Science and Society Synergy Institute

The centre brings together scientists and education professionals. The main goal of the centre is to explore methods for improving educational practice in schools, colleges and other education organisations. A special attention is given to natural sciences, since they are the backbone of the economic growth in modern economies. The research has shown that the interest of youth in science and technology is lower as the country is more developed. This trend is especially damaging to the South Eastern Europe countries, which are trying to increase their science and technology capacity to catch-up with modern economies. The old teaching methods in these countries are not capable to provide a necessary catch-up with the modern trends, while new methods have not been developed yet to accommodate the social and cultural specifics of this region.

The centre will use various approaches to achieve the following:

• a possibility for all citizens to work on some science and technology related activity;
• a possibility for elementary and high school pupils to discover and develop their personal potential;
• identify places where ineffective science education methods are used and mitigate their negative effects;
• gather people of various age and profession under one collaborative project or activity with the goal of knowledge transfer to younger generations;
• create an inspiring and relaxing place where citizens can gather to enjoy the excitement of science and technology.

Project Coordinators

Ivan Novosel Ivan received his Master Degree from the University of Split in education in physics and computer science. Since 2007 Ivan has participated in the Summer Science Factory (SSF) project, at first as a mentor in educational activities and after 2009 as the project manager. In 2010 Ivan was the coordinator for the activities of science popularization and outreach at the Faculty of Science in Split. He was the president of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Student Association (2007-2008), and a member of the Student Club of Faculty of Science. Ivan took part at numerous scientific and expert seminars in Croatia and abroad and is actively engaged in science outreach. Apart from organizing and managing Summer Science Factory project he also took incentive in organizing several science popularization activities through the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Student Association. His professional plans are related to science education and science outreach.

Bojan Markičević Bojan received his Master Degree from the University of Zagreb in physics. He is the initiator and board member of interdisciplinary international association Consol – “Constructive solutions and conflict resolution activities in conflict areas”. Bojan has organized and moderated more than 50 seminars, lectures and workshops and held numerous popular scientific lectures and seminars. In 2010 Bojan received Wiser-U award for the most interdisciplinary project, and the best project by public, Beijing, China (2 out of 6 awards in the international competition). Apart from science popularization and social engagement Bojan is also actively involved in student associations. He is a founder and first president of Faculty of Science student club “Ćumez” (www.cumez.org) and founder and first president of Faculty of Science student association “Primus”. Bojan also was one of the founders of SoS-PMF, alliance of organized students from Faculty of Science and the head organizer of Student Supervising Elections (ĆONG) initiative. Bojan is Editor-in-chief of Science on Air radio show at the Radio SC in Zagreb.