Great success and one more important international recognition for the Greek IRRESISTIBLE team that won the 3rd prize in the European Reach Out! 2016 Competition organized by the European Materials Research Society (http://www.european-mrs.com/meetings/2016-spring/reachout-competition).
The Greek participation, represented by Dr. Vasileios Binas, researcher at the Transparent & Conductive Materials Laboratory of the FORTH (Director C. Kyriakides), was awarded for promoting cutting-edge research (particularly in the field of Nanotechnology), via the interaction between Researchers, Science Educators, Museum experts and Teachers. This action has been implemented in the context of the European Educational Project IRRESISTIBLE.
The program involved a total of 28 schools and 37 elementary and secondary education teachers from Athens and Crete. Students during the project had the opportunity to visit research institutes, to talk with researchers and to cooperate with experts in the development of interactive science exhibits. The final product was the construction of student-made exhibits, which were presented by the students themselves in an open event at the Eugenides Foundation in Athens and at the Natural History Museum of the University of Crete in Heraklion.
The award of IRRESISTIBLE project in european level, shows the importance of implementation of innovative approaches with the participation of different actors and serves as an opportunity to plan further actions that will bridge the existing gap between primary research, education and society.