Teachers 2 Teachers 2

Carlos Cunha is a Physics and Chemistry teacher at Escola Secundária Dom Manuel Martins,  upper secondary school in Setúbal, Portugal.

He has a thorough experience in promoting hands-on and inquiry oriented learning. He was involved in several projects on Astronomy and Physics teaching; he is also a member of the Scientix expert panel and a pilot teacher in the ECB/inGenious project.

Explaining his teaching credo, Carlos says: "I really do think that experimental and inquiry based teaching is the best way to get a meaningful learning, specially when using simple toys or day-to-day objects to illustrate physical phenomena."

Carlos is a Chemical engineer with a master degree in Laboratory Physics, Teaching and History of Physics. He has also received further teacher training in programmes organised by CERN, European Space Agency and other international research institutions. 

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Summary of the 2nd Teacher ODE Summary of the 2nd Teacher ODE

The second teacher Online Discussion Event took place in the period 19-21 September 2012 and was moderated by Carlos Cunha. During the three day event teachers were invited to discuss which European and national science education project results the participating teachers had knowledge of. It was also discussed how appropriate and applicable the teachers felt the resources and methods are when it comes to using them in practice.

Bellow you find a summary of the discussed themes each day of the event.

Day 1
The first day focussed on the STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Maths) education projects the participating teachers knew of.
Some teachers mentioned that they didn´t know about most of the projects mentioned by the moderator but highlighted other projects in which they had participated. Others had participated in some of the highlighted projects but said that in some countries, the language is a barrier for the participation of students.

Day 2
On this second day, teachers where invited to tell how appropriated project result are at explain how the methods/tools can help teachers reach the goals of their teaching plan more efficiently.
During the discussion teachers said they usually search for videos, applications, experiments and presentations that can help them on their day-to-day teaching. Some projects and sites were mentioned as sources of good materials, such as CLIMANTICA and Xplore Health, Cosmos, EU-HOU, ITEC, etc. When it was discussed if the materials they find from project results are the right materials - it was mentioned that the main difficulty most teachers face, is to choose among the vast amount of information available on the internet.

Day 3
The last day teachers were asked to tell about the tools and methods from science education project that had been useful for their teaching practice by giving concrete examples.
Many teachers mentioned resources they had found on the internet for teaching. Teachers mentioned that these resources are "fresh, immediate, with excellent diagrams and drawings. However it was said that "the importance to have supporting guidelines for teachers and also training to make sure teachers are prepared to handle the resources" is essential when using new resources. It was also stressed that guidelines developed by other science teachers improves the quality of the guidelines.

Teachers ODE 2 Teachers ODE 2
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RE: Questions
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Questions
2012-09-21 11:52
Good morning.

When you find results/resources that can be used in your practice – do you always feel the results are useful and inspiring for your work? If you cannot think of any project results, you are welcome to take inspiration in the list of projects mentioned during day 1.
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RE: Questions
2012-09-21 12:08 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
I often use the good practices apllied On SPICE project, to teach my students. Some of these parctices are very good, and they are tested practices.

The report of this project is also a good source of information on IBL processes and methodology.

Resources of both Xperimania I and II are also ready to use and very inspiring: give some excellent ideas that are the base for experimental class.

Any other examples?
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RE: Questions
2012-09-21 12:10 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
Good morning:

Online activities often give very good results. The tool is attractive for students. They are fresh, immediate, with excellent diagrams and drawings. In Biology, my subject, they are interactive with feedback, most of them. They are even selfsseassed.
Global projects make things much easier.
The limits or difficulties for the teacher are in handling the media. I should learn a lot about this!!
Flag Flag
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 12:44 as a reply to marisa castiñeira.
marisa castiñeira:
Good morning:

Online activities often give very good results. The tool is attractive for students. They are fresh, immediate, with excellent diagrams and drawings. In Biology, my subject, they are interactive with feedback, most of them. They are even selfsseassed.
Global projects make things much easier.
The limits or difficulties for the teacher are in handling the media. I should learn a lot about this!!


Good example of Biology resources that are useful for teachers are the virtual experiments and games that have been developed in the context of Xplore Health. One example is the module on Skin Cancer: Xplore Health Skin Cancerhttp://www.xplorehealth.eu/en/students/skin-cancer-exposed. The module proposes a game where students have to detect suspect moles and a virtual experiment to investigate a suspect skin growth.

I agree with Marisa about the importance to have supporting guidelines for teachers and also training to make sure teachers are prepared to handle the resources.

In the Xplore Health project, there are lesson plans, tables describing the tools with pedagogical objectives and ideas on how to integrate them in the teaching. Xplore Health resources for educatorshttp://www.xplorehealth.eu/en/resources-for-educators

Many other projects developed this kind of supporting guidelines for teachers to provide guidance to teachers on how to use the resources. Here is another example from the Nanoyou project: Nanoyou teachers guidelineshttp://nanoyou.eu/en/nano-educators/teachers-guide.html?view=alphacontent

What do you think about these type of teachers' guidelines? Do you think it increase the chances that teachers uses the results (teaching tools & resources) of projects?
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RE: Questions
2012-09-21 13:23 as a reply to Maite Debry.
Well, the guides are always useful. But I want to say that I learn best by doing daily!
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RE: Questions
2012-09-21 14:05 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
Have you used new methods/resources in your teaching from European or national projects?
How do you classify and rate the information you achieve? Is it helpfull?
Quality is, on your opinion good?
Flag Flag
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 15:00 as a reply to Maite Debry.
I participated in the project NANOYOU but also in other projects such as Discover and Greenwave. All support materials are very useful. Also helped me a lot the positive examples of activities undertaken by other fellow participants in the same projects.
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RE: Questions
2012-09-21 15:01 as a reply to Maite Debry.
Good morning,
Related with the Guidelines, sometimes the resources need to be explained by a science teacher. on the contrary some resources are easy to use. For example, in Our School we try to introduce, not in a science class, just in class called tutoria(where students can improve student skills, behavior and selfcare) topics like skin cancer with the Xplore Health page.
In this example the resources can be used by not science teachers. They are easy to understand . Therefore, sometimes we think in science teachers to disseminate some science messages and some resources are easy enough for every teacher.
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RE: Questions
2012-09-21 17:28 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
Hello Carlos,
I am very glad to work with you Maite and other collegues as Dorina Marin.
I worked in Nanoyou,Nanochannels and inGenious projects with my students.
We made Facebook pages where I posted our opinions,questions for students ,teachers and parents or others who were interested in our projects.
For Nanochannles we have 225 members and for inGenious we have 186 members on Facebook.
Also we work on twitter and linkedin where we told about our projects.
So, many students and teachers learned about our projects and about activities undertaken in these projects.
My students worked with many pleasure with materials from Nanoyou project.
Also we were glad to work in inGenoius and Nanochannles because they found new and interesting methods for learning because ,before that ,my students didn't used online learning resources.
Flag Flag
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 17:57 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
What is the information that you want to receive when projects results are communicated to you either online, on paper or in life events?
What are the main elements that inspire you to use a method, a tool or a resource in science education?
Flag Flag
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 19:33 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
Using methods based on practical action, interactive, apply everything new that I learned in training continue training.
 Students are excited to have the opportunity to work on projects, ingenious platform and on other platforms and I applied what I posted on wkispaces. The information obtained is important for improving both teacher and students.
Flag Flag
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 22:27 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
Carlos Cunha:
Good morning.

When you find results/resources that can be used in your practice – do you always feel the results are useful and inspiring for your work? If you cannot think of any project results, you are welcome to take inspiration in the list of projects mentioned during day 1.


Hello all,
I usually try to use as much fun and inspiring activities as I can in my lessons to motivate students and raise their interest in science. I often use online resources from variety of national websites in the UK such ashttp://www.echalk.co.uk/, http://teachers.guardian.co.uk/, http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resources/, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/, http://www.channel4learning.com/. They offer lots of free interactive games and activities as well as interesting video clips. In general, the activities are easy to implement and some of them they have complete lesson plans. The students enjoy learning using these tools either individually using laptops or as class activity using interactive whiteboard and they benefit a lot from the immediate feedback or self-assessment. However I find searching for the relevant activity that fits the lesson or the topic I’m teaching is time consuming and sometimes in our busy schedules it can be a problem. In my school we share and disseminate any tried good projects and activities.
Flag Flag
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 22:30 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
Carlos Cunha:
Have you used new methods/resources in your teaching from European or national projects?
How do you classify and rate the information you achieve? Is it helpfull?
Quality is, on your opinion good?

I participated in many projects such Ingenious (European) and Go4set/EDT (national UK).
The InGenious practices that I chose (Superbenz workshop, Sensor adventure and Skool Football) were fun, challenging, useful and relevant to my students. The teacher guidance was generally very helpful and easy to follow.
Regarding Go4set/ EDT I have entered 2 teams of 6 students last year in STEM projects competition provided by Go4set. The information and support we had were very good and the students learned a lot from this experience. During 10 weeks the students developed their investigative and scientific skills as well their team work and interpersonal skills. The constant feedback they had from me as teacher and the engineer who was the mentor of the project was extremely beneficial for the students. And I have to say winning the competition was just the icing on the cake.
Flag Flag
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 22:31 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
Carlos Cunha:
What is the information that you want to receive when projects results are communicated to you either online, on paper or in life events?
What are the main elements that inspire you to use a method, a tool or a resource in science education?

As a teacher, I would be interested in any project that has clear and simple step by step guidance. Also it would be helpful if we can have a variety of differentiated resources that can suit students with different abilities. Also, I would be really interested in activities that they are tackling global and current issues. From the student perspective, I think they will be very interested in activities with interactive aspects, attractive graphics, and achievable targets where they can apply and enhance their knowledge and skills. In addition a good practice or project must provide an opportunity for instant feedback to the students.
Flag Flag
RE: For you Carlos Urgently
2012-10-08 22:02 as a reply to Carlos Cunha.
hello Carlos
It' s me Lidia , helped me with the departure of Istanbul .., I want to talk with you urgently,
I'll leave my e-mail
lidiaristea2004@yahoo.com
THK
Flag Flag
Latest posts Latest posts
RE: For you Carlos Urgently
2012-10-08 22:02
hello Carlos
It' s me Lidia , helped me with the departure of Istanbul .., I want to talk with you urgently,
I'll leave my e-mail
lidiaristea2004@yahoo.com
THK
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 22:31
Carlos Cunha:
What is the information that you want to receive when projects results are communicated to you either online, on paper or in life events?
What are the main elements that inspire you to use a method, a tool or a resource in science education?

As a teacher, I would be interested in any project that has clear and simple step by step guidance. Also it would be helpful if we can have a variety of differentiated resources that can suit students with different abilities. Also, I would be really interested in activities that they are tackling global and current issues. From the student perspective, I think they will be very interested in activities with interactive aspects, attractive graphics, and achievable targets where they can apply and enhance their knowledge and skills. In addition a good practice or project must provide an opportunity for instant feedback to the students.
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 22:30
Carlos Cunha:
Have you used new methods/resources in your teaching from European or national projects?
How do you classify and rate the information you achieve? Is it helpfull?
Quality is, on your opinion good?

I participated in many projects such Ingenious (European) and Go4set/EDT (national UK).
The InGenious practices that I chose (Superbenz workshop, Sensor adventure and Skool Football) were fun, challenging, useful and relevant to my students. The teacher guidance was generally very helpful and easy to follow.
Regarding Go4set/ EDT I have entered 2 teams of 6 students last year in STEM projects competition provided by Go4set. The information and support we had were very good and the students learned a lot from this experience. During 10 weeks the students developed their investigative and scientific skills as well their team work and interpersonal skills. The constant feedback they had from me as teacher and the engineer who was the mentor of the project was extremely beneficial for the students. And I have to say winning the competition was just the icing on the cake.
RE: Questions
2012-09-21 22:27
Carlos Cunha:
Good morning.

When you find results/resources that can be used in your practice – do you always feel the results are useful and inspiring for your work? If you cannot think of any project results, you are welcome to take inspiration in the list of projects mentioned during day 1.


Hello all,
I usually try to use as much fun and inspiring activities as I can in my lessons to motivate students and raise their interest in science. I often use online resources from variety of national websites in the UK such ashttp://www.echalk.co.uk/, http://teachers.guardian.co.uk/, http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resources/, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/, http://www.channel4learning.com/. They offer lots of free interactive games and activities as well as interesting video clips. In general, the activities are easy to implement and some of them they have complete lesson plans. The students enjoy learning using these tools either individually using laptops or as class activity using interactive whiteboard and they benefit a lot from the immediate feedback or self-assessment. However I find searching for the relevant activity that fits the lesson or the topic I’m teaching is time consuming and sometimes in our busy schedules it can be a problem. In my school we share and disseminate any tried good projects and activities.