Native Schools: the 200th workshop

After six years, seven countries and ten languages, Native Scientist has now organized its 200th Native School workshop.

Native Scientist was founded in England, in 2013, with the aim of promoting cultural diversity in science, education and society, through a range of different projects (for more details about Native Scientist´s projects, please see here).

One of those projects, Native Schools, is the pioneer project of Native Scientist, which has grown and expanded to different European countries: Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway and more recently Portugal.

The Native Schools project takes scientists to schools to talk about science with the pupils. One of the key features that distinguishes Native Schools from most of the other science outreach projects is that scientists and children speak in a common foreign language during the activities. For example, if the pupils come from a Polish background, Native Schools would take Polish speaking scientists to schools to talk to these children about science in their heritage language. This promotes scientific literacy as well as the development of language skills. It also provides the children with role models they can identify with and look up to. Native Schools are currently organised in ten different languages and a European network of over 1,000 scientists volunteer to participate in the workshops.

Reaching the organisation of the 200th Native School workshop is a great honour for Native Scientist and a great moment to thank all the scientists and coordinators of Native Schools spread all over Europe. Up to now, the Native Schools project has reached over 5000 pupils in seven countries. Without the work and passion of our volunteers, all these children could not have had access to the fascinating world of science.

Dr Sarah Berthaud, our Native Schools coordinator for French in Galway and the organiser of the workshop number 200 said: “Native Scientist is a very innovative initiative that allows children to discover science using their language skills in a fun environment. The feedback we get from scientists, children, and parents is always extremely positive! It is hugely rewarding to see children having so much fun during the workshops. I am really happy to contribute to the promotion of language and science by working with Native Scientist.”

Joana Moscoso and Tatiana Correia, founders of Native Scientist, commented: “our hearts are filled with joy and a sense of fulfillment for the journey we’ve made so far and we can only be thankful to our network of volunteers and supporters for their generosity, commitment and energy. ”

Native Scientist is an award-winning European-wide non-profit organisation that promotes cultural diversity in science, education and society. Native Scientist provides science and language workshops, science communication training, and bespoke projects for various institutions, including schools, universities and embassies. The work developed connects pupils with scientists to foster science and language literacy through role modelling and science and language integrated learning. Founded in 2013, their work reaches over 1,200 pupils a year and they count with a network of over 1,000 international scientists.