Dr. Ofer Rimon : Director of the science and technology administration, Israel's MOE

Dr. Ofer Rimon : Director of the science and technology administration, Israel's MOEHagit Yaffe-Wiesel : Intel CAG, Israel

Promoting “a culture of scientists”

A systematic STEM policy change across Israeli education system

Hagit Yaffe-WieselIntel

Maya HalevyMOS

Manon HaranMOS

Dr. Ofer RimonMOE

Allow me to invite you join us To the journey we took in the last several months…

It all began a year ago, in this exact event…We were:

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Current situation : STEM formal education system Solving national issues

The problem: poor achievements in international STEM scoring

MOE solution: a flagship program “STAR” (scientific/technological as reserve)

increase % of students completing matriculations with quality STEM majors by:

Adding more instructional hours to schools

teacher training/having more qualified teachers and

Improving infrastructures to schools

Offering incentives for students

Current situation : STEM formal education systemSolving national issues

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Adding PBL into the formal systemResults of the dialogbetween Intel and MOE

Two elements were added to have comprehensive plan with higher impact:

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Go to cultural change

Developing a culture from bottom up, across the national system

A 3-4 years program

Building a wider infrastructure to ISEF

Open science for all , not only the bright once

Forming a coalition of stakeholders : MOE, municipalities, museums, science centers, industry, and academia

Promoting “a culture of scientists” The industry added value A Campaign to increase youth motivation

Industry to lead a motivational effort via role modeling for student - NEW

Many other different competitions and programs without connection

Intel ISEF in Israel exists 15 years and attracts voluntarily a few hundred teens yearly

What we had in the past (competitions)

In High schools No demand and no benefit for students who did

research projects Only technological schools/major require projects

but the average level is not very high

As a result, only the intrinsic motivated students carry out a research, and only the very good once participate in Intel ISEF

And we receive a lot of PR and governmental attention

In Elementary and Junior High schools PBL is well known but not in massive use Science Fairs are rare in schools level

Why?

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Our objectivesThree official (MOE) main objectives: Expand meaningful project based approaches across schools in Israel

Create an infrastructure to feed ISEF as single formal national fair Israeli students to excel in the international competitions

Our objectives

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Building a national infrastructureImplementation in 4 parallel paths

The national fair is the top of the pyramidThe infrastructure for middle schools and elementary schools was build bottoms up

Building a national Infrastructure:Implementation in 4 parallel paths

School fairsElementary-Middle school-High school

City/Regional fairsElementary-Middle school-High school

Country level fairElementary-Middle school-High school

ISEF

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A three year program – a long term investment

Program roadmap:a long term investment

2011- 2012:developing the program, mapping, building infrastructures and launch pilots

2012-2013: implementation of the pilot phase and first results

2013-2014: expansion (12 big cities, 4 focus subjects)

2014: expanding the program to full scale

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Compliance Identification Internalization

Implementation in 4 parallel paths

Implementation in 4 parallel paths

Systematic formal policy change : school fair requirement (selected grades: 6’th and 10’th)Path 1:

City fair: 3 demonstrating cities (pilot)Path 2:

Country fair Path 3:Supporting programs : improve the quality of projects in the national fairPath 4:

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Path 1 : changing the formal curriculum across the national systemCreated national standards, resources and materials for teachers and student

Path 1: changing the formal curriculumacross the national system

For the teachers: 15 instructional hours added to the

curriculum for PBL Recourses created: exemplary units, topic

suggestions, and evaluation criteria Teacher training Mapping informal STEM centers/

museums /labs to support the projects

For the students: Examples of project ideas “How to write a project” guide

מדיניות

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We selected 3 cities to be a model cities - they held a city fair this year

A local coalition : MOE, municipality, academia, industry and local science centers

The city/regional fair is fed by the excellent school fairs projects at the 3 age levels

We incorporated the international and national standards in this process

Path 2: Establishing city fairs mechanism

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Jerusalem city fair, April 2012 Collaboration of Municipality, MOS, HUJI, local

center

106 projects

60 schools

Hundreds of students celebrating Science

Mayor attendance

Jerusalem city fair - a local example

2011

No city fair

Almost no projects

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Path 3: Country level fair and National fair (ISEF)

Country level fair

Country level fair is fed by the city/regional multiple fairs

Top projects can apply the to international fairs

National level fair

Enjoy a lot of PR and governmental attention

Well established, good reputation

Involvement of Intel volunteers as mentors

short movie about ISEF

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;Path 4: supporting programs to national fair

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“In the Path of Research”opening the gates to academy Intensive 5 day program,

in the university campus

Learning in depth one current academic research , in a university lab

Final event: a competition presenting the research to others

“High tech” team

Focus on the electronic subject

A small team of 12 “electronics stars” students

A "team of excellence" supported with engineers from the High Tech industry (first team: INTEL)

Creating innovative projects

ISEF – national fair – March 2012

Time line

Educator Academy

May 2011

ISEF - national fair

March 2012

city fair -Jerusalem

25.3.12

city fair -Lod

17.5.12

city fair -Beer-Sheba

25.5.12

Country level fair - Jerusalem

5.6.12

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outcomes

Cultural changes started Top down and Bottom up aligning all stakeholder to work in a coalition Transition from compliance to identification

Summary

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The result: Impact on the national system on Israeli teachers and students

MOE added critical elements to national program Policy change Budget Declaration (ISEF became 1 of 5 official competitions)

Programs implementations Quantity - opening science to all: City/country fair Quality: Support programs

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Key takeaways for other Countries

Key takeaways for other Countries

How can this be applicablein your country?

What are the takeaways you can adopt?

Promoting “a culture of scientists”

Thank youQuestions?

[email protected]

About cultural change

There are 3 stages of cultural change/impact:

Based on rewards Vs. sanctions

Motivation is self utility

Short term and shallow

Compliance

* H. Kalman

Internalization Internalization of the value

Motivation is intrinsic

Long term and deep

Identification Understanding of the value for me

Motivation is to be like the influencer

Mid. term and not stable enough

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