FIRST MEETING OF FOCAL POINT PERSONS (COUNCIL) OF THE IANAS PROGRAMME ON SCIENCE EDUCATION
Santiago, Chile October 29-30, 2004
Participants
Focal Point Persons
ACAL
Guillermo Whittembury
ARGENTINA
Norma Sbarbati Nudelman
BOLIVIA
Elsa Quiroga
BRASIL
Fernando Galembeck
CANADA
Frank Jenkins
CARIBE
Ishenkumba Kahwa
COLOMBIA
José A. Lozano
CHILE
Juan Asenjo
Jorge E. Allende
Coordinador IANAS/SEP
PERU
Cesar Carranza
USA
Sally Goetz Shuler
VENEZUELA
Claudio Bifano
Observers
USA
Smith Holt
CHILE
Rosa Deves
MEXICO
Carlos Bosch
Juan Carlos Andrade
France
Djamel Ould Abdesselam
Meeting Programme
1- Report of the Coordinator (J.E. Allende)
 (see attached annex 1)
2- Presentations by the Participating Academies about their ongoing initiatives and about their ideas of participating in IANAS
(Presentation of La main à la Pâte Programme of France)
3- Discussion of the Different Activities that should be included in the Action Plan for 2005-2006
(See attached annex 2)
4- Strategy and Organizational Decisions
Project for the Organization of American States
1. The IANAS Focal Point Persons agreed to request letters from their Academy authorities addressed to the Ministers or top authorities for science and technology in their countries. These letters should request the authorities to express support for IANAS Programme on Science Education which is included as a Hemispheric Initiative in the meeting that will take place in Lima, Peru on November 11-12 and which is organized by the Organization of American States.
2. The political support expected at the Lima meeting of the Ministers of Science should open the door for an application for financial support for a project to support IANAS Science Education activities. The Council of the IANAS Programme on Science Education authorized the Coordinator to propose a project to the OAS for a total of 3 years and a budget of approximately USD$ 500.000. The preparation of this project should be done in consultation with the members of the Council and should be based on the activities approved for 2005-2006.
Project for the Inter American Development Bank
3. The Council of the IANAS PSE accepted the generous offer of Dr. Smith Holt to draft a project to request funds from the Inter American Development Bank Fund for Regional Public Goods.
The dead-line for these projects is November 15,2004 and, therefore, will require speed and coordination in the generation of the project which will be based on the action plan of 2005-2006.
4. Members of the Council agreed that this project should be presented to the IBD on the name of the Chilean Academy of Sciences in representation of all the Academies of IANAS. The members of the Council agreed to request the Presidents of their Academies to write form letters expressing their willingness to participate in the project being submitted to the IDB. These letters will be sent to Dr. Smith Holt by fax and Federal Express.
UNESCO
5. The IANAS Council agreed to request UNESCO to support the travel of 12 Latin American participants in activities of 2005. The Council also authorized the Coordinator to elaborate a join plan of activities with UNESCO for 2006 including the Inter American and Ibero American Conference on Science Education which was proposed to take place in Chile in 2006. Also a request from the UNESCO IBSP should be considered.
Internal Organization of the Council
6. The Council decided to elect Dr. Jorge E. Allende of the Chilean Academy as Coordinator of the IANAS PSE until October 2006.
7. The Council elected Dr. José Lozano representing the Colombian Academy as Vice-Coordinator of the IANAS PSE
8. It was agreed that the Vice-Coordinator would normally take-up the Coordination at the end of the period of the Coordinator. At that time, a new Vice-Coordinator would be elected. The outgoing coordinator would become a past coordinator and would continue to participate in the leadership of the Programme.
NEXT MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF IANAS PSE
9. The Council Members accepted the kind offer of Prof. Frank Jenkins to explore with the Royal Society of Canada and its Committee on Science Education the possibility of holding the next meeting in the University of Alberta. This venue would serve to create stronger links between the IANAS Programme and the Canadian community actively working in science education.
Gratitude
The Council expressed its thanks to the Chilean organizers of the meeting, to the Chilean Academy and UNESCO for their hospitality.
Also thanks were expressed to Dr. Sally Shuler, representing the U.S. National Academy who coordinated the Session on the Action Plan.
ANNEX 1
Report of the Coordinator of SEP to the Participants in the Meeting of Focal Point Persons for the Science Education Programme of the Member Academies of the Inter American Network of Academies of Sciences
Objectives and Background of this Meeting
We are delighted and grateful that you have been able to attend this first meeting of the Focal Points Persons of the IANAS Science Education Programme (SEP). We will try to make this an interesting and fruitful meeting.
The objectives of this meeting are :
• To learn from each other about the interests and initiatives that the Academies of Sciences are involved in.
• To generate an action plan of regional activities that will take place in the years 2005-2006
• To agree on a strategy to raise funding for the SEP activities.
The history of the SEP of IANAS and the IAP is very short but I am very optimistic that we will make progress and be able to do something very important for the children of the Americas.
In May 6-7 of this year, the IANAS Academies met for the first time here in Santiago and agreed on the Statutes of the Network. In addition, the IANAS General Assembly approved two high priority topics: Water resources research and science education. The Chilean Academy proposed a draft programme on Science Education and the IANAS Assembly discussed it. The approved copy of this SEP is the one you know and is the basis for the discussions of this meeting.
In that plan, it was included as a first step for the Academies to:
Express their interest in participating in the SEP and to appoint a Focal Point Person. This has been done and in Table I you have the list of the Academies that replied positively and appointed a Focal Point. We all should be very pleased at the very good response of the Academies.
According to the Programme, the meeting of the Focal Point Persons constitutes the meeting of the Council of the IANAS SEP. This body has to generate the activities and the policies and strategies, which include Fund Raising, has to propose its authorities and reports directly to the IANAS Council. In addition, it has to generate its coordinator.
In preparation for this Meeting, the IANAS Assembly asked me to temporarily coordinate the SEP.
II- Activities carried out by the Coordination of the SEP
1- Interaction with the Inter Academy Panel
The Coordinator of the IANAS SEP was also appointed by the Inter Academy Panel to coordinate the Science Education Programme of this institution which congregates all the science academies of the World.
The IAP requested me to propose a plan of activities in their global programme. I proposed to work regionally, organizing ourselves in Science Education Programmes in the Americas (SEP of IANAS) and similar programmes in Africa, Asia and Europe, following the IANAS scheme.
This proposal was approved and the IAP allotted USD$ 80.000 to support this Programme: US$ 25.000 in Latin America, $ 50.000 in Africa and $ 5.000 to finance travel of the coordinator to attend meetings and carry out fund raising activities.
The activities that are receiving funding from IAP are the Strategic Planning Workshop that we have had this week in Santiago and this meeting of the Focal Points that received US$ 15.000 and an Inter American Course on Molecular Biology and Genetics for Secondary School Biology Teachers that is being organized in Buenos Aires under the sponsorship of the Argentinean Academy, the Ministry of Education and other institutions. You have an announcement of that course in your papers. That course will receive USD$ 10.000 to provide fellowships for teachers from other countries.
In addition, the IAP has provided IANAS with USD $ 7.000 for science education. This amount will be able to fund an activity that can be identified in this meeting.
2- The Organization of American States (OAS).
The Director of Science and Technology of the OAS, Dr. Alice Abreu, attended the IANAS constitutive meeting last May in Santiago and committed that Organization to support IANAS activities that had objectives compatible with those of her institution.
Following through on that commitment, the IANAS SEP submitted our Programme for the consideration of the OAS in the meeting of Science Ministers that will take place in Lima, Perú, on November 11-12, 2004. We were fortunate that Dr. Sally Shuler, Focal Point of the US National Academy of Sciences was able to present the IANAS SEP in a Preparatory Meeting in Washington. After this presentation, the Preparatory Meeting approved the incorporation of this Programme as a Hemispheric Initiative in the Agenda of the Ministers.
I am informed that the Co-Chairs of IANAS, Profs. Hernán Chaimovich from Brazil and Howard Alper from Canada, will attend as observers the Meeting of Science Ministers and will present the IANAS Programme including the SEP.
In addition, the Ministry of Education of Chile has asked its Representative in this organization to convey the government's opinion that the IANAS SEP should also be a high priority in the Education Sector of the OAS. It happens that now this sector is also under the direction of Dr. Abreu.
It is our hope that the OAS will give us the political support of the Science Ministers and of its Education Sector.
3- UNESCO
UNESCO at its Paris Headquarters and also the Regional Office for Education of Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC) have been actively informed about the IANAS Science Education Programme. In both instances, there has been a very positive reception of our initiative and an expressed desire to collaborate in some activities.
Concretely, OREALC has offered to participate in IANAS courses and workshops on professional development during 2005 with the financial support for travel of 10 Latin Americans that would participate in a course or a workshop considered of interest to UNESCO.
Depending on pending budget requests, this support might be increased.
For the year 2006, the support for this type of activities could be considerably increased. In addition, that year, UNESCO and the UNESCO Chair for Science Educatoin which has its headquarters in the University of Alcala de Henares in Spain (it includes a network of 19 Universities involved in science teacher training) will organize an Ibero American Conference on Science Education to which they contribute significant funds. The offer is to co-organize that Conference together with the IANAS SEP.
4- Other Institutions Contacted.
Rosa Devés and I have visited the National Science Foundation and the InterAmerican Bank in Washington and have made oral and written presentations on our science education programme. Both institutions showed interest and were invited to attend this meeting but unfortunately were not able to attend.
I also used a trip to Canada to a scientific meeting to extend my trip to Ottawa where I met with Mr. Paul Dufour and other officials of the IDRC. I informed them of our IANAS Programme and I did the same with the IDRC Office in Latin America that is located in Montevideo. They showed interest but again were unable to attend this meeting.
5- Ministers of Education
Through the intervention of the Chilean Minister of Education, Sergio Bitar, I was invited to speak to a meeting of Latin American Education Ministers that assembled in Santiago under the auspices of the Inter American Bank of Development. I had the privilege of speaking for 20 minutes about the IANAS Project in front of 11 Ministers of Education (Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Chile, Panama, El Salvador, etc ) and high officials from other countries. Several Ministers expressed great interest in the Programme and promised to support it.
6- International Evaluation of Inquiry Based Science Projects
The IAP is organizing a Workshop on the Evaluation of Inquiry-Based Science Projects that will take place in Trieste in April of 2005. The objective of the Workshop is to generate some consensus ideas on the main requirements for an evaluation of the results of this type of project on the children, their understanding and their attitudes and habits.
This workshop should also result in the constitution of a working group of evaluation experts who will prepare an evaluation protocol that can be used as an international instrument of evaluation. This evaluation will be offered to the countries, states or regions that have had an IBSE project running for 3 or more years. Countries that participate in IANAS should be encouraged to contribute to this workshop and to start planning to evaluate their on going projects.
III- The tasks of the Focal Points Meeting My Personal Views and Recommendations
1- Regarding the OAS . If the political support for the IANAS SEP materializes as expected, we will be in an excellent footing to present to the OAS a project for an Inter American Programme of Science Education. I believe that a target is to come up here on this Focal Point Meeting with a set of objectives and activities that will span a period of 3 years (2006-2008). We can plan that this 3 year project should have a budget of USD$ 500.000 total for the 3 years.
We should appoint a team of 3 or 4 people with experience in drafting projects to work together with the Coordinator to prepare the Project for the OAS.
2- Lobby Strategy . All participants in the Focal Point meeting should see to it that their respective Academy write a letter to the Minister of Science or President of ONCYT (CONICYT equivalent) asking him or her to support the approval of the IANAS Science Education Programme that is included in the Hemispheric Initiatives to be discussed in Lima Meeting (November 11-12).
Since this is very little time this action should be done immediately upon your return home and possibly you should offer the Academy President a letter already prepared for his/her signature.
Subsequent to that we all have to get endorsement from our respective Academies for the OAS project that we hope to prepare in January.
3- UNESCO . We should agree to propose to UNESCO OREALC two activities in 2005 in which they can provide support for the participation of a total of 10-12 experts from Latin American Countries.
Also in collaboration with OREALC, we should propose a country to organize the 2006 InterAmerican and Ibero American Conference on Science Education.
We should also propose a IANAS/UNESCO prize to the best one page composition by a 6 th grader on the question : Is science interesting?
We could have a join committee of IANAS/UNESCO to judge the compositions. [The prize travel to Smithsonian Institution in Washington for example].
At the level of UNESCO-Paris, we should explore proposing a project for $ 50.000 per year for 3 years from the IBSP.
4- French Main à la Pâte Latin American Network
We should consolidate the French offer to support the WEB Portal. Also joint activities that take place in Latin America.
5- Inter American Bank . We must continue exploring the possibility of proposing a project to the IDB. A distinct possibility is a new Fund for Regional Public Goods.
6- NSF of the USA The US representative to the IANAS SEP should explore with the NSF and other funding sources the possibility of financing some Inter American activities.
7- IDRC of Canada The Canadian representative of the RSC should approach IDRC for support of IANAS Science Education activities involving Canadian Institutions.
8- Representatives of Academies from Latin America and The Caribbean
The representatives should contact their State and National authorities of the Ministry of Education to inform them of their participation in the IANAS Programme and of the benefits that this participation can bring to their efforts to improve science education in their countries. In these meetings, the IANAS Representatives should ask the authorities for :
a) support in our efforts to obtain funds from international organizations (OAS, UNESCO, IDB-DIB, etc)
b) incorporation of an international component in their national projects on science education.
This latter point is important because these activities should provide national counterparts that can supplement the IANAS Programme efforts.
For example, in the 2005, budget of the Chilean ECBI Project includes approximately US$ 10.000 to run a Strategic Planning Workshop to train new teams to introduce the ECBI project in new Educational Districts.. These funds will probably be able to finance one or two experts from other countries to be part of the teaching staff. This workshop is designed for Chilean national teams, but it would enrich the Workshop if we were to include two teams (8 10 persons) from two other countries of the region. The funds to cover the participation of these teams would have to be raised by IANAS from other sources. It is evident that this way everyone gains and the IANAS idea and programme grows.
IV- The Budget
We have to generate our own budget through application to national and international organizations.
For 2005 , activities presently we have available the following:
a) $ 7000 USD received by the IANAS Secretariat in Brazil from the IAP
b) The promise of UNESCO to pay the travel expenses for 10 Latin American participants in activities related to the professional development of science teachers
c) Fairly certain that in the latter part of the year (Sept-Oct 2005) we should receive at least USD$ 25.000 from IAP
d) Activities and financing opportunities generated by member Academies. This may be communicated in this meeting.
2006
Hopefully, there will be some core-funding from the IAP of 25.000 to 30.000 USD.
But we should have in place the OAS project and increased funding from UNESCO. I would hope that we can programme activities for a IANAS Programme of at least USD$ 250.000/per year.
The activities and budget will have to be ratified by the IANAS-SEP Council Meeting to be held in October of 2005. The funds of this meeting will probably have to be covered by the IAP contribution.
V- The Product of this Meeting
We have to emerge from this meeting on Saturday afternoon (October 30, 2004) with a concrete work plan of activities that we have agreed on and with specific tasks that each one of us will be responsible to implement. Also I hope that we will emerge with a lot of enthusiasm to work together in the attainment of the enormous goal that we have proposed: to increase the quality of science education of all the children of the Americas.
ANNEX 2
IANAS/IAP Work Plan 2005 2006
2005 Proposed Activities
Argentina
Second Inter American Course of Molecular Biology and Genetics for Secondary School Teachers
Buenos Aires, Argentina February 14-23, 2005
Participants: 12 Biology Teachers from other Latin American Countries and 16 from Argentina.
Sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Argentinian Academy of Sciences, Fundación Anorchas, the Latin American Network of Biology (RELAB)
approx. US$25.000
Support already awarded from IAP/IANAS : USD$ 10.000
Inter American Course on Green Chemistry for High School Natural Science Teachers July-August 2005 - 2 weeks Duration
10 Foreign participants and 25 Argentinian Participants
Technical support from IUPAC
Requires support from IANAS/IAP : USD$ 20.000
Bolivia
Inter American Workshop on Science Education Research
Researchers in topics like curriculum development, evaluation, scaling up, generating and managing teaching modules would be invited to attend.
La Paz November 2005 3 days
IANAS/IAP contribution would be required.
Canada
Second meeting of IANAS Focal Points
October 2005 (2-3 days)
This would require from IANAS/IAP USD$ 15.000
Chile
Strategic Planning Workshop to Scale-up Inquiry-Based Science Project K-8
6-8 teams from Chile and 2-3 teams from other Latin American countries
One week July-August 2005
This would require from IANAS/IAP USD$ 8000
There is a budgeted counterpart of USD$ 10.000
Colombia
Inter American Course for Leaders among Science Teachers of Latin America
(Training the Trainers) - June-July 2005
This course is designed for elementary school teachers It would last 1 week
It would require from IANAS/IAP US$ 15.000
There is a local counterpart of USD$ 18.000
Science Fair for Children and Teachers
This is a National Science Fair but two selected Teams from other Latin American Countries would be invited to attend.
August 2005
It would require from IANAS/IAP USD$ 10.000
This has local financing of more than USD$ 30.000
Mexico
Third International Conference on Science Education
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico March 17-18, 2005
It would require a contribution of IANAS/IAP of US$ 7000 for tickets from participants from Latin American countries
It has more than US$ 40.000 counterpart
Inter American Secondary School Scientists Meeting
A meeting of specially gifted students that should be selected from IANAS Countries
40 foreigners and 40 Mexican.
IANAS/IAP support required USD$ 40.000
Peru
Inter American Course on Mathematics for Secondary School Mathematics Teachers
Lima, Peru November 2005 2 weeks
Open to 10 participants from other Latin American countries and 20 from Peru.
Supported by the Peruvian Academy which has been running similar courses.
Required from IANAS/IAP USD$ 20.000
Jamaica
Inter American Meeting on Challenges and Opportunities on Science Education
October 2005 Three days
Organized by the University of the West Indies
20 Foreign participants and 20 local participants
Required from IANAS/IAP USD$ 40.000
Venezuela
Meeting of Scientists and Educators of the Americas
April 2005
Sponsored by the Latin American Academy of Sciences and the Venezuelan Academy and by the Polar Foundation
Required from IANAS/IAP to pay for travel of Latin American participants USD$ 10.000
2006 Proposed Activities
Chile
Inter American and Ibero American Science Education Conference
October 2006 3 days
This Conference would be organized jointly with UNESCO and the UNESCO Chair on Science Education that is based on Alcaá de Henares, Spain.
It would afford a Forum to allow political leaders, scientists and educators to discuss projects and initiatives to improve science education in all the participating countries.
Resources form other sources USD$ 40.000
Resources requested from IANAS/IAP USD 40.000
Mexico
Inter American Strategic Planning Institute
July 2006 one week
This meeting could provide leadership training for teams from other countries in the Hemisphere. It would be organized with the participation and support of the NSRC (US National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Institution) and of INNOVEC, Mexico.
This meeting would require fro IANAS/IAP USD$ 50.000
USA
The NSRC (National Science Resource Center) which is a joint Programme of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution is committed to support the IANAS activities and to provide expertise in the organization and content of all IANAS activities. Also, scientists and educators from other countries in the Americas will be invited to attend and participate in NSRC activities.
One very concrete contribution is to make the written materials (Teacher and Student Guides) and prototypes of the materials included in the teaching modules available to the IANAS Academies of the other countries at no cost. This will be done through the signature of Agreements between the NSRC and the National Academy from each country.
France
The French Academy and the French government have been very active in promoting inquiry-based science education in Latin America. The activities have included teacher training and the organization of regional and sub-regional meetings, as well as the publishing of a science education journal. The French Programme La main à la Pâte will also collaborate in the installation of a WEB Portal that will link the science education efforts in different countries. This last activity will be coordinated by the Pequeño Científico of Colombia.
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