During the 2023-2024 school year elementary school VBS Sleutelhof participated in the European COSMOS project. The focus of that project: how to make science education more societally relevant? Headmistress Tine Hendrickx and teacher Sarah Herman explain how their pupils turned out to be real researchers who managed to reduce the school's ecological footprint.
TINE: "How do you teach pupils to ask qualitative research questions? And how do you support them to work on those research questions step by step? That's a subject primary schools often have little experience in. The COSMOS project was an excellent opportunity for our oldest pupils to gain experience, thanks to the guidance from Djapo and the KdG University of Applied Sciences & Arts.
"How do you teach pupils to ask good research questions?"
Director VBS Sleutelhof
SARAH: "During a first session with Djapo, we were introduced to the SSIBL methodology: Socio-Scientific Inquiry-Based Learning. This methodology provides teachers with tools to help their pupils work inquisitively on socio-scientific challenges. In doing so, pupils follow three crucial stages: Ask, Find Out and Act. Pupils start with a research question, after which they gather information and initiate remedial actions. Measuring is crucial here: pupils take a start and end measurement so that they can properly chart the evolution."
TINE: "We chose a research topic in which pupils could really make a difference for the school: 'How can we reduce our school's ecological footprint?'"
SARAH: "The pupils worked on the research question in ten sub-groups, each group focusing on a different sub-theme, such as light and nutrition. During the ASK phase, their main task was to ask themselves as many questions about the theme as possible. The result were ten manageable and measurable sub-research questions, such as 'How many children come to school by car every day?' or 'How much paper does the school throw away every week?'".
"The students involved other students, school staff and parents in the project!"
Teacher VBS Sleutelhof
SARAH: "During the FIND OUT phase, pupils gathered information from other pupils, school staff and parents to find out how many children come to school by car every day, how many parents actually look at the 'Lost and Found' box and how many pupils eat the entire content of their lunch boxes. In this way, the children had a starting point to measure the impact of future actions."
TINE: "During the project, you could see the pupils' attitude grow. In the beginning, they asked very complex, broad questions, such as 'How much energy do you consume?' As the project progressed, their questions became much more focused and compact."
SARAH: "I was also positively surprised by the professional attitude of the pupils. In every group there were one or more pupils who enjoyed taking on the responsibility of their own investigation. As a result, each group carried out the different steps of the investigation very precisely."
SARAH: "During the ACT phase, students carried out actions that they felt would improve the results of their research question. For instance, they organised an advertising campaign encouraging parents to look at the 'Lost and Found' box more often. And they placed pictograms on the toilet flush buttons, so that pupils would only press the big button when it was really necessary. The actions were visible and really made a difference."
TINE: "Every group was able to measure a positive evolution. Thanks to their awareness campaigns, we wasted less water during a toilet visit, threw away less paper, came to school by car less often ... Nice to see!"
SARAH: "The SSIBL didactics proved effective. Because the students could really make an impact in their school, they were extra motivated to work with the research question and enjoyed involving other students, school staff and parents. Ideally, they would also have involved organizations and people outside the school - that was also the intention of COSMOS. Not every group succeeded in that task, due to a lack of time. But the SSIBL didactics, that's a keeper!"
TINE: "Ideally, in the coming years, we will also develop this methodology for our younger pupils. And who knows, maybe even for pre-schoolers. Because being able to ask good research questions is relevant at any age!"
On the project website you find more info on our objectives and approach. Would you like to attend our final conference on 22 November in De Vereeniging in Utrecht (the Netherlands)?Leave your contact data and we will give you more information as soon as possible.
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