With the Académie des Sciences in 2015

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PROMOTING SCIENCE TEACHING
The initiatives of the Académie on science teaching are grounded on two pillars of action: the Delegation for Education and
Training, directed by Académie Member Christian Amatore (until 2016), is in charge of keeping a watch on topical issues
of science teaching, all scientific, administrative and legal dimensions being considered; the Standing Committee for Science
Education, chaired by Académie Member Étienne Ghys (until 2016), delves into the major science education issues the Académie
wishes to take hold of, most often with long term vision as a goal. In close cooperation with the Foundation for Scientific Cooperation
La main à la pâte - Pour l’Éducation à la science29, which is chaired by Académie Member Daniel Rouan and of which the Académie
is a founding member, the Académie des Sciences continuously promotes, through its initiatives, science teaching at primary and
middle school. The Foundation For Scientific Cooperation La Main à la Pâte - Pour l’Education à la Science was created in 2011 by
the Académie des Sciences, Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. It carries out its initiatives in
continuity with the hands-on science operation La main à la pâte ®, launched in 1995 at the initiative of Académie Members Georges
Charpak, 1992 Nobel Prize in Physics, Pierre Léna and Yves Quéré.
Its goals are:
• to actively contribute to the professional development
of teachers, particularly through the creation, in major
universities, of Houses for Science to the Benefit of Teachers
(Maisons pour la science au service des professeurs) and the
provision of various special teaching resources;
• to nurture networks of pedagogical experimentation, relying
on the world of research and on business to develop, assess
and disseminate “good practice” in science and technology
teaching;
• to be a reference point in France, Europe and over the world
in order to support public authorities in the formulation of
educational policies conducive to investigation-based science
teaching.
La Main à la Pâte was 20 Years Old !
1995-2015: to celebrate the 20 years of La Main à la pâte, the
Académie des Sciences organized a special session30 on 9 June
2015, in the presence of, inter alia, Bruce Alberts, former president
of the US National Academy of Sciences, Nicole Belloubet, member
of the Conseil constitutionnel (French Constitutional Council), and
Florence Robine, general director of School Teaching at the French
Ministry of Education. This event provided Yves Quéré with the opportunity to recall the history of La Main à la Pâte and pay tribute to Georges
Charpak, and Cédric Villani to give a lecture on the “pathemata/mathemata” association, i.e. the relationships suffering (or effort) and learning
share with one another.
In 2015, the Foundation La main à la Pâte - Pour l’Éducation à la Science also continued acting on the international side, with such notable
initiatives as: the organization of the 6th edition of the international Seminar on teaching science at the elementary and primary school levels
(1 to 6 June 2015); the opening of the Centre Eurêka in Lebanon (May 2015) in the presence of Académie Member Pierre Léna; support to
the European project Sustain and the coordination of the European project Scientix 2; the running of the colloquium Children and Sustainable
Development: a Challenge for Education, co-organized by the Académie des Sciences with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Rome,
November 201531).
In order to secure the contingent of researchers, engineers and technicians that the country requires, the French education system must
take up a double challenge: put science and technology back into the students’ minds and boost their appetites for science and technology
courses and professions. The Académie des Sciences provides support to this twofold objective through several initiatives that promote
science, especially in high schools.
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‚ Georges Charpakl
‚ Yves Queré
‚ Pierre Léna
©DR
©J. Agnelle
©J. Agnelle