Schools as Living Labs - NEMO Science Museum

Rooske Franse

The Schools As Living Labs (SALL) project proposes a new framework based on open innovation methods for schools across Europe to approach their science education programmes in a new light. Our objective is to make STEM teaching more relevant, systemic, and inclusive and to do that for all of our students.

SALL adopts the concept of open schooling in science education where schools, become agents of community well-being by creating new partnerships with other local actors and addressing local issues relevant to them.

SALL proposes to transform schools into living labs. This open-innovation methodology puts people in charge of the innovation process. It involves different kinds of partners in a private-public-people partnership and integrates research and innovation processes in real-life communities and settings. This methodology has been widely tested and has proved to be capable of nurturing meaningful collaborations between actors with diverging interests but with common objectives. Together, they build new products, new services, new uses, etc. through a cycle that typically comprises: Co-creation, Exploration, Experimentation, Evaluation phases.

SALL brings together school communities, including teachers, students, and their families, research institutions, policy-makers, science engagement organisation and other non-formal learning and open innovation spaces. School communities will be engaged in intensive dialogue and mutual learning activities. They will address local issues linked to the food system in all its dimensions, a very topical challenge faced by humankind as well as a relevant topic for science education that is high in the European political agenda.