Hypatia

Getting young people enthusiastic for STEM: It’s not as hard as adults think it is –This is the first sentence of one of the blogs produced by our teenagers’ editorial board. It summarizes the need and potential to work together with teenagers.
Hypatia is an EU Horizon 2020 funded project that addresses the challenge of kick starting a collaboration between teenagers, museums, schools, research institutions, gender experts, policy makers and industry, in order to engage 13-18 year old teenagers in STEM. To achieve this, the project has developed the communication campaign “Expect Everything”. Building on the results achieved by the campaign "Science: it's a girl thing!", the campaign Expect Everything targets teenagers and brings them into the spotlight, they will have to organize themselves in editorial boards coordinated by science centres in 14 European countries to produce content for our website and social media.


The project embraces a new approach to gender inclusiveness based on the understanding that gender is more than the result of a biological sex; it is also a social construct. Hypatia encourages all learners, regardless of their biological sex, to value their own experiences and interests and reflect on their relevance for science learning. This practice will raise awareness of the needs of marginalized groups of learners, irrespective of their biological sex.

One of the key instruments Hypatia uses is a modular toolkit that groups activities and gender and facilitation guidelines for engaging youngsters in a gender-inclusive way. Drawn from existing European good practices, the toolkit includes a wide range of innovative hands-on activities: workshops, speed dating, card games, debate scenarios, etc. They are aimed at teenagers and can be implemented by teachers but also informal learning organizations, researchers and industry. They include both activities and facilitation and gender guidelines. The first modules will be ready in October 2016.

Science centres and museums have put in place hubs to gather different organizations and individuals that are crucial in advancing gender inclusiveness in STEM. They consist of informal educational institutions, schools, local, regional, and national authorities, research institutes and industries, gender experts, parents and teenagers. The hubs are crucial in the development and implementation of these modules. They provide a sustainable basis for these activities to be carried out in the long term and allow the project impact to multiply. During the first 6 months of 2017, Head teachers have the opportunity of actively engaging with the project in the seminars that will be organized across Europe to learn but above all to exchange and bring in their expertise into the project.

Of course, Events will take place in science centres and museums and specifically focus on engaging teenagers in a variety of future careers related to science.

COORDINATOR
NEMO Science Museum

PARTNERS
Bloomfield Sicence Museum Jerusalem, Bureau Q, Ecsite, Experimentarium, Fondation l’Oreal, Museo Nazionale de la Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci (MUST), PPG University of Copenhagen, Universcience , Ahaa, Science Gallery, UK Association for Science and Dsvcovery Centers, , Experyment Gdnya. Centre for the Promotion of Science, La Caixa Foundation, Sciecne Center Netzwerk, Tekniken Hus.