2015 Best Practices in Education Award

Informatics Education in Primary and Secondary Schools

October 2015 - Award Winner and Ceremony at the ECSS 2015 in Vienna

The winner of the Informatics Europe 2015 Best Practices in Education Award is the Bebras "International Challenge on Informatics and Computational Thinking", proposed by Prof. dr. Valentina Dagiene (Vilnius University, Lithuania) and dr. Wolfgang Pohl (BWINF, Germany) on behalf of the Bebras community.

The Award, organised annually by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Microsoft Research, was presented at a special ceremony held in Vienna, Austria, during the 2015 European Computer Science Summit, where the award winner presented the impact of their project. “Microsoft is proud to sponsor this award." says Judith Bishop, Director of Computer Science, Microsoft Research. "Involving children in all aspects of computing early on is the best way to ensure that they will continue in the discipline as a career.”

Bebras is an international initiative organising an easily accessible and highly motivating on-line contest to promote computational thinking with teachers, pupils and the general public. Founded in Lithuania in 2004, it has grown rapidly to attract over 900,000 participants in 24 European and nine other countries around the world. “The Bebras community was selected for the tremendous success the project has seen in increasing awareness and encouraging positive attitudes towards Informatics at school across many countries,” comments Steve Furber, Professor at the University of Manchester and Chair of this year`s Award Committee. Click here for more information on the project.

The Award winner was selected from ten outstanding award nominations. “We have been particularly impressed by the quality of the nominations and the vibrant and diverse initiatives they describe aimed at promoting Informatics in schools”, mentions Steve Furber. Honourable Mentions were given to two further projects:

• The ALaDDIN working group in Milano, Italy, also part of the Bebras community. Click here for more information on the project.
• The PLAN C (Professional Learning and Networking in Computing) project in Scotland. Click here for more information on the project. 

The winner and honourable mentions were selected by a prominent team of international experts in an evaluation process that ran from March to August 2015.  

August 2015 - Winner selected

The winner of the 2015 Best Practices in Education Award was selected by the experts of the award committee, chaired by Professor Steve Furber, Professor at the University of Manchester. The winning project will be publicly announced at the ECSS 2015 in Vienna, during a special Award Ceremony, where the award winner will present the impact and results of their project.

 March 2015 - Call for Participation

Informatics Europe proudly announces its 2015 Best Practices in Education Award devoted to initiatives promoting informatics education in primary and secondary schools.

The Informatics Europe Best Practices in Education Award recognizes outstanding European educational initiatives that improve the quality of informatics teaching and the attractiveness of the discipline, and can be applied and extended beyond their institutions of origin.

The 2015 Award focuses on curriculum initiatives promoting informatics in schools as a mandatory subject for all students. The Award will reward a successful teaching effort in Europe that:

• has made a measurable difference in informatics education in schools
• is widely applicable and useful for the teaching community
• has made a measurable impact in its original institution and beyond it

The Award will honor original contributions that outline successful initiatives for teaching informatics fundamentals in schools. Experiences and reports on how to use software or hardware tools to improve learning in other disciplines than informatics will not be considered.

Examples of impact include course results, student projects, textbooks, influence on the curriculum of other schools.

The 2015 Award will again be funded through a generous Microsoft grant.

The Award carries a prize of EUR 5,000.00

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Board and of the Award Committee are not eligible.

The Award Committee will review and evaluate each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

Proposals should be submitted only at:

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iebpea2015

The proposal should include:

• Names and addresses of the applicant or applicants;
• Indication of whether the submission is on behalf of an individual or a group;
• Description of the achievements (max 5 pages);
• Evidence of availability of the curricula materials to the teaching community (max 2 pages);
• Evidence of impact (max 5 pages);
• A reference list (which may include URLs of supporting material);
• One or two letters of support. The letters of support may come for example from school management or colleagues in the same or another institution.

Deadlines:

• Abstract: May 1, 2015
• Full proposal: June 1, 2015
• Notification of winner(s): August 1, 2015

The Award will be presented at the 11th European Computer Science Summit, in Vienna, 12-14 October 2015, where the winner or winners (one representative in the case of an institution) will be invited to give a talk on their achievements.

Award Committee:

• Steve Furber, The University of Manchester (Chair)
• Muffy Calder, University of Glasgow
• Michael Caspersen, University of Aarhus
• Christine Choppy, University of Paris 13
• Michael Fourman, University of Edinburgh
• Maciej Sysło, University of Wrocław & UMK, Toruń
• Letizia Tanca, Politecnico di Milano

Further inquiries:

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