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ESERA 2024 Summer School

ESERA 2025 - Copenhagen

ESERA Summer School 2024: Call for proposals 11/2022

November 2022: The ESERA Executive Board invites proposals from established science education research groups to host the ESERA 2024 Summer School.Interested colleagues’ proposals (in electronic form) should reach ESERA board member, Bob Evans before January 31, 2023. Questions about the proposal are welcome before then.

Proposals should contain the following:
• the names of the local organizing committee members
• the applicants’ names, institutions and a 2-page CV for each
• the proposed location of the conference, with a description of how the venue aligns with the summer school needs (see below).
• details of previous involvement of the organizers in ESERA events and a rationale (500-1000 words) indicating why their proposal should be chosen

Things to know
• Plans for the summer school must still include three possible formats:
o full participant in-person attendance (traditional arrangements)
o full virtual participation
o a hybrid summer school where there is a mixture of in-person and virtual attendees.
• Since a full virtual or hybrid summer school will require additional planning beyond traditional arrangements, the organizing group needs to have the personnel resources and additional time as a part of their proposal.
• The board is interested in locations accessible (both geographically and financially) to a large number of European Science Education PhD students.
• Countries where the Summer School has not previously been held are encouraged to apply.
• The principal organizer(s) is/are expected to attend the summer school prior to the summer for which they are bidding. This person will participate in the summer school as a staff member and be financially supported by the Board.
• The Summer School is paid for by student contributions (500 euros or less each) as well as an ESERA Board contribution (near 15,000 euros). These funds pay for room and board for all students and staff, venue costs if not donated by the sponsoring university and a social function during the summer school week. Depending on the country and location of the summer school, additional funds donated from a local agency may be needed. These funds will not be necessary if local room, board and venue expenses are covered by student and Board contributions.
• The total maximum that students should have to pay is 500 euros. Forty-nine students will be selected to attend. Two of the 49 are selected by NARST each year and are funded by NARST.
• A venue at or near the organizer’s university facilities is preferred since it helps with planning and organization and saves costs.
• The Summer School needs a lecture hall for 80 persons (for a daily plenary, but this is not required for the full duration of each day); seven group rooms with projection (nine persons in each room) and three or four workshop rooms (25 persons in each room).
• Meeting rooms and participant residences close to each other are highly desirable.
• At least 2/3rds of the residence rooms should be single rooms with some doubles for students who prefer to share. Staff should be accommodated in single residence rooms in the same or a nearby facility.
• Digital capabilities among the organizing group need to be able to handle, if needed, a hybrid or virtual summer school. Some elements of even a fully site-based summer school will also require digital skills, such as digital presentation and review of posters. The local organizing group will want to post a unique web-site for their summer school, either locally or/and on the ESERA site, using their own university expertise.
• The number of student and staff applicants varies greatly from year to year. Recent ranges have been from 60 to 100 PhD students and from 25 to 40 staff. An important task for the organizing committee is to arrange for the review of the student applications by ESERA members and then the local organizing committee makes final student choices. In addition, the LOC develops a matrix of staff based on the applicants for approval by the Board. That means that all staff and students attending the summer school are selected from applications.

The sequence for selecting the ESERA Summer School 2024 organizers
• Announcement call November 2022
• Proposals due January 31, 2023
• Decision made at ESERA Board meeting in March 2023
• One or two organizers of 2024 attend the 2023 Summer School in Landau, Germany (July 2 – 8, 2023)

COPENHAGEN 2025

Established in 1995, ESERA aims to enhance scientific
literacy for all through research in science education.

Various professional activities support community building in science education, dissemination of
research findings and professional development of researchers from different career stages.
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