Instem aims

The central aim of INSTEM is to provide support to making science education more attractive, based our conviction that responding to global challenges such as climate change needs citizens who understand the fundamental concepts of science, support sustainable development and are prepared to act responsibly.

Consequently, INSTEM aims to provide effective dissemination strategies for innovative ways of teaching science and mathematics across Europe.

In particular, we promote educational innovation and best practice in science education, and European co-operation by

• Carrying out a comparative analysis (of documents) on the state of the art in inquiry-based teaching, science careers information in schools and reduction of gender imbalance in science education. We also monitor the exploitation of existing project results in partner countries.
• Gathering and collating knowledge, experience and products around inquiry-based teaching produced in recent Comenius projects, networks and FP7 projects, into a single synthesis document, available online and in print.
• Working to create shared understandings with stakeholders and networks from a variety of target groups (such as policy-makers, schools authorities, industry) at regional, national and international levels.
• Initiating national working groups, to develop strategies for sustainable exploitation of synthesized project results.
• Running three international conferences, which contribute to a shared understanding of innovative teaching practices, and promote European co-operation amongst academics, stakeholders and policy makers.
• Producing case studies showing successful strategies for exploiting synthesized project knowledge.

INSTEM thus creates a new direction in science and mathematics education reform, in which widespread long-term cooperation replaces fragmented, short-term initiatives. We combine the above elements into an overall sustainable strategy for innovative science education, taking account of the challenges of Horizon 2020 and the needs of practitioners.