Projects
Overview of current projects:
Overview of finished projects
Participatory and digitally empowered mental health prevention framework for academic settings - MINDGUARD
(EU-Erasmus+ KA2, 2024-2027)
Coordinated by Prof. Lucy Avraamidou
MindGuard (2024-2027) aims to address the growing mental health challenges faced by university students by equipping both faculty and students with the knowledge and skills needed to support mental wellbeing. The project uses virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) technologies to create an immersive and experiential learning environment, allowing participants to practice mental health first aid (MHFA) techniques in realistic, controlled scenarios. This approach is designed to foster empathy and improve the ability to respond effectively to various mental health situations within the academic setting.
Upskilling Prospective Teachers in STEAM for elevating out-of-school learning for all - Up-sTEAm
(EU-Erasmus+ KA2, 2023-2026)
Coordinated by L. Avraamidou & M. Gharesifard
Up-sTEAm (2023-2026) is an Erasmus+ project that aims is to provide university students studying to become teachers and/or science communicators with the skills and knowledge necessary to design effective and meaningful STEAM activities for non-formal learning contexts, that are appropriate and adapted to school pupils’ needs and particularities. The goal is to increase access to non-formal STEAM education for these students.
Website: up-steam.eu
An auThentIc learNing and gender inclusive frameworK for tEaching infoRmatics in schools across Europe - TINKER
(EU-Erasmus+, 2023-2026)
Coordinated by Dr. Dina Maniar & Prof. Lucy Avraamidou
The TINKER project aims to revolutionise informatics education in upper primary and lower secondary schools through a comprehensive pedagogical framework. Rooted in authentic learning principles, the project encourages students to engage with real-life tasks, promoting exploration and intentional connections between theoretical knowledge and practical experiences. The project also aims to address and overturn the severe underrepresentation of women and gender minorities in the field, by adopting a progressive gender-inclusive stance. In particular, it will promote gender-inclusive teaching practices creating positive student-centred environments that celebrate diversity.
Website: tinker-project.eu
Tackling race-, gender- and other biases in Artificial Intelligence (MAMMOTH)
(EU-H2020, 2022-2025, Budget 3.3 million)
Coordinated by L. Avraamidou
This Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action project aims to promote diversity and inclusion in the design, development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence systems, by both building the capacity of relevant stakeholders and by providing bias-preventing AI solutions into an open-source suite.
Website: mammoth-ai.eu
Sustainable MobILity in school Education (SMILE)
(EU-Erasmus+ KA2, 2022-2024)
Chara Bitsaki, supervised by L. Avraamidou
The project's main aim is to increase awareness on climate change and sustainable mobility through the implementation of green activities in climate change education. The project introduces the SMILE methodology and educational resources to offer the training needed for teachers on climate change which will help students act as agents of change for sustainable mobility. The appropriate sustainable competences will be developed in order for students to become aware of the climate change problem and the need of the sustainable mobility action to decrease the GHG emissions entering the atmosphere.
Website: thesmileproject.eu
artIficial iNtelligence For professIonal aNd pedagogIcal pracTices in Higher Education (INFINITE)
(EU-Erasmus+ KA2, 2023-2026)
Coordinated by L. Avraamidou, Postdoctoral dr. F.J. Castillo Hernández
INFINITE aims to prepare Higher Education (HE) teachers to critically and ethically exploit AI-based technology for their professional and pedagogical practices, supporting Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to leverage the best possible outcomes from AI developments.
Website: infinite-erasmus.eu
Scientists and Public Engagement (STAGE)
(EU-Erasmus+ KA2, 2022-2024, 05-2022 to 04-2024)
Coordinated by L. Avraamidou
The mail goal of this project is to equip scientists and science communicators with the skills and knowledge necessary to increase public engagement in science. The project adopts a gender-inclusivity approach by targeting women scientists' engagement in training and designing gender-inclusive materials for public engagement with science
Website: project-stage.eu
STEAM4ALL: Towards an Inclusive STEAM programme for ALL
Coordinated by L. Avraamidou
The project focuses on developing an interdisciplinary STEAM program to empower and actively engage students, teachers, school leaders, school staff and school communities to apply STEAM activities, robotics and digital tools to develop important 21st century skills for students, such as digital skills, critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, self-esteem and collaboration.
Website: steam4all-project.eu
Using Mobile Augmented Reality Games to Develop Key Competences through Learning about Sustainable Development
(EU-Erasmus+ KA2, 2019-2021, 2019-2021; Budget: 287,000 euro)
Coordinated by L. Avraamidou
The project includes the design, implementation, and evaluation of mobile augmented reality games and related curricular materials in the context of secondary school science. The purpose of the project is to support teachers and students develop key competencies in teaching and learning about sustainable development.
Preparing Teachers and Students for a Digital World
(EU-Erasmus+ KA2, 2019-2021; Budget: 286,000 euro)
Coordinated by L. Avraamidou
The project includes the design of an interdisciplinary STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) program to empower students, school leaders, and communities to apply STEAM activities, robotics, and digital tools for the purpose of supporting them in developing 21st century skills. As part of the project, an innovative, interactive, open-access e-learning space will be developed which will provide a set of readily available resources for school teachers.
Outdoor Science Education for a Sustainable Future - OTTER
(EU-2020, 2021-2024; Budget: 1.5 million euro)
Coordinated by L. Avraamidou. Postdoctoral researcher: N.H. Azevedo
The consortium involves participants from eight European Union countries and has the aim of improving the understanding of methods and pedagogies of Education Outside the Classroom. It aims to look at how these methods can help improve the acquisition of scientific knowledge and transferable skills in students, specifically in the field of environmental sustainability and plastic waste reduction. The project focuses on increasing interest in science topics among youth while contributing to the range of innovative educational projects and increasing scientific citizenship within the EU. In this consortium, we are in charge of develops and implements a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan, gathering and analysing data from all participants in the project – students, teachers, families, members of the public, researchers, other stakeholders. This analysis and synthesis of monitoring and evaluation results will be carried out in each partner country, including a perspective on gender and geographical differences, and the results will be synthesized to produce a comprehensive account of the project’s impact. Otter will contribute to strengthening educational outside-the-classroom networks within Europe, connecting experts from different regions within the continent. Otter implementing actions aim to promote gender equality as a cross-cutting issue as well as researching relationships between students’ gender and learning outcomes in terms of scientific knowledge and 21st-century skills.
Website: otter-project.eu
Identifying Aspects of the Learning Environment Conducive Towards the Productive Disciplinary Engagement of Undergraduate Students in Introductory Physics Courses
(2020- 2024)
Dr. May Lee, FSE fellow
The project investigates how the experiences of undergraduate students in physics lectures and/or tutorials (learning environments) affect their understanding of physics and personal engagement with physics-related disciplines. The main goal of this project is to identify aspects of the learning environment that support the learning and engagement of physics concepts for undergraduate students and to implement changes that support those identified aspects. This on-going project currently focuses on the learning environments associated with the introductory Electricity and Magnetism course. Some teaching assistants have already been interviewed to help me develop an understanding of the current structure of the learning environment from the instructional perspective.
(2021-2025, PhD project)
Valeria Cernei, supervised by Prof. Lucy Avraamidou, dr. Maarten Derksen, dr. Ivan Salinas Barrios
The covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the difficult relationship between science and its audience as manifested, for example, through the growing anti-science movement. In this project, I explore the role of science communication as a mediator of this relationship with a focus on the effects of uncertainty communication. Uncertainty communication has been linked to decreased public trust in scientific knowledge, and its exploration may provide valuable insights on the schism between science and its audience. Uncertainty is explored in two incarnations: (1) as operationalized in current science communication practices (deficient, technical, consensus, and scientific uncertainty) and (2) in a new conceptualization informed by virtue epistemology. This idea of uncertainty is based on the acknowledgment of the multiple epistemic systems operating at any given time. Within this theoretical framework, I assess the bearing different conceptualizations of uncertainty have on epistemic (in)justice (i.e., the exclusion, silencing, or systematic distortion of the knowledge of specific communities) and investigate the effectiveness of science communication initiatives in relation to (different types of) uncertainty communication. The main goal of this work is to synthesize the emerging evidence into a set of uncertainty communication practices aimed at facilitating the navigation of epistemic uncertainty and its subsequent communication.
Generation AI: Teaching Secondary School Students with/about Artificial Intelligence
(EU- Erasmus+ KA2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices November 1, 2020 – October 30, 2022; Budget: €275, 400)
Coordinated by D. Heeg (PhD project)
The aim of this project is to provide professional development for secondary school teachers and preservice teachers to support them in understanding the complexities and basic principles of AI, computational thinking, and how they can be integrated in teaching science for the purpose of promoting creative problem solving, resilience, and design thinking.
Teacher learning at the boundaries of cross-curricular collaboration for supporting students’ development of scientific media literacy
(PhD project, 2020-2024, Double Degree with the National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Edith Koh Hsing Dee, supervised by L. Avraamidou
Through an intervention that involves english and science teachers in collaborative lesson design, this study aims to demonstrate the learning potential of cross-curricular work in Singapore by addressing the following three questions: a) What are the learning mechanisms evoked at the boundaries of interdisciplinary collaboration? b) What do the learning mechanisms reveal about what teachers learn? and, c) How do the process features of an interdisciplinary teacher design team bring about teacher learning?
Morality in the context of socioscientific issues
(2016-2022, PhD project)
Tore van der Leij, supervised by prof. L. Avraamidou and prof. M. Goedhart
Contemporary sustainability issues speak for the need of comprehensive, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary science teaching and learning that addresses goals at the personal, local and global level. An approach to this challenge is found in the context of teaching and learning socioscientific issues, with which dealing with morality aspects is inextricably linked. Despite its widely recognized relevance not many science teachers have experience in guiding and stimulating students’ morality. This classroom-based project investigates 16-18 year old students’ morality within the context of socioscientific issues, in a specially designed intervention for Dutch biology education. The key interrelated questions we seek to address are, how, in light of emerging sustainability issues, morality can be conceptualized in the science classroom, and how it can be developed.
Widening and diversifying citizen engagement with science
(EU-H2020, 2020-2023; Budget: 1.1 million euro)
(PhD project, 2020-2024, Double degree with the University of Athens, GR)
Nelly Marosi, supervised by L. Avraamidou
ALL INTERACT: Widening and Diversifying Citizen Engagement in Science’ is twofold: first, the researchers want to create new knowledge about how to transform potential citizen participation in science into actual engagement in scientific research. Next to that, they want to unveil new ways to engage societal actors, including young citizens and groups that have traditionally been excluded from science. The consortium consists of researchers from the University of Barcelona, the University of Oxford, the University of Helsinki, the University of Milano and the UG; the University of Barcelona is coordinator. The project will be carried out with a series of interventions in the different partner cities that engage citizens with science.
Broadening STE(A)M participation: An intersectional approach to promoting minoritized students’ inclusion
(2020-2024, PhD project, Double degree with the University of Athens, GR)
Nelly Marosi, supervised by L. Avraamidou
Situated within current geo-socio-political realities shaped by the massive influx of diverse migratory groups to Europe and the rise of racism and Islamophobia, this research study will explore Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) participation and science identity of minorities. The purpose of the study is to explore how the engagement of minoritized students in a culturally relevant STEAM program might (a) enhance their academic achievement and sociopolitical consciousness; (b) shape the formation of their science identities. A secondary goal of the study is to examine how race, ethnicity, religion, class, and the migrant/refugee status intersect with science identity. Data will be collected from a culturally relevant STEAM after-school program with Muslim refugee children in Greece. The study follows a qualitative research paradigm and adopts an ethnographic case study. The data will be analyzed through content analysis and with the use of open coding techniques. From a theory perspective, the study will propose an evidence-based theoretical framework for after-school community-based programs that aim to support nondominant groups participation in science. From a research perspective, the findings will reveal the relationship between community-based science learning, science engagement, and self-identification with science.
Professionalizing online and blended/hybrid education @ the University of Groningen
(2021- 2025, TAG PhD project)
Ha T. Nguyen, Supervised by Prof. Jan-Willem Strijbos (1st promotor; GMW, GION Education/Research), Prof. Hanke Korpershoek (2nd promotor; GMW, GION Education/Research), Dr. Angeliki Mali (1st copromotor; FSE, Institute for Science Education and Communication) & Dr. Jolien Mouw (2nd copromotor; GMW, GION Education/Research)
The project addresses urgent questions about the effectiveness and productive implementation conditions of different forms of online and/or blended/hybrid teaching. More specifically, the project aims to investigate which innovations are ‘working’ at the University of Groningen (UG), how they ‘work’, for whom they ‘work’ and under which conditions they ‘work’. At the UG, teaching and learning is offered by a diverse lecturer population and it needs to be effective for a diverse student population. This project contributes to understand the working mechanisms of online and blended/hybrid teaching at the UG, leading to standards of high-quality online courses and to wider dissemination in existing professional development initiatives at the UG, like BKO or SKO.
Teacher Training in STEM Teaching
ERASMUS+ project KA226: STEM Digital Distance Learning in University Teaching (STEM DIGITALIS) (2021-2023 Budget: 294.000€)
(2018-2022, PhD project, Double degree with the University of Crete, GR)
Argyris Nipyrakis, supervised by prof. L. Avraamidou
This PhD project aims to study teachers’ views and design practices on STEM Integration, as well as the effect of collaboration on their STEM Integration views and design practices. In combination with correlated study implemented in the University of Crete about in-service STEM teacher professional development on Integrated STEM teaching, this project focuses on pre-service STEM teacher training in Integrated STEM teaching. In specific, pre-service primary/secondary teachers work collaboratively with peers and experts through a Learning Community framework in order to design, develop and experience STEM teaching material (e.g. physical/digital artefacts and/or experiments, along with related STEM lesson plans) in both curriculum topics and cutting-edge STEM topics such as Nanotechnology and Artificial Intelligence. Additional emphasis is given to the way that they integrate
Technology as well as the use of Technology that they implement. Data collection includes audio transcripts, the developed STEM teaching materials as well as reflection interviews about STEM Integration and collaboration. Due to the explorative nature of the study, qualitative content analysis methods are been applied. Upcoming findings aim to provide insights about S-T-E-M teachers’ views and design practices on STEM Integration as well as how they evolve through a collaborative learning environment
ROOTS: Ik ben science!
(2018-2022, PhD project)
Theila Smith, supervised by L. Avraamidou & M. Lopez-Lopez (Faculty of Social Sciences)
ROOTS is a science enrichment, multilingual, community-based programme that takes place at a youth center in Beijum. It draws on disciplines in science, technology, the arts, the environment, engineering and mathematics (STEAM). ROOTS is used to refer to the urgency of communities moving towards a more environmentally sustainable future. “Ik ben Science” is used to refer to the programme’s aspiration to increase minoritized children’s self-identification with science and to support them in developing an understanding of the diversity of STEM careers. The lessons are a cross-section of families, scientists and researchers engaging in activities that are sociocultural and sociopolitical contextually relevant to everyday life.
| Last modified: | 08 November 2024 10.26 a.m. |