C9 and C12 refer to two closely synchronised activities that take place at Joensuu in Finland in association with SciFest 2016 (which takes place from 10-12th May 2016). The overall context for this annual bi-meeting, as conceived in the original project proposal, was set out in the account of last year's C8-C12 events at SciFest that you can find here. The same broad principles still apply.

C9 Scifest 2016

C9 is a 'Blended mobility of young people' activity for which the participants are drawn from SciFest. It is not itself a funded activity, in that SciFest itself takes care of the organisation of the C9 learning activity to which CONSTRUIT! contributes. To provide support for the project members who attend SciFest to organise and run C9, there is an associated 'Short-term joint staff training event' C12. The main purpose of C12 is 'familiarisation with revised MC resources' that have been under development through the implementation activity O1/A8 indicated in the project timetable below. The transformed version of the CONSTRUIT! environment for making construals that has been developed by Nick Pope with the support of Elizabeth Hudnott and Jonny Foss over the last few months will be a central focus of interest.

C9 will take the form of a workshop-style activity that can put our current ideas re making construals to the test with school pupils (as last year, we're provisionally targeting age 10-15 and 15+). The workshop activities are scheduled for Thursday-Saturday May 10th-12th. At SciFest 2015, the Saturday programme was devoted to teacher-oriented sessions, but this will not be the case in 2016 - the Saturday will be a day when pupils from all local Joensuu schools are expected to visit. At C12, we shall then review the matters arising in the light of feedback from C9 on Sunday and Monday 13-14th May. Topical issues for discussion at C12 relate to the current status and further development of the CONSTRUIT online course, how C9 and the preceding activity C15 in Athens in April can contribute to the evaluation activities O2/A3 and O3/A3, Virtual Workshops and dissemination via IGGY (see timetable below). (Note that SciFest preceded our C14 meetings in Athens last year, but the counterpart meetings this year will take place in the reverse order.)

C12 MCE joint staff training

An outline agenda for C12 is set out on here. There is funding available for representatives from all partners to attend C12 - see p71 of the project proposal for details. We shall have good representation from Warwick, Finland and Slovakia (via student representatives). Our experience of attending SciFest last year suggests that, because of the high degree of commitment that is required of UEF participants (most notably Ilkka) at SciFest, and the nature of demands on the visiting participants, it is difficult to arrange reflectve meetings that involve all the relevant parties. It may be that, as happened last year, C12 will take the form of a series of subgroup meetings, each involving different team members from UEF.

In view of the need for serious reflection on the current status of the project, with special attention to high-level matters of strategy such as drawing up the Interim Report, making plans for evaluation and future directions of work, a special project meeting has been arranged for the end of March. This meeting will take place at Warwick, bringing together visits by Piet Kommers (postponed from C6), Hamish McLeod (originally scheduled as C19 in February) and Tapani Toivonen (as funded from the extended visit from UEF representatives planned in C18). Participation from Edumotiva and Comenius by Skype for key topics. The agenda for this meeting will be posted shortly.

Those who are unable to attend C12 may be able to participate usefully by Skype - and could also possibly play some role through monitoring activities at SciFest at a distance on Thursday and/or Friday and/or Saturday 10-12 May (which is technically feasible with our current environment). All are encouraged to contribute in a similar way after consulting the further details of the proposed CONSTRUIT! contribution to SciFest 2016 currently under construction.

An agenda for C12 will be developed nearer the time.

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