The European SUSTAIN project (Supporting Science Teaching Advancement Through Inquiry) was set up in 2013 to develop important connections between Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in order to create classroom activities and professional development resources for teachers and science educators. Eleven European institutions were actively involved in the project. The final conference took place in the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities on the 10th & 11th of October 2016.
Children from Siobhan Ni Threasaigh’s 6th class in Baysisde Senior National School, doing some of the inquiries from the SUSTAIN Energy Resource
The main aim of this conference was to present the three educational resources (Energy; Food; Objects) that were researched and developed by the SUSTAIN network over the course of the three years of the project. Dr Cliona Murphy, Dr Greg Smith & Ms Nicola Broderick (pictured above) overall co-ordinators of the SUSTAIN Energy group, gave presentations at the conference and facilitated a workshop on Wind Energy. Ms Siobhan Ni Threasaigh, a teacher from Bayside Senior National School Dublin, also presented at the conference about her experience of implementing the material from the Energy resource with her sixth class. The three educational resources Energy; Food and Objects are available to download at http://www.sustain-europe.eu/
The SUSTAIN project w
as aimed at supporting the implementation of more relevant and effective approaches to teaching about education for sustainable development (ESD) adopting inquiry-based science education (IBSE) methodologies. With the support of the Lifelong Learning programme of the European Union.