Discovering Finland's Education System: Fulbright Forum

Two day Fulbright Forum: Education, Innovation, Science and Art at the University of Helsinki and at Aalto University

Fulbright Grantees 2017-2018

I am Giving a Presentation on Teacher Education

This was a unique opportunity to hear about the research and projects that the current American Fulbright scholars, teachers, and graduate students did in Finland. The first day focused on Education. All the Helsinki teachers as well as Jyväskylä teachers presented their findings at this forum.

I gave a presentation on STEM Education for the 21st Century: Finnish Policy and Classroom Innovation with my “STEM Fulbright Science Geek Peeps”- Linda and Maya. This was a group effort. I talked first and gave insight in teacher education, especially how teachers are trained, followed by a presentation by Maya on what to do if the education is not enough and then Linda talked about classroom activities. Linda came up with an idea on the activity that focused on team work. We provided 6 plastic cups, one rubber band and four strings to a group of 4 participants. People needed to pile up the cups without using hands. After they figured out how to do it, they all had to bring their cups into the middle of the classroom and pile then all up. It was wonderful to see how eagerly the University professors took part of the science activity we organized. There was so much laughter in the room. Everyone enjoyed the activity.

We had the morning session along with Sam, who went first and after lunch, which was provided by Fulbright Finland in the cafeteria, other educational Fulbright grantees gave their talks. Enjoyable day.

The following day, we took a bus from the railway station and headed to Aalto University in Espoo. I arrived early, and had to walk briskly because the temperature had plummeted to -12 C. The bus ride was nice, I sat with Linda. We talked about the previous day experiences.

At the Aalto University, the Scholars and Students talked about their research findings. We had an auditorium for us the whole day. Lunch was served at the cafeteria that was provided for us by the Fulbright Finland. Several interesting talks, especially one was about DNA profiling and DNA origami and supposedly my son-in-law knew the group. I truly enjoyed all the talks.

We took the bus back to Helsinki and I ended up having a beer at the Center with Linda (she has a Coke), before we departed.