The role of science in our societies is strongly related to the creation of new knowledge to face the big challenges of our modern world, the improvement of education, and the increment of life quality. However, science and technology are often hidden from non-expert eyes, generating a gap between citizens and scientists. To thrive, science requires support, communication, and discussion. The Co.Science project aims to connect science to society by promoting the importance of research and innovation, by making science education attractive for youngsters, and by providing researchers with effective communication tools, bringing them closer to the citizens. The way to achieve these goals will go through 1. the implementation of public spaces where researchers and citizens meet face to face; 2. the empowerment of researchers in their communication skills; 3. the establishment of an ecosystem of people and institutions working together to engage citizens in science and 4. the public recognition's boosting of research and science education. The proposal is supported by a consortium of formal and informal learning institutions working together with institutional and civil stakeholders for effective and lasting public engagement and new and appealing opportunities to interact with citizens. The Co.Science project will specifically train researchers on the enhancement of their communication skills and it will organize two ERN editions, implementing educational initiatives in the schools. ERNs will be implemented in six important cities of Lombardy in Italy (Milano, Como, Varese, Busto Arsizio, Lodi, and Lecco) creating cross-disciplinary and multi-topic diffuse events on STEAM fields and promoting the European scientific culture. During the related school years, we will propose active learning actions in the schools owing to the presence of researchers among the students, thus re-building confidence, which is fundamental for our communities.

"The inclusion of people with social disadvantages, e.g. senior citizens, immigrants, ethnic and cultural minorities, or people with lower levels of education, is a hotly debated topic, in society as well as politics. Education is a key issue of inclusion, since it is one of the most relevant factors of successful integration. Museums and Science Centres are pioneers in lifelong learning, and as such - next to schools - highly relevant places for inclusive education. Explainers/Facilitators in Museums and Science Centres play a key role in connecting the topics of exhibitions with visitors, i.e. they are on the edge of communicating to inclusive visitors.The objective of the ITEMS project is to develop, test and promote a training programme for explainers in museums and science centres that enables them identify the needs of some of these groups and to properly address them in their daily educational work. The challenge for explainers is that the range of needs is vast, as are the possibilities to react to these and thus support the visitor. The project aims to develop strategies to open the content and activities for these groups with special needs, including the use of digital media to facilitate better communication and interaction. A modular design of the programmes will enable the partners to integrate the training into the established structures in use at the different locations.For the development of the training module, a number of different strategies will be applied. It will build on best practices already available at the partners, supported by research on the abilities and needs of the respective target groups. In the whole process professionals, such as researchers or specially trained psychologists, will be included. The evaluation will help identify and correct for weaknesses in the programme, thus significantly improving the final product. By gaining active insights and using lots of practical examples during the training, explainers will not only get hands-on solutions to start with, but also the theoretical background to further develop measures and themselves in the future. Last, but not least, for the framework of the training programme the ITEMS project will build on the tried-and-tested professional development programme for explainers originating from the EU project PILOTS.During the project, the participants of the programme - explainers - will significantly enlarge their competences to work with people with special needs visiting a museum or science centre. The over 60 participants at the partner institutions will be from various backgrounds, a gender balance is aimed at. Through the dissemination training more than 100 multipliers (""explainer trainers"") from all over Europe will be directly reached. To make the results available to an even larger community, the training module as well as a guidebook collecting strategies and best practice examples will be published online. This enables further museums and Science Centres to take up and improve their own programmes. Further, contributions to conferences, newsletters as well as journals will further spread the material throughout Europe.Overall, the education of the explainers will enable inclusive activities for disadvantaged people, such as senior citizens or immigrants/refugees, to be consistently run at museums and science centres. For the participating organisations as well as those museums / science centres reached through the dissemination activities, the ITEMS project will not only enable a systematic approach to improving their offers to special visitor groups, but also lead to a more inclusive and open museum / science centre environment in general."

“Tinkering: Contemporary Education for the Innovators of tomorrow” emerged from the need for citizens able to respond to the contemporary global challenges by being competent in science and technology, self-confident and critical thinkers, socially-engaged, with innovative and entrepreneurial attitude. It responded to these needs through a learner-centred approach aiming at education in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and at the development of the 21st century skills. The specific learner-centred approach is Tinkering adopted in a series of activities and tools and disseminated at European level.‘Tinkering’ is the term used to define an innovative pedagogy that reflects the current trends in education and the Maker culture. It promotes individuals’ active engagement with science- and making-oriented activities as ways to relate with, and understand of, the surrounding world. It promotes skills that can be used in different contexts and become useful for a lifetime. Tinkering, as both pedagogy and activities, was initially developed by the Exploratorium of San Francisco, and today is gaining ground internationally.The objectives of the project were to:¥enrich skills with specific reference to STEM¥develop the 21st century (transversal) skills: creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship¥promote a learner-centred pedagogical approach¥improve the attractivity of, attainment in, and lifelong relationship with, science and technology for adults and students¥implement the innovative pedagogy of Tinkering in school and out-of-school contexts at European level and create a Europe-wide community of practice of institutions¥encourage cooperation and exchange of expertise and practice between formal and informal learning institutions and professionals.The main activities developed by the project were:¥Design of new Tinkering activities for adult learners and for schools¥Definition of a methodological framework for Tinkering as a founding element of the work¥Developemnt of pedagogical materials focusing on the methodology of Tinkering and on professional development, aiming to help pactitioners adopt Tinkering in their practice ¥Organization of training for adult and school educators, aimed at creating the conditions for the implementation of the pedagogy and the activities¥Organisation of multiplier events for the wide implementation of the activities¥Dissemination at local, national and European level¥Management and monitoring of cooperation and operations.The project was carried out through cooperation between formal and informal learning institutions and addressed adult and school learners as well as adult and school educators. Partners worked on the different activities on the basis of a plan consisting of phases of development, pilot testing, evaluation and fine-tuning in order to come up with outputs that are both sustainable and transferable. Results¥New Tinkering activities for adult learners and schools designed, fully described and available online¥Sustainable and transferable pedagogical materials focusing on the methodological framework for Tinkering and on guidelines for professional development of educators adopting Tinkering available online¥Training events for adult and school educators, including a training workshop by the Exploratorium¥Multiplier events for the wide implementation of the activities¥Website containing all resources, which remains active after the end of the project¥A European community of practice working with this pedagogy.The project reached 27.213 individuals through the multiplier events and about 450 professionals with the training and also achieved:¥Enriched educational practice in school and out-of-school environments¥Improvement of the facilitation role for educators involved in STEM-oriented experience in formal and informal education¥Increasing consideration of the innovative pedagogy of Tinkering at policy level for curriculum and lifelong education¥Better understanding of the conditions fostering the involvement and motivation of early school leavers¥A reinforcement of skills relating to the job market¥The sensibilization of directly-interested target groups and stakeholders at local, national and European level.The structure of the project encouraged the creation of networks with institutions and individuals at local level, who benefited by the activities and resources. These participated to the events and programmes but their involvement goes beyond the specific participation. They were able to understand the potential of Tinkering in different contexts, therefore we saw an increasing interest to find out more about how Tinkering can be adopted in a range of contexts. At European level, there is a concrete interest of several science museums to be trained in Tinkering in order to adopt the approach and activities in their practice.