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RM@Schools Project
RM@School 4.0 is an innovative program to make science education and careers in raw materials attractive for youngster
Virtually every single thing society consumes ultimately derives from a mine somewhere on earth. Without these raw materials, European citizens would be forced into lives that resemble our ancient ancestors more than the modern world. Metals and minerals not only permeate our daily lives, they provide the material base for many other European business and industrial sectors, including both basic service and high-tech sectors.
It is essential that European citizens understand how European mineral raw materials contribute to their basic needs and improve their quality of life.
The Raw Matters Ambassadors at Schools (RM@Schools) consortium wants to elaborate a strategic planning of dissemination capacity and methodology to improve the image of science & technology in schools for students of 10-19 yrs explaining the value of raw materials while promoting new professional careers in this sector. The best practice examples are used for two educational approaches, one targeting school students in the age of 10 to 13 yrs, the other one for 14-19 yrs students. An active learning is proposed to schools by involving students in experiments with RM-related hands-on educational kits. 14-19 yrs students are also involved in the dissemination of science by using both their native and the English language to became RM Ambassadors themselves (peer to peer education).
The Consortium started in 2016 with 6 partners from Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Hungary, and became 8 in 2017: one more from Germany and another from Austria. Since 2017 the project runs under the umbrella of the Raw Materials Academy.
In 2018 RM@Schools 3.0 became the Flagship project in the Wider Society Learning segment of the EIT Raw Materials and the Consortium welcomed more partners from Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Estonia, Sweden, Slovenia and Finland. Moreover, RM@Schools started also in some Eastern European countries: Poland, Greece, Slovakia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Switzerland and 9 more partners from RM@Schools-ESEE contributed to widen the consortium.
In 2021 Euromines is one of the new consortium partners in this project. RM@School 4.0 is an innovative program to make science education and careers in raw materials attractive for youngster. An active learning is proposed to schools by RM (Raw Materials) ambassadors (experts in some RM-related issues and trained teachers) by involving students in experiments with RM-related hands-on educational kits, in excursions in industries, and in science dissemination activities. The students are asked to become Young RM Ambassadors themselves (science communicators) by creating dissemination products focused on some issue related to RM and /or collaborating with experts in supporting public events.
Local and International Competitions for awarding the best products developed by students, public events as well as an annual European Conference with delegates from European schools (students and teachers) are annually organized despite the Covid-19 crises. These events represent a great oprotunity for exchanging ideas and experiences in the atmosphere of inclusion and collaboration. In addition, teachers are trained to become RM Ambassadors themselves in the future at school and digital tools are developed. All the produced materials are open and accessible online to everyone on Virtual Centre, on-line platform devoted to the project, as well as the best communication materials realised by pupils are uploaded on the website to be shared with a wider public.