What is Inspire Science?
Inspire Science (Inspira Ciência) is a teacher training programme that aims to stimulate science education in basic education.
The program was created in 2018 and it's an initiative carried out by the Museum of Tomorrow, and the British Council and since 2019, IBM became its new sponsor. In 2020, activities were delivered online for teachers across Brazil.
What's in the programme?
The programme offers workshops and debates with museum professionals and guests, covering topics such as astronomy, geology, history of science, and other fields of knowledge.
The training also addresses everyday classroom issues as essential skills in the context of the BNCC, the Brazilian Common Core Curriculum, research teaching practices, learning tools, and production of lesson plans.
Participants have access to content and tools produced by the Museum of Tomorrow to use them in the classroom or in the museum itself as a laboratory to create or innovate their teaching practices.
Why is Inspire Science important?
The importance of the right to quality education for all children is a central theme in the discussions and, in this sense, a focus on women and girls in science is highlighted in the programme, and is also the subject of another British Council partnership with the museum, under the Women in Science programme.
Inspire Science plataform
Launched in 2020, the Inspire Science platform is a repository of the main results and activities of the programme.
On the website, it is possible to find lesson plans for teaching science, as well as small experiments and low-cost activities that can be conducted in the classroom.
The platform also keeps the "Inspire Science" publications. It also has articles written by teachers who participated in previous years, and lesson plans developed by teachers in the project.
The publications also have the participation of specialists such as Alexandre Cherman, from the Planetary Foundation of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Penteado, from the International Astronomical Union, Maria do Carmo Xavier, broadcaster of the British Council Core Skills programme, and Ana Carolina da Hora, creator of Computação da Hora.
Also, on the online platform, it is possible to obtain access to the first publication of the programme, with the theme of "A Portable Laboratory of Lesson Plans".
Inspire Science 2020 edition
In 2020, after three successful face-to-face editions for teachers from public and private schools in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Inspire Science had its first online edition with the participation of 200 teachers from all over Brazil.