Teacher and Student Forum
6th Meeting –March 12th, 2019, 14:00, CERN room 33/S-004
Participants: Barbro Åsman, Jelena Jovicevic, Ines Knaepper, Kati Lassila-Perini, Danilo Piparo, Sascha Schmeling, Zornitsa Zaharieva
Participants via Vidyo: Pedro Abreu, Nicolas Arnaud, Elizabeth Cunningham, Jiří Dolejší, Nils Hoimyr, Martin Hopf, Zuzana Ješková, Saulius Mickevičius, Aleš Mohorič, Pierluigi Paolucci, Becky Parker, Marcel Vlastuin, Gerfried Wiener, Roxana Zus
Excused: Ian Bearden, Dezső Horváth, Tetiana Hryn’Ova, Evangelos Gazis, Predrag Milenovic, Andreas Müller, Arnulf Quadt, Urszula Rybałtowska
Minutes: Ines Knaepper
Meeting started: 14.02h
Welcome and Introduction:
Sascha Schmeling (SMS) welcomed the TSF participants and presented the agenda.
Furthermore, SMS introduced the new members to the Teacher & Student Forum: Prof. Saulius Mickevičius representing Lithuania and Dr. Aleš Mohorič representing Slovenia. It was mentioned, that Serbia is represented in today’s meeting by Dr. Jelena Jovicevic. SMS asked all new members and replacements to introduce themselves.
Elizabeth Cunningham (EC) added Becky Parker as member, supporting Elizabeth going forward.
Minutes and matters arising:
No comments or remarks received.
Updates from CERN:
Sascha Schmeling (SMS) presented the updates from CERN on the Teacher Programmes, the S’Cool LAB, the Beamline for Schools Competition, and the High-School Students Internship Programme:
- Barbro Asman (BA) asked, if there are statistics on applications for the Teacher Programmes summer programmes available. SMS answered, that no application from e.g. Belgium has been received, and only one application from Germany. SMS however confirmed, that the distribution of the available places has not been changed.
- Zornitsa Zaharieva (ZZ) asked, if the statistics could be added to Indico. SMS answered, that the selection process is still ongoing, thus the statistics are not yet available.
- Roxana Zus (RZ) mentioned, that for Romania no Teacher Programme does yet take place and that it is quite difficult to find proper funding for such initiatives, as the per person cost for the programme is roughly double the salary of a teacher. SMS mentioned, that for all new programmes, there is once-off support available for the first programme. After the first programme, own funding has to be found by the organiser. To channel a donation and give visibility to the donor, CERN & Society has an open programme for Teacher Programmes and requests can be handled through them. SMS mentioned the pilot project for India, where a Teacher Programme for the first time will take place in the country and not at CERN. Trainers will be flown from CERN to India to run the programme. A similar set up could be imagined for other countries having difficulties with e.g. funding.
- Kati Lassila-Perini (KLP) asked about the different blue colours in the statistics of the S’Cool LAB presentation. SMS answered, that the difference is just a layout issue, but doesn’t have any other meaning.
- Pedro Abreu (PA) remarked, that for the Beamline for Schools competition after the 5th edition of BL4S the programme looks stabilized. PA mentioned, that it is however worthwhile to volunteer to help reviewing the received proposals. SMS thanked him for this comment and underlined, that more volunteers will be indeed needed.
- Pedro Abreu (PA) asked about the HSSIP, if the UK has decided to partake in the pilot round. SMS answered, that the UK has declined to have an HSSIP. Becky Parker (BP) mentioned, that currently there are no plans to take part, however discussions shall be started to not miss opportunities. SMS remarked, that end of 2019 / beginning of 2020 negotiations will start to discuss future of HSSIP after the pilot in 2020. Ideas have been circled to open up the programme to associated member states as well. More information shall be provided in the next TSF meeting in September 2019.
Sascha Schmeling (SMS) presented the Science Gateway Project as update from CERN
- More information about the project will be released on 8th April in an official press conference with the main donor and the architect.
- Barbro Asman (BA) asked, where the estimated 300.000 requests for visits & workshops stem from. SMS answered, that most of the requests come from Italy, United Kingdom, and Finland. The rest is well split over the member states. Statistics can be pulled together, if interest exists. TSF participants manifest interest in this data.
- Becky Parker (BP) asked, if the set-up of Science Gateway will also increase the possibility of accommodation at CERN? SMS answered, that no additional capacity is planned. Furthermore, also numbers of visitor groups currently using the CERN hostel will be decreased to gain more capacity for CERN users and their requests. SMS however mentions, that staying outside CERN, e.g. in the youth hostel in Geneva or in hotels in nearby France will reduce the visit costs dramatically, as reservations can be made well in advance.
- Martin Hopf (MH) asked, how many resources are needed to run labs in Science Gateway and if this has been considered in the calculations. SMS answered that SMS is still fighting for recourses, but SMS trusts the experts in the working group planning the activities in the Science Gateway
- Barbro Asman (BA) remarked, that visitors are coming to CERN to speak to actual scientists. SMS answered, that the actual visits will not be replaced by the Science Gateway visitor centre, but guided tours currently having difficulties in finding volunteer guides. SMS mentioned, that the ideal would be to have one permanent staff running one of the labs, who then gets surrounded by volunteers, e.g. as tutors. A pool of resources shall be in place to compensate whenever help is needed. SMS sees the difficulty in new age group, that shall be welcomed in the Visitor Centre and the general public, as different content will have to be created. SMS mentioned, that the members of the TSF will be asked for their input towards the content of the educational exhibition and programme in the Science Gateway.
- Martin Hopf (MH) proposed the idea of using pre-service teachers to come to CERN in the framework of their training to volunteer for 2 weeks in the Science Gateway. SMS liked the idea and mentioned, that currently 4 positions for Teachers in Residence have been foreseen for similar tasks.
- Zornitsa Zahariva (ZZ) mentioned, the language barrier for teachers further down in their career e.g. for the Teacher Programmes. Thus, ZZ proposes to target pre-service teachers and ZZ could bring SMS in contact with the responsible persons in Bulgaria. SMS thanked ZZ and will come back in due time.
- Pedro Abreu (PA) asked, if the number of visitors will increase this year due to the Open Days in September and if this might lead to exhausting currently active guides in the run of the year. SMS answered that an increase of 100.000 visitors might be possible, but Open Days typically attract even more volunteers and thus numbers of guides do not diminish. Furthermore, PA mentioned, that courses to become a guide are often full and thus do not allow the training of new guides. SMS commented, that trainings are now available on the newly established Learning Hub and that numbers of trainings have increased. PA mentioned furthermore, that Cienca Viva in Portugal has a residential programme for school classes for 5-12-year-old students embedded in the science centre. Could be used as model for the Science Gateway. SMS asked that contacts shall be shared with SMS.
- Barbro Asman (BA) comments, that fellows would love to be more involved, however limited contract duration makes it difficult for them. BA asked, if the fellows could not be paid to be guides, or their contract could be extended in order to balance engagement. SMS explained, that currently guides not working for CERN are paid for their contribution. Also, staff is paid during outside working hours, e.g. on Saturdays. Extensions of the contracts as compensations is not possible. Danilo Piparo (DP) proposed to use another form of compensation, e.g. through an appraisal. SMS answered, that formerly there was a report that was send to the guides and supervisors mentioning the time spend and number of visits given. Now report is not anymore available, but could be revived. Zornitsa Zaharieva (ZZ) asked, why there is a limit on for taking guide shifts, especially in peak times this limit does not help finding enough Bulgarian speaking guides. SMS answered, that the limit has been introduced by HR & legal in order to avoid that a guide can make a living out taking too many shifts. SMS mentioned, that the visit service however can increase the limit by 20% in case of sporadic need.
Danilo Pipparo (DP) presented CERN’s S’Cool Hub a.k.a. EduSWAN:
- Zornitsa Zaharieva (ZZ) asked for the maximum capacity that is targeted with the project. DP responded, that the resources are the constraints. To serve 500 students, 3 servers are necessary costing around 15.000 CHF.
- Barbro Asman (BA) asked, if the tool does only foresee the use of general physics or even particle physics. DP answered, that the added value of the tool is to be able to use open data from the experiments.
- Becky Parker (BP) commented, that the initiative will be very interesting for the students and proposed, to give access to participants of the Beamline for Schools competition, that will not be selected and other interested students to nurture the interest in science. BP furthermore offered help in the dissemination.
- Kati Lassila-Perini (KLP) asked the specificities of the CERN Edu Account computing account. DP answered, that the account does not yet exist, but is a proposal from IT as there are still policy questions unanswered. DP mentioned, that for minor students it is yet unclear if parents would have to give their consent.
- Zornitsa Zaharieva (ZZ) proposed to compare the content with the master classes and integrate the content. DP answered, that an integration is foreseen. ZZ asked for the advantage of the S’Cool HUB towards the Masterclasses. DP answered, that the content can be better targeted and it could be even more interactive than the Masterclasses. ZZ asked about the content. SMS answered, that in the last TSF meeting a general interest was expressed by the forum participants to develop content and material.
- SMS asked, if there are any objections to continue the integration of the tool. No objections from the forum participants.
Updates from Member States:
No updates received.
Next presence meeting:
Proposal by SMS: September, 24th, 14-16.30h
Agreement on the date by the participants.
AoB:
- Kati Lassila-Perini (KLP) asked, if the TSF agenda on Indico could be open to all CERN people. SMS answered, that currently the TSF agenda is only open to TSF members, but going forward it will be possible to have the agenda publicly available and also have access to the presentations, unless a presentation might be marked as classified.
- Elizabeth Cunningham (EC) mentioned, that she will not be able to join the next meeting in person
- SMS mentioned, that it will not be possible to visit the winners of BL4S competition in September as in the past, as the competition will take place in Germany at DESY
- Instead of the BL4S visit, a CMS underground visit will be organised and meeting will be closed off with the forum dinner in Auberge des Chasseurs as in the previous years.
The meeting adjourned at 15.20h.