Successes and failures of enhancing the bridge between secondary and higher education: Project LAQUIMICA.NET

Abstract

Since 2004 the Department of Chemistry of the University of Girona promotes a series of activities to increase contact with high school students and teachers. These contacts allow for mutual assessment, provide better knowledge of the chemistry curriculum of students entering the University, foster improvements in teaching and innovations within the Bologna European Higher Education Convergence Process (EHECP), dims the frontier between secondary and higher education, and approaches University to the high school student. Examples of activities consist of "The Saturday of Chemistry", oriented towards the last three years of high school, the "Chemistry Fair", meetings with high school teachers, class group laboratory sessions at university facilities, calls for prizes in high school chemical research, "Nano!Reacciona!", a preuniversity research workshop, and development of website "LaQuimica.Net". These initiatives are indeed useful to improve teaching and learning. Furthermore, they allow to understand better the new role of university professors and makes innovation within EHECP much easier