April 16, 2023
Video courtesy of Romanian School in Eindhoven, from an event that took place at Eindhoven Library in March 2023
When recently checking in with Vlad Niculescu-Dincă, the head of the Romanian School in Eindhoven, we heard back, "Sorry for the delay, I was away at a conference in Romania to share our efforts to promote science in our Romanian school!" Vlad is not only the head of the Romanian School, but he is also coordinator of its science course -- a course that more heritage language education programs could consider offering. Check out Vlad's fascinating LinkedIn post about his conference workshop. (Not a member of LinkedIn? We have pasted a copy of the post for you below.)
Activities that promote science and technology education in the Eindhoven/Brainport region are undoubtedly going to be welcome, no matter what language they are in. The demand for highly skilled "STEAM" workers here is only growing stronger.
An example of a language and literary activity that includes a link to science: On June 3, the Romanian School in Eindhoven is organizing at the Eindhoven Library "A bridge to childhood," which will include a special session about the Romanian engineer Anghel Saligny and the bridge from Cernavoda he engineered. A 3D printer will be brought to the library where the children will see how a rivet is built, the technique used by Saligny in the construction of the bridge.
Congratulations to the Romanian School of Eindhoven on their inspiring work, and thank you for the tips! We are fortunate to have such a proactive heritage language program in our network.
This HLE Network news post itself has circled back to the Romanian academic community in this Facebook post on April 30, which you can enjoy if you can read Romanian or use auto-translate.
LinkedIn post
How to improve science promotion? What can governmental authorities, journalists, researchers, teachers, and citizens do? What programs and projects can they implement? How can we help children and students - from preschool to high school - like or appreciate science?
We discussed these questions and many others within the “Promo-science” Workshop (https://lnkd.in/eA9WfHjV) we organized this week within the Smart Diaspora 2023 conference in TIMISOARA 2023 - European Capital of Culture.
We delivered a summary of our ideas and recommendations (see below) in the presence of Romanian governmental authorities, education managers, academics, fellow researchers, university professors, school teachers and students.
I am glad and honored to have worked together with Marius Matache, Anca Nemuc and Marin Popescu to organize this workshop.
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Ideas and recommendations from the “Promo-science” team.
For governmental authorities
Funding and organizing (many more) fun and insightful events dedicated to the promotion of STEAM disciplines. Involving for this institutes, schools, universities, and technology businesses at various levels.
Locally, events for the whole family: “Science Family Days”, “Researchers’ Night”, “Science Festivals”.
Nationally: designating each year a “Science Capital”.
Specifically for rural communities, funding several mobile labs and staff, for doing fun experiments (“Science Busses”) and showing the value of science for improving their quality of life.
Renovating and refunding the local libraries infrastructures as knowledge hubs (STEAM labs).
For research and innovation authorities
Dedicated calls for science promotion and the popularization of STEAM disciplines.
Inclusion of research communication as mandatory package in research projects and the eligibility of the specific spending for science communication.
For education authorities
Mentorship programs: involving schools, universities and institutes so that professors, researchers and students can become models for children and pupils, especially in rural environments and small communities.
Science journalism: Setting up courses for journalists and communication students to professionalize science journalism.
Organizing events for trust building between researchers and science journalists.
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Many thanks to Octavian Madalin Bunoiu, Marilen Pirtea, Adrian Curaj, Ministerul Cercetarii, Inovarii si Digitalizarii, the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding - UEFISCDI and all the institutional organizers of the conference, and the West University of Timisoara for hosting us in the lovely city of TIMISOARA 2023 - European Capital of Culture.