Science in Schools: case study from Serbia dr Zorana Kurbalija Novicic Tamara Pantelic Centre for Science and Art Promotion Serbia

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM,SERBIA elementary and high schools students teachers Not-up-to date equipment 30 students/class 300EUR average salary/ teacher Theoretically based curricula 3.3% VAT The frame of implementation of science in schools-Serbian scenario SCIENCE IN SERBIA researchers -16 Universities -15 Institutes 0.34% VAT Semi-closed scientific community Low motivation among researchers No-existence of institutional coverage

Consequences: present status Students are forced (due to very rigid school system and not-up-to-date curricula) to learn only facts without getting functional knowledge which they will be able to use in solving practical real-life problems Disinterest of young people to gain new knowledge or to implement some newly acquired skills into function (to solve some practical problem) Young people shows lack of self-confidence and is not ready to get involved into a labor market Young people also do not show any interest in pursuing academic careers. -The situation has deteriorated because of the economic and financial crisis followed by high unemployment rate (26,5% among the youth until 30 yrs of age) and increased public debt of a country. These economic problems, combined with corruption and labour unrest, are the reasons why more and more young educated people possessing knowledge and technical skills prefer to emigrate or to continue their studies abroad (especially in EU countries) and not return, thus effectively leaving Serbia

Our action -main ideas We are maintained set of actions which are meant to improve a quality of education system through implementation of innovative educational models into rigid and robust education platform presented in Serbia The focus will be moved from learning the facts with an aim to memorize, to learning functional links between facts with an aim to understand the causalities between them. In that way the student will be able to use the knowledge in order to solve problems and to create new solutions. The better education system will produce the high quality students with armed with functional knowledge, self-esteem, skills and potential to be involved in competitive conditions in STEM field. In our opinion, such approach will consequently increase the transit from STEM academia to entrepreneurship. The main question that we aim to answer are: How to attract young students to STEM?, How to create a functional knowledge? How to implement acquired functional knowledge in solving problems?

Specific objectives To make scientific and technological careers (STEM) more attractive to young students To start an implement of proposed innovative platforms and methods in educational curricula and monitoring of implementation and outcomes To make young people work with open-access educational resources and become familiar with the use of science media as a way of informal learning To foster sustainable and cross-cutting interaction between the different interested partners: government, education system, research institutions and other establishments, industry, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). To make a link between functional knowledge and final knowledge application To foster the entrepreneurial way of thinking Start to create conditions that foster serendipity in education. - To avoid the brain-drain talents from SEE region - To acknowledge relevance of gender balance and dimension in research

Methodology ran by individual enthusiast!

To conclude… Strong network of researchers involved in science promotion (500 researcher, 50 research institutions) Science in regular school curricula dependent of teacher interest in science Children are highly motivated to do the science experiments but has no possibilities except during different outreach activities (Festivals, Science days, Researchers Night) No institutional coverage for science involvement in schools Presently running a Researchers Night EU Funded since 2011 Science festival Belgrade since 2007 Submitted project under call HORIZON elementary and high school teachers under ODS programs and Tempus and Erasmus projects

Thank you for attention!