CONNECT – Young people gain interest in research, technology and innovation

A lot of young people do not follow their interest within the STEM-subjects (Science, technology, engineering & mathematics) because of a lack of scientific capital due to a lack of cultural familiarity with science, role models or confidence in their own abilities. 

Creates an interest 

Through Open Schooling and the involvement of scientists, family members and local community issues, CONNECT developed learning processes (open-ended scenarios) that give students with low scientific capital, the desire to engage with STEM subjects. This is particularly girls, ethnic minorities and disadvantaged young people who are often under-represented in STEM subjects. 

Design of education  

CONNECTs open-ended scenarios are designed to show students how research and innovation affect their lives and how they as young researchers can make a difference in order to give them faith and motivation to pursue a career within STEM subjects. 

As a part of CONNECT the Danish Board of Technology have developed a model inspired by the typical steps of a citizen engagement process.  

The model was afterwards used as a foundation for the development of three open-ended scenarios. Each of the three open-ended scenarios were moreover developed with inspiration from a citizen engagement method, namely Citizen Juries, Consensus Conference and Co-Creation.  The open-ended scenarios take the students through a process like an engagement process. First step is to decide how they want to work with a given topic. Second step is to research and discuss the topic. Final step is to decide upon options for action within the topic by formulating a set of recommendations. An important element of these processes is dialogue with different experts and stakeholders.  

The Open-ended scenarios were implemented in Greece, Spain, Rumania, England and Brazil. 

Learn more here: 

Open-ended Scenarios

Co-creation method for open schooling

Consensus method for open schooling

Jury method for open schooling

Guiding Principles