NTA is presently centred on 14 thematic experimental units where students make inquiries while discussing and documenting what they do and their findings. The teaching sequence often involves brainstorming, making predictions, observing or making experiments, and applying knowledge to contexts outside school. Units also help the teacher to follow what students learn. A unit takes 10 to 12 weeks to complete and consists of a number of assignments connected by a common theme. In the process of developing a final version for wide distribution, each unit is tested in several versions and in multiple classrooms.
Organised material support
Another component is organized material support that supplies the teacher with all the material needed for a unit (experimental material and written instructions for the teacher and sometimes also for the students). When a unit is completed; the teacher returns the material to a centre; where it is supplemented and made ready to go to another class.
Continuous professional development
Every teacher using a unit completes one day of training in that thematic area. Teachers are also given repeated opportunities to share their classroom experiences. Competence development is also carried out in collaboration with local educators (experienced teachers), industry, colleges and universities. Special courses are organized for the local educators. This education involves literature in science curriculum theory, e.g. Harlen (1985), a basic textbook by Sjöberg (2000), and a thesis on situational aspects of learning by Schoultz (2000).
Local development support
In the participating municipalities NTA makes it possible to create a long-term plan for school development involving also the local industry and institutions for higher education and research. In each participating municipality a local coordinator for the project is appointed. Municipalities also evaluate the progress of the NTA project locally.
Science and Technology for All ( NTA- Naturvetenskap och Teknik för Alla) is a school development program jointly run by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in cooperation with municipalities throughout Sweden.
The aims are to stimulate interest in science and technology, to promote scientific literacy, and to support more young people to choose an education, which leads to careers in science and technology.
In the participating municipalities, NTA provides support for local development of the curriculum in science and technology. The project is currently, primarily aimed at students from Kindergarten through 6th grade (children from 6 to 12 years of age).
The project currently involves 34 municipalities and 4 independent school, 2 200 teachers and 42 000 students.
The project started in 1997 and is financed by the Ministry of the Education and Research and by several private foundations.
Future developments
During the next five years 10-20 new municipalities are expected to join the project each year. This means that the project may involve more than 30 % of the municipalities in Sweden by the end of 2007.
The project aims to be self-supporting as of year 2004 as concerns regular operations within the municipalities, so that the project can thereafter expand. This involves working during 2003 to develop finished products and services for teachers and students as well as an organization that supports continued operation of NTA’s various components and continued development/research within the NTA area.
The activities will, in accordance with the wishes of the municipalities, be continued through two divisions: a) NTA-U, a project with KVA and IVA as principals, which works with development, evaluation and analysis of NTA activities (in the future perhaps research on didactic aspects will be included), and b) NTA Production and Service (NTA PoS) – a self-financed, production division in the form of a financial association owned by the municipalities and independent schools.
Responding to requests from schools that already have NTA an attempt is currently made to extend the concepts to grades 7 to 9 by adopting one of units, Properties of matter, from the NSRC's middle school curriculum.
It was already well recognized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science (RSAS) in the late 1980s that teaching of natural science in Swedish Schools was in crisis for reasons that were touched upon in the beginning. It was also found that the youngest children entering school were generally very interested in science and technology while a majority of those at later grades had lost their interest.
This led the president of RSAS, at the time, Ingvar Lindquist, to take measures to draw the attention to the situation in order to find measures to improve it. He formed a pedagogic committee at the Academy, which in collaboration with municipalities organized special conferences for teachers and students. He also instituted an annual prize for excellence in teaching of natural sciences and mathematics in schools.
Productions made by the RSAS in relation to the Nobel Prize awards in physics and chemistry, press conferences sent directly on the web as well as lectures and posters explaining the discoveries to the public, undoubtedly also draw attention to the importance of natural science and technology in our society.
In 1994 a Newsletter from the US Natural Science Resource Center (NSRC) describing the Science and Technology for Children (STC) project reached RSAS. This caught the attention of the chief of the RSAS information department, who subsequently visited Douglas Lapp at the NSRC 1996. During that visit agreements were reached that would allow our academies to try to introduce the STC-concept now called NTA in Swedish schools.
By the positive response from children, teachers and others in the municipalities involved it soon occurred to us, members of the academies engaged in the project, that STC/NTA seemed an absolutely ideal way to improve the situation in our schools and we are all very enthusiastic about it. We believe it offers the academies a unique possibility to contribute to a very important improvement of the Swedish school system. We believe this to be at the very center of the ultimate aim of the academies to promote natural science and understanding of technology in the society.
The enterprise grows fast and has now reached considerable proportions and it is run by RSAS in joint collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.
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