The UMI-Sci-Ed Platform: Integrating UMI Technologies to Promote Science Education

Currently, there is a growing research interest on emerging technologies, such as, ubiquitous computing, mobile computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), collectively mentioned as UMI technologies. The proliferation of UMI technologies will not only changethe way we live but can also offer new learning opportunities. At the same time, there is an increasing need for skills that are associated with the UMI domain in the labour market. The Umi-Sci-Ed is an EU project which explores ways to shed new light into this training aspect by introducing several model educational scenarios that incorporate UMI technologies, in order to cultivate relevant competences on high school students. This paper reports initial results achieved in this context. In particular, we give an overview of the key components of the UMI-Sci-Ed platform that aims to support the activities of Communities of Practice involved in STEM education. Students through a mentoring mechanism are provided with training material, IoT hardware kits and software tools to explore UMI technologies through hands-on activities. In this framework, example educational scenarios and the corresponding UMI applications developed are presented. The hypothesis is that the learning process can be empowered by using such UMI applications as students are provided with meaningful opportunities to participate in the learning process such as in terms of building applications that are relevant to the subject they like and having active interactions within student groups in a way that practical experiences can provide them a rich context to grasp scientific knowledge. Finally, the results of a preliminary evaluation of the proposed approach in the context of an educational workshop are discussed.