Alexandra Okada, Coordinator of CONNECT project and Senior Researcher at Open University of London
Selected projects were presented by students of elementary, middle and high schools at the CONNECT Student Conference 2023 which took place from May 17 to 19, 2023. Several of these projects were supported by IMBBC/HCMR scientists during the three-year project CONNECT funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Science with and for Society (SwafS). The project aimed at schools, offering an inclusive and sustainable model for building students’ confidence in science, connecting them with science professionals and involving parents and the local community. In other words, CONNECT strives to foster the belief that “science is for me”. For 3 consecutive years, 4500 students from all over Greece implement educational scientific scenarios (science actions), opening the school to the community.
During the first two days of the Conference, the work took place online, while on the last day the Conference was held in person at the IBIS Hotel in Heraklion, Crete. Each day at the end of the presentations there was a reflective round table about the collaboration of schools, scientists, family and local community in the framework of the declaration on open schooling (Open_Schooling_Declaration_CONNECT).