VUB has 23 new Fellows. One of them is Ilse Ooghe, general director at RVO Society. For 20 years, RVO has been committed to one goal: to inspire young people, teachers and citizens with educational and leisure activities around engineering, technology and science. This has resulted in two initiatives: Scivil, a knowledge centre for citizen science, and Brightlab, a STEM education lab. VUB Fellows are committed to bringing academia and society closer together through the university and the UZ Brussel. What does that mean in practice for Ilse Ooghe?
Do you hope to appeal to VUB scientists to share the importance of studying STEM subjects?
Yes, that is indeed the intention. We have already done this once in our Brightlab Generation Pandemic project. A good STEM project always starts from a socially relevant problem. Existing knowledge has to be interpreted. Then the pupils themselves can get to work investigating a particular aspect or finding a solution for part of the problem.
The scientists at VUB can be used to interpret existing knowledge. We can work together to match this knowledge to the level of the target group, link it to the right attainment targets, find an innovative way of applying it interactively, etc. The scientists can also be STEM role models. They are STEM professionals themselves and can encourage children to choose a STEM career. We periodically highlight these role models.
Which groups are still not taking enough STEM courses? And what can you do about it?
Our ambition is to familiarise every person with the process of inquiry-based learning. We want to teach them to think critically about all the information they are exposed to. We also want to create more STEM experts, namely young people who choose a STEM profession. Unfortunately, we still notice that girls, especially girls from disadvantaged groups, consider STEM professions something that isn’t for them, partly influenced by their parents. We need to break this cycle. This can be done by targeting role models who appeal to them. Brightlab and VUB can reinforce each other in this. For instance, I look to VUB for their knowledge and approach in the urban context.
RVO is responsible for Scivil and Brightlab, two citizen science initiatives. What is citizen science?
Citizen science is scientific research conducted by non-professional scientists. Citizen scientists often work with or under the guidance of professional scientists. Citizen science is a very valuable method of research because it not only generates new knowledge, but it can also achieve spectacular results in terms of community building and science education.
Scivil is the knowledge centre for citizen science in Flanders. We collect and disseminate knowledge about citizen science and bring actors in the field closer together. We already work with the VUB contact point for citizen science and see this interaction expanding in the future to increase the popularity of citizen science as a research methodology in Flanders.
What is the Teach the Teacher methodology?
Teach the Teacher is a method we use at Brightlab to provide teachers with substantive and didactic knowledge about STEM, which they can immediately use in the classroom. This methodology allows us to reach many more children than if we were to organise workshops for children ourselves. It is also much more sustainable, because after this workshop, teachers are in charge. They can apply the knowledge gained to their pupils’ learning levels and interests.
Photo report Fellowship 2023
