News
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Why is science literacy central to societal and economic development?
The President of the International Science Council, Daya Reddy, gave the Opening Address at the World Conference on Science Literacy (WCSL), Beijing, China with the focus of "Science Literacy for Sustainable Development". Stressing that a scientifically literate population that can engage with evidence and make thought-out decisions is central to societal and economic development, Reddy challenged the scientific community to take responsibility to rethink how to communicate effectively to non-scientists, defend the scientific method and be creative and compelling in articulating the social, political, economic and cultural values of science.“Scientists have a role that goes beyond being mere brokers of scientific information. Scientists also have roles in the public discourse, often as advocates.”
Reddy used the opportunity to announce Advancing Science as a Global Public Good: Action Plan 2019 - 2021 [https://council.science/actionplan] setting out the ISC’s activities over the next two and a half years. The most important purpose is to form a practical framework and work towards their vision of science as a global public good.
The Plan, which is an ambitious programme of much-needed initiatives, will position the ISC as an impactful global voice for science in four domains:
- The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,
- The Digital Revolution,
- Science in Policy and Public Discourse and
- The Evolution of Science and Science Systems
Advancing Science as a Global Public Good ISC Action Plan
More information on the World Conference on Science Literacy (WCSL), 10-18 October 2019 bringing together over 600 Chinese and international guests from five international organizations, 28 countries and 35 national science organizations.
Photo Credit: MAGDA TURZANSKA / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
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Children for Health: 100 health messages now in 18 languages
Congratulations to Children for Health who have announced that their 100 health messages booklets are now available in EIGHTEEN languages.Each PDF booklet has ten sets of 10 messages for children to learn and share in the following topics:
- Early Childhood Development
- Coughs, Colds & Other Serious Illnesses
- Immunization
- Malaria
- Diarrhoea
- Water, Sanitation & Hygiene
- Nutrition & Growth
- Intestinal Worms
- Injury Prevention
- HIV & AIDS
In addition to the sets of 10 messages there is additional content on ideas for activities that can be done with children to help them understand, learn and share these key messages.
All materials can be viewed online and/or downloaded without cost from the Children for Health website.
Assamese, Bengali, Gujerati, Hindi, Kannada, Khasi, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and in English.
Download any of the 18 different language versions of the materials.
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The exclusionary power of Article Processing Charges (APCs)
Humberto Debat’s (@humbertodebat) poster at #Force2019 demonstrated the exclusionary power of APCs, and how APC waivers fail to provide researchers worldwide with the dignity of equal participation in the global research system. -
OA Week 2019: Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge
NIDA believes that OA will promote greater global access, production and dissemination of information for equitable and sustainable development. Read about our strategic focus on advancing equitable Open Access (OA) policies.OA Week 2019, is particularly relevant being dedicated to issues of inclusivity of access/participation in scholarly communications under the theme "Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge”.
Follow the OA events taking place during the week. NIDA will highlight particularly interesting efforts in the field through Facebook and Twitter
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Science on Stage Festival 2019!
Every two years, Science on Stage Europe brings together science teachers from all over Europe to exchange best practice teaching ideas and concepts with passionate colleagues from more than 30 countries.The aim is to improve the quality of STEM teaching by:
- enabling science teachers to exchange teaching concepts and experience
- inspiring and enthusing science teachers
- informing teachers about wider scientific research
The ultimate goal is to improve teaching in order to enable more students to gain the skills they need for a challenging future and encourage them to consider a career in science, ICT or engineering.
The Festival is the culmination of national events in the participating countries. Following the principle “from teachers for teachers” the festival is also a starting point for a wide range of national follow-up activities as the best teaching concepts find their way to teacher trainings and teaching materials after the event.
Each edition of Science on Stage Festival is held in a different country. Portugal and the municipality of Cascais are the hosts 31 October - 3 November but tweets of projects are now being added daily to @SonS2019 and links to videos to Facebook.
Some examples from this week include:
- SensoryMath-Lapbook, Ukraine: a visual and tactile support helps children with autism to stay focused
- Neo and Geo, Spain: students design and mount a radio connected satellite station with low-cost materials!
- “Oh that gravity”, Greece: the result of a cooperation of three teachers and their schools. In this project, students learn about the concept of gravity.
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Digital Green: a global development organization empowering smallholder farmers
Digital Green is a global development organization that empowers smallholder farmers to lift themselves out of poverty by harnessing the collective power of technology and grassroots-level partnerships.Founded in 2006 as a project of Microsoft Research to test if there was a role for technology in small-scale agricultural systems, they partnered with their first NGO partner, Green Foundation and became an independent non-profit in 2008.
They began by working with frontline extension workers, training them to produce and share videos featuring local farmers. This led to significant increases in information sharing, best-practice adoption rates and, above all, sustainable development at scale.
They undertake rigorous data analysis and farmer feedback to continually challenge their assumptions and identify new ways that technology coupled with local knowledge can support development in agriculture, food and nutrition security.
To date (2019) they have worked with more than 1.5 million smallholder farmers – eighty percent of whom are women – and have trained approximately 15,000 frontline workers in digital extension in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and feel they are just getting started!
View the full Digital Green profile on NIDA.
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SDG Global Action (ACT4SDGS), 20 - 30 September 2019
The Global Week of Action for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – or SDG Action Week – provides an opportunity to highlight how libraries and related information access services are contributing to make development happen.Supported by the United Nations and major civil society networks engaged in delivering the SDGs the goal of ACT4SDGS is to encourage actions around the world focused on advancing the SDGs, from raising awareness to practical delivery.
IFLA has produced a short guide to the Action Week, including ideas on how you can get involved and get your actions registered. Find out more in their guide ‘Get into SDG Action Week’ . You can also register your actions through IFLA’s Partner Page providing a great opportunity to put information activities on the map.
Join the global action and add your activity directly to the global map of all SDG actions.
#ACT4SDGS
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Ocean Literacy: 2019 Global Ocean Science Education (GOSE) Workshop
The GOSE Workshop 2019 will be held from November 13-15 in Washington, DC. Specific Workshop goals include:- bringing together the ocean science, education, policy, and business/industry sectors;
- fostering the integration of research results from the seabed mapping and ocean observing communities into education resources for enhanced ocean literacy and decision making; and,
- identifying business and industry needs that will lead to the development of an international certificate course for business leaders and policymakers.
History of the GOSE Workshops
Previous GOSE Workshops have identified and built consensus related to three major priorities for international collaborative ocean science education efforts:
- The Ocean and Human Health, including Coastal Resiliency;
- The Ocean’s Role in Climate Change and the Effect of Climate Change on Ocean Systems;
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- Biodiversity, including Food Security & Fisheries.
The 2017 conference was dedicated to Ocean Literacy, with development of the Ocean Literacy Network and provision of a wide range of activities and resources available from the website.
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Learning made fun with science and dance: inspiring women share their talents in Zambia
Lubuto Library Partners in Zambia was delighted to host Samantha Hyde, formerly the Director of Education of the Colorado Ballet, for a 3-week internship in July to work with Lubuto’s early childhood programmes.Co-facilitated by Brendah Mkandawire, Lubuto’s Family Literacy Coordinator, Samantha and Brendah enabled kids to explore their own styles of creative movement, conduct colour- mixing experiments, make rice “dance” with baking soda, and develop some dancing of their own during themed story-times!
Samantha reports that it was an experience of mutual learning: “One of the most rewarding parts was working directly with Brendah and learning from her. We both brought activity ideas to the table, tried them together with kids, and made decisions on what to include in the curriculum. Watching Brendah get as excited about the ‘magic milk’ experiment as me helped to form a connection right from the start…. We both learned a great deal from one another.”
Brendah and Samantha jointly developed a written early childhood curriculum, focused on music, movement, and scientific inquiry for use in future programming and training.
View news article: Lubuto Library Partners
The work of Lubuto Library Partners spans sectors, including health, education, OVCY support, arts and culture and technology, with a particular emphasis placed on programming that responds to the needs of the most vulnerable.
- Girls
- Homeless and street children
- Rural and isolated children
- Out-of-school children
- Deaf children
- Children affected by AIDS
- Young mothers
- Babies and young children
- Children with disabilities
- Communities and families
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Open Learning Exchange Nepal (OLE Nepal) develops two new initiatives
OLE Nepal, a social benefit organization dedicated to enhancing education quality and access through the integration of technology in classrooms has recently embarked on two new projects:Game development for middle school maths and science
MIT has recently awarded a grant to OLE including the time of two MIT students working in Nepal for a summer internship to share experiences on game-based learning. In particular, developing new games for middle school math and science subjects that are now being prototyped and tested with students through the e-paath programme.
Digital EGR
OLE Nepal has partnered with ONGD-FNEL, Luxembourg for a 5 year programme developing interactive children’s stories and digital learning games to support early grade reading in Nepali. The idea is to help children learn how to read and write in Nepali through fun stories with familiar characters and environment. Currently, six stories with various games are in development. The team is also working on creating original stories and artwork for the project.
All OLE resources can be downloaded free of charge
Learn More about:
E-Paath - resources available in Nepali, Chepang and English and accessed online from OLE Nepal’s free digital library, E-Pustakalaya. It can also be downloaded and used for free.
E-Pustakalaya - an extensive free and open digital library with thousands of age-appropriate books and educational resources, course content and reference materials.
Teacher Training Programmes - a three-stage training programme to support teachers with little or no prior experience with technology to gain the skills and confidence necessary to improve teaching-learning process and enhance education.
Technology Infrastructure - deploying technology infrastructure in under-resourced rural schools is not an easy task. OLE seeks innovative solutions based on low-power, low-cost and durable technology that fit the requirements of rural schools.
OLE's interactive digital content E-Paath, and digital library, E-Pustakalaya, can also be accessed in Nepali.