© The Authors, LUMEN Conference Center & LUMEN Proceedings.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
15th Edition of the International Conference on Sciences of Education,
Studies and Current Trends in Science of Education, ICSED 2017,
9-10 June 2017, Suceava (Romania)
Studies and Current Trends in
Science of Education
A Point where Science and Research Meet
Young Students and Interested Stakeholders
- The European Researchers’ Night
Gabriel GORGHIU, Ana-Maria Aurelia PETRESCU, Laura Monica
GORGHIU, Mihai BÎZOI
https://doi.org/10.18662/lumproc.icsed2017.21
How to cite: Gorghiu, G. Petrescu, A.- M., Gorghiu, L., M. & Bîzoi, M. (2017). A Point
where Science and Research Meet Young Students and Interested Stakeholders - The
European Researchers’ Night. Clipa (ed.), Studies and Current Trends in Science of
Education (pp. 196-205). Suceava, Romania: LUMEN Proceedings
https://doi.org/10.18662/lumproc.icsed2017.21
https://doi.org/10.18662/lumproc.icsed2017.21
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
A Point where Science and Research Meet Young
Students and Interested Stakeholders - The
European Researchers’ Night
Gabriel, GORGHIU
1
, Ana-Maria Aurelia PETRESCU
2
,
Laura Monica GORGHIU
3
, Mihai BÎZOI
4
Abstract
As already known, one of the most attracting event organized for general public is represented by
the European Researchers’ Night, which targets to bring near Science and Research all the
interested actors, having actually a major coverage in more than 30 countries and almost 300
cities, being organized on the last Friday, in September.On the other hand, this event offers a
good opportunity for disseminating the outputs designed in several projects that have as
objective to promote science and scientific literacy to different target groups, starting from the
young learners, to various stakeholders, less or not involved in research activities. In this
respect, in the frame of the FP7 project called IRRESISTIBLE, in Romania, the
European Researchers’ Night was organized at the National Complex Museum “Curtea
Domnească” Târgovişte (History Museum & Museum of Romanian Police), gathering
scientific demonstrations, interactive presentations, experimental activities and discussions,
but also a dedicated Science exhibition, named: “The World of Nanomaterials and Solar
Energy”. Most of the visitors were young students, but also general public was interested to
participate to this event. The paper illustrates some aspects related to the participation to the
event, but also the feedback recorded from the participants concerning responsible research and
innovation aspects that have to be retrieved in the educational practice.
Keywords: European Researchers’ Night, Responsible Research and
Innovation, non-formal education, nanomaterials, exhibition, demonstration,
IRRESISTIBLE project;
1
Professor Ph.D., Teacher Training Department, ValahiaUniversity Târgovişte, Romania,
ggorghiu@gmail.com.
2
Lecturer Ph.D., Teacher Training Department, ValahiaUniversity Târgovişte,
Romania,anapetrescu2007@yahoo.com.
3
Associate Professor Ph.D., Faculty of Sciences and Arts, ValahiaUniversity Târgovişte,
Romania, lgorghiu@ssai.valahia.ro.
4
Associate Professor Ph.D., Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information
Technology, ValahiaUniversity Târgovişte, Romania, bizoi@ssai.valahia.ro.
Studies and current trends in science of education
197
1. Introduction
In the last years, the “European Researchers’ Night” became one of the
most important events for spreading and disseminating the importance of
science and research for the society. More, it has the role to let the children,
their families and general public know about the researchers’ activities and
the impact of their findings on our daily lives.
The event is clearly promoted in the European Commission
dedicated webpage, being presented as “a unique opportunity to meet
researchers and take part in science activities aiming to showcase both the
fascination of research as a career and its significant societal impact”
(European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/research/researchersnight).
On the other hand, the “European Researchers’ Night” represents a
suitable moment for presenting the results of the projects that promote
science and research to general public, using in many cases museums halls or
their interactive spaces for transferring scientific information, for enriching
the participants’ scientific knowledge, being in this manner decisive for the
spiritual formation of individuals. In this respect, the museum becomes a
knowledge vector, having a major role on educating, presenting, promoting
and receiving of specific values in particular areas.
2. Pedagogical valence of museums
Nowadays, the museums represent real educational sources, either as
non-formal learning environments, or informal ones, proposing a
connection between them, able to vary from continuity, complementarity and
mutual strengthening, to discontinuity, inhibition or opposition between
those elements (Lucas, 1987). But what is important at this level, is that such
continuities or discontinuities activate and impel each other, conducting so
to enlarge and spread knowledge or experiences (Zbuchea, 2006), with the
help of making interventions by using specific didactic strategies (inquiry-
based science education) and related methods (problematization, modeling,
demonstration, case-study).
The pedagogical valence of a museum - as specified by Constantin
Cucoș (2013) - embraced the format of identifying and validating the
strategies that lead to maximize the formative virtues of the museum
environment, having as target to stimulate the interaction - at the educational
level - between museum and school, to train and form specialists, but also
Otilia CLIPA (editor)
198
the general public, for valuing the educational potential brought by this
cultural environment.
The museum education aims, among other issues, to open the
museum for all learners, helping them to understand and conquer new
values. An education carried out in this environment develop the learners’
sensitivity (Ansart, 1991) and help it to develop positive feelings related to
the exposed objects, but also to the existed world.
There are several major objectives of the museum education and
they can be activated function of requests or circumstances (Cucoș, 2013):
- the completive objective - related to the educational objectives and
contents. In this respect, the museum can become an extension of the
school, a place for transferring knowledge and values and an environment
for acquiring competences.
- the applicative objective - the museum becomes an environment
for applications, including also research, experimentation, involvement.
- the customization objective - related to the learning cultural
content. This represents an opportunity for including in the curricula of new
information or formative elements with a more concrete nature, beyond the
general or mandatory curriculum.
- the cultural identity objective - valid for each person, at local or
national level, through knowledge, internalization and assumption of the
social space flagship values, in which the person is about to be integrated.
- the self-discovery objective - through the enhancement of the
provisions or individual interests that do not direct target to school.
As the European Researcher’s Night is organized mainly in museums,
the above-mentioned objectives remain valid to be reached through the
educational activities proposed within this event.
3. Methodology
In two consecutive years (2015 and 2016), the Community of Learners
set up in the frame of the FP7 project called IRRESISTIBLE, organized and
designed educational activities for students, teachers and general public
during the European Researchers’ Night event, organizing scientific
demonstrations, interactive presentations, experimental activities, exhibitions
and discussions at the National Complex Museum “Curtea Domnească”, in
the city of Târgovişte (more precisely at History Museum of Dambovita
County - 2015, and Museum of Romanian Police - 2016).
As the IRRESISTIBLE project was designed to train and educate
both students and teachers concerning Responsible Research and Innovation,
Studies and current trends in science of education
199
through specific learning modules designed for this purpose, the activities
proposed at the event targeted also on underlining several RRI dimensions:
open access and science education (mainly), but also engagement, ethics and gender
equality.
For evaluating the feedback recorded from the participants, related
to the introduction of RRI dimensions in the educational practice, an
analysis was performed on a sample of 100 participants, based on a survey,
in which most of the questions propose a predetermined answering scale
with five steps: strongly disagree / disagree / undecided / agree / strongly agree.
In this paper, it is emphasized the participants’ feedback concerning
two important RRI dimensions: open access/open science and science education. The
results obtained through quantitative methods have been correlated also
with the discussions held with participants, undertaken during the event, and
oriented mostly on specific aspects of the pedagogical methods used for
involving participants in the event activities: problematization, modeling,
demonstration, case-study, targeting on the interactive-active character of
learning. Those methods are particular linked to the interactive and creative
learning - a process of creating meanings concerning the new information and
prior knowledge, the transformation of individual’s cognitive structures as
result of the incorporation of new acquisitions (knowledge, skills and
abilities), by intellectual and psychomotor efforts of building knowledge
(Oprea, 2007).
4. Results and discussions
The first groups of items are in relation to the open access / open science
RRI dimension.
When participants were asked to what extent they would be
interested on being informed about the research findings, their responses
illustrated that most of them (64%) expressed their interest, while 27% are
undecided on how to answer (figure 1). This opinion entitles us to believe
that a large part of the societal members considers useful to correlate
education with research, having public access to scientific research results.
However, 9% from the respondents seemed to be not interested on those
issues, even taking into account the declining interest in science subjects
among young people.
