Stiinta Altfel - Fun Science

The online project “Stiinta Altfel - Fun Science” brings together science, technology and the online environment. A YouTube channel named “Profesorii Trasniti - “Nutty Scientists” has been developed for disseminating short movies revealing scientific competences and experiments on different scientific subjects in the fields of physics and chemistry. By this project, a wider audience can benefit from this learning material, especially pupils from schools not equipped with laboratories.

The aim of the project is the science communication in a wider local community, helping the school to reach a wider audience with practical aspects of science.
It is very difficult to reach all the young people especially those in the rural area and not all the schools are equipped with functional laboratories. As a solution, the online project “Stiinta Altfel - Fun Science” brings together science, technology and the online environment, using the YouTube channel entitled “Profesorii Trasniti - “Nutty Scientists”, developed by the Fascination Association.
The project started as a suggestion of young people and it aims to fulfil their needs of better understanding science lessons and observing the experiments that they don’t usually make in their classroom. That’s why “Stiinta Altfel - Fun Science” includes physics lessons for class VI and class VII, chemistry lessons for class VII, aligned with the national curriculum.
The main objectives are:
The Production and dissemination of short movies revealing scientific competences and experiments on different scientific subjects as recommended by the national curriculum.
The production of 22 episodes, 10 regarding physics for the 6th grade and 12 regarding chemistry for the 7th grade in the 2019-2020 school year, with a funny approach of science, can be used both by children for their better understanding, and by teachers as a didactic process.

The Understanding of Physics and Chemistry related content will always be useful as the science and chemistry lessons will always be an important part of the school curriculum and there will always be eager children that could benefit from the outcome of this project.

“Stiinta Altfel - Fun Science” project was born from the proven popularity of YouTube channels. We identified our target audience in social media especially on YouTube. In order to gain notoriety, we have attracted young known youtubers.
Therefore, some methodological steps were developed.
Two science teachers (chemistry and physics) joined the working team. They supervised the scientific truth and they conducted experiments during the video shoot.
The main characters were the young people and two “Nutty Scientists” played by actors or the teachers themselves, when necessary.
A valuable step was the Integration of the dramatic art in science exposure.
Young people, already famous and appreciated on YouTube, were offered the role of ambassadors the project.

Smart Point Consulting is the sponsor partner. The sponsorship is offered on a yearly base.

After 7 months of online existence the project registered 53186 views and a lot of positive feedback from all over the country regarding the utility of this project during school hours.

Acting and vlogging are very suitable ingredients in science communication for young people.

The influence of technology in the educational system in general and of vlogging in particular, has a growing effect on the learning process, as the use of technology and new media is a part of the complex competences that educators are developing with their students. With the help of this project, teachers can enrich their didactic process.

The combination of vlogging and acting elements with the purpose of facilitating scientific communication.

Usually the young people are enabled to be science communicators using demonstration methods and performing hands-on laboratory work for viewers, with the help of the organisers and the teachers or scientists, after a proper previous preparation and understanding of the theoretical concepts.

The script reaches the most suitable partner for the project, according to proposed content. Changes are made according to the improvement suggestions of the designated partners and, in the end, the final product is achieved.

The whole organising team as well as the researchers, teachers and young people have to work together, to learn from each other in order to deliver a final product that really helps the targeted group to enhance the understanding of scientific contents and to be experienced users of those concepts both within the school and in everyday life.

The content and the terminology are intentionally very usual in order to be easily understood, so the concepts can target any group represented by people interested in science, regardless of their social and ethnic background, gender, migration background or disadvantaged physical or social background.

The project considers ethical aspects regarding on one hand, the content of the online material being in accordance with the academic and scientific ethic, reasons and responsibilities in science, and on the other hand, the young people's rights, as well as the Romanian legislation for conducting online activities for and with young people.

The activities reveal a complex mix of history content with science and math concepts.

The practical competences of the theoretical concepts are developed by identifying and highlighting the use of the content in everyday life.

Each partner and team member have a specific role and every partner is valued.

The project involves children from the Romanian educational system and the activities reveal suitable content for the same type of educational system.

The important aspects of the project are a joint decision making by all members of the working team.

The project is supervised by the science teachers or researchers and the educational partners Fun Science Romania and Da Vinci Kids.

“Stiinta Altfel - Fun Science” project is based on the use of technology and the online environment like smart devices and the internet.

Some of the partners have an advisory role and some an executive role with both sides having a good cooperation and a fruitful outcome.

Smart Point Consulting is the company that sponsored the project. Da Vinci Kids, Fun Science Romania, Asociatia Universitatea Copiilor (Children's University) - UniCo and University of Bucharest are educational partners of the project providing video resources and project know-how.

Young people are empowered to get in touch with the content that during the formal teaching might be insufficient for a proper understanding. This project offers young people the opportunity to have a clearer image of the scientific content and to improve the grades or the quality of the learning process.
The partners have always the opportunity to become aware of the formal education syllabus, to learn new needs that children have regarding the scientific knowledge and to try to develop new ways of delivering the scientific knowledge in order to have a better, easier and funnier understanding.

The team consists of a project manager, image director, director, actors, researchers and teachers as supervisors (depending on the subject).

All the scientific activities are revised by appropriate teachers and researchers or they are based on bibliographic resources and then they are transposed in scripts.