“At a time of rampant misinformation, climate denial, and attacks on human rights, we need education systems that distinguish fact from conspiracy, instill respect for science, and celebrate humanity in all its diversity,” said the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, on 19 September 2022, during the opening of the Transforming Education Summit. The role of institutions of higher education in instilling that respect for science cannot be underestimated.
'La universitat dels infants' (in Catalan language) or the?Children’s University?is a project of university social responsibility that involves opening the??(UdA), a member institution of the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) in the Principality of Andorra, to children. The main spirit of the project has been to open academia to society to promote interest in science and research and stimulate scientific curiosity among children by overcoming the barriers and stereotypes about the inaccessibility of scientific knowledge.
Within the framework of the?Children’s University, since 2014, it has been organized the Science Congress with a total of six editions, and it is expected to resume during the academic year of 2022-2023. The Science Congress consists of a day in which children in the final grade of ‘first education’ (aged 11 and 12) of the three educational systems in Andorra present scientific projects they had worked on during the school year.
As the then Minister of Education ?ric Jover highlighted, “it is important for Andorra to find synergies and common ground between the country’s three educational systems.” So far, almost 2,000 children from 14 schools have participated, showcasing nearly 90 scientific projects of their own, from building a vacuum up to experimentation with gravity, passing through programming a car, or creating a wind generator.
According to this UNAI member institution, “these projects have not been presented by teachers, but by the children themselves with their language.” “Children have also presented the experiments and demos we had used in school,” it added. The overall objective of this particular project is not only to approach the University of Andorra to children of the whole country. The project also intends to promote and foster the active participation of children in science projects.
Such participation is to be playful, attractive, and in a close manner.?Children’s University?also seeks to improve the institution’s relationship with the country’s educational centers, thus reinforcing the idea of a?continuum?across all levels of education. It has been carried out since its inception by the staff of the institution’s undergraduate program of Teaching and Learning, as well as scholars and students of it.
This has allowed the latter to know first-hand how science has worked in schools. It is a unique initiative that has created opportunities for university students to observe how children present experiments, and to interact with them, which results in a rewarding experience for the future educators. The undergraduate Teaching and Learning program aims to meet the learning needs of children between 0 and 12 years old in different languages.
It provides knowledge about the pedagogical methodologies used in Andorran schools and competencies for democratic citizenship and the protection of human rights. It also emphasizes innovation and the use of technologies in the pedagogical field. The program's curriculum follows?, which is based on the study and assessment of the specific and cross-cutting competencies of each syllabus and the university.
This model deconstructed the idea of subjects and knowledge in separate boxes and built a new concept of learning units or modules plus challenges that require solutions integrating different areas of knowledge. One of the model's guiding principles?is Learning from action?-students must demonstrate through action that they have internalized the fundamentals of the science- is actually the basis of the?Children’s University?project.
Such a project is aligned with the?, particularly the?Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education.?
