic research in the field of science education, focused on innovative teaching strategies and students' interest in science; and the active communication of science in the mass media. Ran Peleg, a Ph.D. student at the Department of Education in Technology and Science, and an active performer and producer of Science Theatre. He will investigate ways in which theatre and drama can be utilized as an educational tool for science teaching in order to enhance scientific literacy and positive attitudes to science among school children, and provide recommendations for science educators as to the utilization of drama in conjunction with the formal science program. Galit Hagay, a Ph.D. student at the Department of Education in Technology and Science and an active high-school biology teacher. Galit will identify high school students' personal and specific interests in three biology topics. Based on her findings she will develop, enact and evaluate a curricular intervention which is based on student-interest focused biology learning materials and teaching strategy.
Indicative Allocation of Person-Months: IIT name role PM (total 14) Ayelet Baram-Tsabari IIT leader, media adviser 6 Ran Peleg Production of 8.4 4 Galit Hagay Production of 8.3 4