Funded under the Science in Society banner of the EU's Framework 7 programme, TSN is delighted to announce its first successful EU application and describe here what CarboSchools in Norwich hopes to achieve and provides dedicated webpages to record the progress of the UK project.
Background:
CarboSchools has its origins in two large EU science research projects, CarboEurope and CARBOOCEAN, both of which are studying different aspects of the carbon cycle. CarboSchools encourages researchers from these communities to engage with schools, and work in partnership to share their research, experiences and knowledge with teachers and pupils.
The project involves nine research institutes in seven countries exploring how they can best motivate and support such partnerships at the regional level involving a wide variety of contexts, approaches, topics and age-groups and trying to exploit TSN's best practice model of linking teachers with scientists.
The main CarboSchools website will give more details of the overall project, while these pages are designed to describe the UK (Norwich) project. Although being run by TSN in Norwich, it does not have to be restricted to the East of England and welcome involvement from around the UK, please get in touch.
UK Project Timeline:
10 - 12th March 2008
The CarboSchools kick-off meeting was held in Norwich, hosted by TSN. The meeting included an invitation to Norfolk teachers to hear about the project, help guide its direction and be updated in Carbon-science at a teachers' twilight evening. Flyer available here; press release about project launch available here
12 - 14th March 2008
Carboschools regional coordinators training session, Norwich. In addition to exploring ways of working and sharing best practice between partners we discussed the wider social implications of the project - think global, act local - and heard an inspiring presentation about the success of Eco-Schools from its founder and director Patricia Oliver (An Taisce, National Trust Ireland).
Local Plans
Project Partners:
Max Planck Institut fuer Biogeochemie (MPI-BGC), Jena, Germany (coordinator)
Teacher Scientist Network (TSN), Norwich, UK
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG), the Netherlands
Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften an der Universität Kiel (IFM-GEOMAR), Kiel, Germany
Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (LSCE), Paris, France
Universitetet i Bergen og Bjerknessenteret for klimaforskning (UiB-BCCR), Norway
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA EPHYSE/EPOC), Bordeaux, France
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Instituto di Biometeorologia (CNR-IBIMET), Firenze, Italy
Fundació Parc Científic de Barcelona, Laboratori de Recerca del Clima (PCB-LRC), Barcelona, Spain