By Adrián Gollerizo

Translate by Rocío Rubio Platas

After three years of adventures, the H2020 COMnPLAY project (the first European project in which Design for Change España takes part in) is about to end. It has been an amazing journey “in search of science” (which was the name of one of the workshops we gave during the project) that gave us experience to take on new European projects: IN-HABIT y Clicks On.

The European project H2020 COMnPLAY Science aims for understanding the new techniques of non-formal and informal learning of science in Europe, studying programming activities, maker activities and playful activities that take place outside of the classroom.

Some of the project’s key results are:

    • Instruments and tools for research: a set of tools along with their handbook for learning-centered participatory research.
    • Practice inventory: an online archive of programming practices, maker activities and playful learning practices of science.
    • COMnPLAYer App: an app that helps children and teenagers find out and learn about science, and allows them to express their opinions regarding what it means to them.
  • COMnPLAY-Science Knowledge Kit
  • COMnPLAY-Science Roadmap for Europe
  • Community: the creation of a stakeholder community of various areas.

Like in any European project, synergies are essential for proper improvement. Every partner in COMnPLAY Science has collaborated and contributed to these key results, so we would like to highlight some milestones of each of them.

NTNU

Their role as the project’s coordinators has been key during these three years. We would like to highlight their essential contribution to the development of the conceptual and methodological project’s framework, unifying every aspect of the project and designing the methodological strategies for their implementation.

TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology

TU/e was in charge of coordinating the identification process for programming practices, maker activities and playful activities related to science learning in Europe. Subsequently, some of these practices were selected for an in-depth study. Their contribution to the project’s methodological framework has also been crucial.

University of Oulu

UOULU has taken a key role in the development of the project’s methodological framework and, more particularly, the development and design of research tools and instruments. Elaborating these research tools made it possible to conduct an empirical study to analyse how non-formal learning activities for science favour teenagers to take part in scientific activities.

FORTH Institute of Computer Science

FORTH has been the institution in charge of the project’s divulgation as well as the creation of a community of young people, formal and non-formal educators, researchers, legislators, amongst others. Their role has been fundamental in the communication and diffusion of the project’s results as well as in the development of educators guides and future research. The team in FORTH is in charge of the project’s social media management, and of the webpage we can find the practices inventory in, the COMnPLAYer APP, amongst others.

Uppsala University

Uppsala University’s team has provided in every phase of the project. We would like to particularly mention the composition of the guides for giving interviews, which were a great contribution to the set of qualitative research tools.

TUM

TUM’s team has contributed in all phases of the project, providing with their knowledge and experience in the area of research for non-formal learning of science. We would like to highlight the investigation they carried out in one of their case studies.

University of Malta

The University of Malta has provided their knowledge and experience in the area of learning based upon digital games. They have shown this through the multiple publications they have done all throughout the course of the project, which we can check in the following link:

https://comnplayscience.eu/library/.

OVOS

The team in OVOS was in charge of developing the platform for COMnPLAYer App. They used the application to conduct research surveys; the app also allows the user to find non-formal learning stories and an interactive game. Without a doubt, it is a great work that teenagers have enjoyed both in and out of the classroom.

King’s College London

Amongst their multiple contributions, King’s College London’s team has provided with the interesting conceptual tool of “Science Capital”. It allows the user to better understand the impact of activities for non-formal learning of science on teenager’s lives.

Science Museum Group

The team of Science Museum Group, other than collaborating with valuable contributions to the different milestones of the project, provided a set of objects from their collection to create an interactive game that is available in the COMnPLAYer App.

Design for Change España

Design for Change España has provided their knowledge as practitioners inside the project, contributing to different research results and actively participating in the development of scientific publications. In addition to that, several non-formal learning of science workshops have been carried out throughout the course of the project.

If you want to know more about the project, visit the COMnPLAY Science web!

 

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.