JISC

JISC theme(s): e-Research

Committees: JISC Support of Research committee

Following the government report - Science & Innovation Investment Framework which emphasises the importance of engaging children, JISC, the e-Science Core programme , and other major organisations are currently interacting with schools and through this engagement, there is an opportunity to make science more real to students and support different parts of the community as well as community grids.

For science projects this interface can take the subject into schools and schools can link to projects occurring in the scientific community and enable the analysis of their own data gathering exercises. This interaction can enable children to have a real understanding of experiments covering things such as climate change, being able to see real-time simulations, and to generate learning of scientific concepts.

The JISC Support for Research committee has funded three proof of concept demonstrations for schools which take such scenarios into the classroom. They are as follows:

1. e-Environment Learning Environment for Schools -SENSE
2. The Schools Malaria Project - e-Malaria
3. e-Star for e-Learning

In October 2004, JISC led a consultation day at the Royal Society entitled 'Models for Future Thinking' in order to consider the role of e-science within the classroom, identify areas for collaboration and provide feedback on some of the challenges and opportunities for future planning.

JISC has further commissioned a study on eScience in Education covering initiatives taking place within the UK and internationally. The purpose of this review report undertaken by the University of Bath is twofold: firstly to provide an overview, or snapshot, of the emerging field of eScience in the context of education as it stands currently; and secondly, to consider some of its implications.