Making or tinkering is important to MINT education as it embeds science and engineering in purposeful and valued activities, engendering MINT practice rather than MINT skills. Necessary for the success of this educational practice is a tripartite focus on tools, community infrastructure and tinkering-mindsets. A tinkering mindset is direct experience, experimentation and discovery. It is cognitively and socially richer than simply assembling a robot from a kit. Tinkering involves active testing and failing.

Within our new Agora project: Biotinkering for youth (2021-2023, http://p3.snf.ch/project-200184) we combine our knowledge of science with collaborators in design, STEM-education, computer science and robotics to create unique learning experiences. Diverse schools, organizers of holiday camps, community centers and science learning centers have committed to integrate the workshop activities into their regular programs. The outcomes will be different workshop activities that can be offered individually at science festivals or combined in school class project weeks and holiday camps. More information is available on our minttinkering-website

Within our new DIZH project: Making@school (2021-2023) we will develop different biotinkering modules for teacher education. The project will be hosted by our collaborators at PH Zürich.

https://phzh.ch/de/ueber-uns/Medien/News/2021/06/dizh-innovationsprojekte/

https://dizh.ch/innovationsprogramm/projekte/2021-1-makingschool/

Contact: mdahinden@ethz.ch

In one-day workshops filled with practical experiments, theory and discussion with regional experts, teachers learn cutting-edge research methods and experiments. The format is designed so that teachers can use the knowledge and experiments afterwards in their own classrooms, thus becoming mediators between active researchers and high school students. The workshops cover a number of themes, including questions such as: How can modern methods in plant breeding and plant physiology provide new approaches for sustainable agriculture? as well as How to teach creativity with biotinkering?

Website (in German) for full information

In collaboration with educators of the ETH MINT Lernzentrum, the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC) offers workshops for school classes at the secondary school level. Participants engage in the latest innovations in plant science research. This includes advanced 3D microscopy, novel breeding methods, “omics” technologies and predictive evolutionary and climate change models. These classroom activities address the Lehrplan 21 syllabus and teachers can implement this inquiry-based science education in their classroom.

Link to the PSC Discovery workshop website (in German).

Contact:  info-plantscience@ethz.ch

CreativeLabZ is a new innovative science education program for youth that aims to promote self-confidence, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and leadership. The team of workshop facilitators consist of UZH and ETH Zürich biology and environmental science students, science communicators, designers and artists. The workshops use a hands-on approach as an inquiry-based educative practice. Workshop topics cover robotics, coding, tinkering.
More info: www.creativelabz.ch
Contact: creativelabz@ethz.ch