Educational Workshops
Exploring, Experimenting, and Learning Together
The STEPS Educational Workshops create a dynamic learning environment where science is not presented as a set of ready-made facts, but as a process of exploration, discovery, and creation.
Through hands-on activities, experiments, inquiry-based approaches, and STEAM activities, participants are encouraged to observe, ask questions, formulate hypotheses, test ideas, gather evidence, collaborate, and seek solutions to authentic, real-world problems.
The aim is not only to develop an understanding of scientific concepts, but also to foster curiosity, critical and creative thinking, problem-solving skills, collaboration, and confidence in engaging with science. In this way, learning becomes active and participatory, while connecting scientific knowledge with participants’ everyday experiences and real-world challenges.
Growth Mindset in the Workshops
The Growth Mindset is at the heart of the STEPS workshops. Participants are encouraged to see challenges as part of the learning process and mistakes not as failures, but as valuable information that can lead to reflection, new strategies, and improvement.
The focus is not simply on trying harder, but on making purposeful and strategic efforts: testing different approaches, using feedback, collaborating with others, seeking help when needed, and reflecting on what worked and what could be improved. In this way, the workshops foster perseverance, resilience, creativity, and a commitment to continuous learning.
From Question to Discovery
The STEPS workshops follow an inquiry-based learning approach. Rather than providing the “right answer” from the outset, participants actively engage in a process that may include:
- Observing a phenomenon or exploring a real-world challenge.
- Asking questions and making predictions: “What do you think will happen, and why?”
- Formulating hypotheses and designing a test or experiment.
- Observing, collecting, and interpreting evidence and data.
- Discussing findings and comparing different explanations.
- Reflecting: “What did we learn? What would we change? What new question emerges?”
- Connecting new knowledge with everyday life, society, and contemporary scientific challenges.
STEAM, Creativity, and Collaboration
The activities are grounded in an interdisciplinary STEAM approach, connecting Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. Rather than simply watching a demonstration, participants are encouraged to design, build, test, discuss, and improve their ideas.
Collaboration is a key part of the learning experience. By sharing ideas and taking on different roles, participants explore challenges from multiple perspectives and experience scientific inquiry as a collective process of exploration, problem-solving, and discovery.
Inclusion and Equal Participation
The Growth Mindset Learning Labs are designed to be accessible and meaningful for learners and participants with diverse needs, experiences, and backgrounds. They place a strong emphasis on inclusion, equal participation, and creating a safe and supportive environment where everyone can share ideas, ask questions, and participate without fear of making mistakes.
Rotating roles — such as observer, recorder, materials coordinator, or presenter — can further support active participation and collaboration, giving everyone the opportunity to contribute and engage in different ways.
The Role of Researchers and Educators
In Growth Mindset Learning Labs, researchers and educators are not simply providers of knowledge; they act as facilitators of inquiry and learning. They pose questions, encourage predictions, create space for experimentation, provide feedback, and help participants connect their observations with scientific concepts.
The pedagogical dimension is therefore not an add-on to the experiment; rather, the experiment itself is designed as a meaningful learning experience. The pedagogical dimension is therefore not added to the experiment afterwards.
What Participants Gain
Through the Growth Mindset Learning Labs, participants are encouraged to:
- Engage directly with scientific thinking and the research process.
- Build confidence in exploring scientific questions.
- Develop skills in inquiry, collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving.
- Use mistakes, feedback, and reflection as tools for learning and improvement.
- Understand how science connects with real-world needs and societal challenges.
- Experience research as an open, creative, and participatory process.
