This expert seminar was organized by Estonian Academy of Sciences and University of Tartu, supported by Horizon 2020 Twinning project “Addressing Attractiveness of Science Career Awareness” (SciCar). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952470.

SciCar – a science education project – addresses the need to systematically raise the level of expertise among researchers and educators who are involved in science & technology (STEM) education within University of Tartu (UT) and associated institutions, currently seen as ineffective in making science teaching careers attractive and enabling teaching to adopt more relevant context-based approaches.

The project especially addresses, via a Twinning partnership, bringing in the expertise from top-level science education countries – Israel and Finland, particularly focusing on enhancing career awareness, enabling a capable workforce, and on promoting science-related careers. The major outcome is envisaged as a centre of excellence at UT in science education, interacting with all STEM teacher education bodies and the science education community e.g. science centres, science teacher associations.

A major focus is put on (1) reducing the gap between scientist and science educator beliefs in the training emphasis of future STEM-related teachers, (2) the involvement of the science education community in making the teaching profession more attractive, (3) determining key ways & appropriate models for instituting a paradigm change with a view to increase the number of STEM-related teachers, (4) and giving emphasis to competence development in promoting science-related career awareness. The created centre is to become a platform ensuring that science researchers are guided to embrace science education expertise, making the preparation for science-related teaching careers more attractive.

Twinning partners are Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) and University of Helsinki (Finland)

Contact and more information on the project: University of Tartu, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences
Prof. Miia Rannikmäe, coordinator of the SciCar project – miia.rannikmae@ut.ee
Regina Soobard – regina.soobard@ut.ee