Department of Sciences

Science classes have a special meaning in all levels of education and especially in Ellinogermaniki Agogi as they help students to better understand the laws governing our world.

Students come in contact with physical phenomena outside school life, at home, in the street, while playing and doing sports... This contact though with physical phenomena isn't systematic due to the fact that its order is coincidental and the child's primary aim is not to critically analyse and understand it. The way to face the phenomena isn't designed having in mind the reasons behind these physical phenomena and the learning objectives are not pre-set.

On the contrary in school life, the curriculum/ materials that the students are presented with are specially designed and organised having as a base the teachers desire to achieve specific learning objectives.

A basic aim of science lessons in our technologically advantaged era is to provide sufficient education and learning skills that will be useful throughout a student's life. To contribute to the development of learning skills like observation and critical thinking as well as to provide the necessary assistance for the creation of a critical view in relation to crucial but everyday problems that have to do with technology.

As we can see from the above, science classes should have a practical side. Science teaching should be closely linked with physical phenomena we come across everyday. According to the theory of constructivism, every student builds his/her perception of the world. The physical reality is one and given, the way thought that each of us attempts to understand it, is different. It develops as a process according to personal encounters and other people's perceptions. Thus at a schooling environment, more emphasis should be given at the development of the learning skills that would enable students to form these perceptions rather than the content of the learning material itself. We should provide students with the chance of personal authentic experiences that have to do with everyday observation. Furthermore, besides the practical side of it and the development at a class level the observation and interpretation skills in relation to the world around us, science teaching need to transmit to the students a certain methodology framework, a research system that is closely linked to sciences. The development of observation skills, the creation of a hypothesis and the research plan designed for the hypothesis in a systematic way are taught through sciences but are also useful tools in a number of other learning areas as well. The systematic way of a scientific inquiry is a useful tool for students generally.

In Ellinogermaniki Agogi the Guided Research Teaching model was chosen as the most suitable teaching model for the accomplishment of the above aims. This model uses in a number of ways experiments aiming at the transmission of elements of the scientific methodology to the students. Each physical phenomenon is reduced to a problem students are called upon to solve. With the term Research in the title, emphasis is given in the attempt to help students explore the research procedures according to their already existing knowledge, the means available and the methods according to their learning abilities. By what is said above we can see that research methodology can be understood even from a primary school student.
With the term Guided, emphasis is given to the fact that the learning- researching course that the students take is not random or free but it develops according to certain steps organised in a chronological sequence. The teacher's role is to organise the students work and coordinate their research initiatives according to this course of action, having as an aim the understanding of learning structures so that anything new can be fully understood.

One of the basic problems for the teaching of sciences is the lack of linkage between the three levels of education, as there is no continuity. In Ellinogermaniki Agogi, the teaching of sciences in each level is organised having in mind an overall learning plan, independent of the administrative separation of schooling into three levels. The learning content is formulated according to the students' age group and so is teaching. In each level, the learned content is used and linked to new material that is going to be presented to the students in the future.

The qualitative explanation of the physical phenomena comes before the quantitative and formalistic one. In this way, the teaching of sciences in Primary school is focused mainly in a systematic observation. Students don't face physical phenomena as random and are called upon to register their development through methodological observation. Students learn to organise their observations and to perform simple experiments.

Ιn Junior High School, teaching aims in the qualitative approach of explaining phenomena with a gradual introduction into the quantitative and formalistic approach.

In Senior High School, learning is established with the conclusion of quantitative approach and formalistic learning that is linked to phenomena whose qualitative explanation has been given at a previous educational level. Therefore students don't just learn formalism of by heart but really understand its dimension as mathematically condensing qualitative information.

The science classes being taught in Primary school as well as Junior and Senior High School are taking place in specially designed labs, fully equipped for teamwork.

Science classes are enriched during excursions. All labs are linked to the Internet. The development of the class is also supported by the department's publications.