The European Physical Society (EPS) is at the forefront of integrating innovative technologies into education with Discovery Space teacher training including AIMLOW: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Online Workshops. These initiatives aim to inspire educators, equip them with modern pedagogical tools, and provide students with engaging learning experiences rooted in inquiry and critical thinking.

Discovery Space: A Gateway to Exploratory Learning

Discovery Space is an ambitious EU-funded project designed to facilitate students’ inquiry-based learning using an online Enhanced Learning Environment. Students are guided through differentiated pathways tailored to students’ progress.  Learning scenarios engage learners in a variety of physics and non-physics topics, from genetics to astrophysics and everything in between. Discovery Space seeks to transform traditional education by placing students in active problem-solving roles while leveraging AI as a guiding tool.

EPS project officer Michael Gregory is in charge of the Discovery Space Teacher Training Academy, providing professional development online and across Europe.  In-person workshops have already taken place in Bulgaria and Spain, with more planned for 2025 there, in France and across Europe.  Keep an eye on the Discovery Space website: https://discoveryspace.eu/ or contact the author to be informed of when there are upcoming workshops near you!

Training sessions are planned and executed in collaboration with local partners, and the specific contents adapted to local needs and requests.  Workshops last anywhere between 1.5 hours and a whole day, and either focus exclusively on Discovery Space or often include more general sessions on AI in the classroom and low-cost experiments.  These sessions introduce educators to the platform’s features, and differentiated learning scenarios like “The Magic of Refraction” and "Zookeepers of the Galaxy."

Discovery Space Learning Scenarios

“The Magic of Refraction” is a learning scenario that kicks off with live demonstrations inspired by the popular Science on Stage webinar series “It’s not magic, it’s science you don’t see”, (https://www.science-on-stage.eu/event/webinar-its-not-magic-its-science-you-dont-see-part-7) followed by guided experimentation with simulations, collaborative data collection, and differentiated analysis to explore Snell’s Law and refraction. The scenario’s emphasis on whole-class data fosters a collaborative learning environment. Students analyze results with varying levels of complexity, from reviewing individual data points, to taking averages, to linearizing data to plot trend lines - the experience is adapted to the learning needs of each student.  This differentiated approach to analysing whole-class generated data was met with considerable enthusiasm - when piloted at the National Science and Mathematics Gimnazija in Sofia, Bulgaria, students asked to stay late on Friday  evening to continue their analysis and discussions.

Michael presenting Discovery Space scenario “The Magic of Refraction” at National Science and Mathematics Gimnazija, Sofia, Bulgaria.
(Photo taken by Nasko Stamenov)

“Zookeepers of the Galaxy” is a versatile learning scenario that blends astrophysics and artificial intelligence, offering teachers a novel way to make complex topics engaging and interactive. First piloted during the final session of AIMLOW, then further developed for various workshops across Spain - in Cuenca, Burgos and Espinosa de los Monteros. Its dual focus—covering key curriculum concepts like the known universe while introducing machine learning—has been enthusiastically received and highlights the growing need for resources that bridge 21st-century skills with traditional science education.

Students begin by categorizing galaxies based on visual patterns, foreshadowing the creation of a machine learning model in later phases. The scenario progresses with adaptable activities to extract a dataset of images from the Zooinverse dataset (www.zooniverse.org), then guides learners to use their dataset to train Google Teachable Machine to classify galaxy images. Through experimentation, they explore how dataset size and training parameters impact the success of their models. Reflection phases encourage critical thinking, with learners at varying levels discovering the balance between accuracy, training time, and resource use. By combining astrophysics with cutting-edge AI concepts, “Zookeepers of the Galaxy” empowers students and teachers alike, sparking curiosity and building essential skills for the future.

Student view in the “Zookeepers of the Galaxy” Learning Scenario

Several more learning scenarios are already available on the Discovery Space Enhanced Learning Environment, with even more in development, and the possibility for teachers to copy, modify and create their own scenarios adapted for their own classrooms!  Topics currently covered range from evolution, genetics, astrophysics, seasons and electricity.  Topics in the works include taxonomy, microscopy, modern physics and more!

AIMLOW: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Online Workshops

Complementing the Discovery Space initiative is AIMLOW, a six-week online course that introduces educators to the world of artificial intelligence and its practical applications in teaching. Spearheaded by Michael Gregory of EPS and Kalina Dimitrova from Sofia University, AIMLOW is a hands-on course that demystifies complex AI concepts and showcases their relevance to the classroom.

Kalina works on creating AI algorithms for particle physics experiments and takes interest in explainable AI methods.  She used her expertise to create our own simplified language model, image classifier and image generator for AIMLOW to explain how all of these aspects of AI work.  To learn more about these, see the AIMLOW course outline: https://discoveryspace.eu/join-the-aimlow-courses-and-empower-your-teaching-with-ai/ and the recordings of the sessions on the EPS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EuroPhysSoc.

Throughout the course, AIMLOW shared the focus on a theoretical foundation of how AI works and applications to classroom practice, with sessions focused on language models, image classification and image generation.  The final two sessions were more focused on classroom applications, with one session on sharing best practices and teacher resources, and the final session took teachers through the Discovery Space learning scenario “Zookeepers of the Galaxy”, which guides students to create an image classifier using Google Teachable Machine, while learning about galaxy classification and Hubble’s Tuning Fork.

Fostering a Community of Innovative Educators

A key outcome of Discovery Space and especially AIMLOW has been the creation of a vibrant community of educators eager to embrace technology as a transformative force in education. Workshops and training sessions often serve as a platform for collaboration, with educators exchanging ideas and sharing best practices.

Feedback from AIMLOW participants has been especially positive, with teachers reporting increased confidence in using AI and a deeper understanding of its potential. With the fast-pace with which AI is becoming increasingly present in society, teachers are hungry to learn more - both to help in their work, and to teach students about this constantly evolving technology.  Following the enthusiasm for “Zookeepers of the Galaxy”, more Discovery Space learning scenarios are being developed to combine areas of the science curriculum with basic AI skills.

Michael presenting Discovery Space at “Un Viaje en el Espacio” teacher training day at Museo de las Ciencias de Castilla la Mancha, Cuenca, Spain.
(Photo by Jose Luis Olmo Risquez)

Discover the future of education with EPS—where curiosity meets innovation.

Discovery Space professional development for teachers will continue to take place online and in-person across Europe.  For information on upcoming workshops, check the Discovery Space website: https://discoveryspace.eu/ or contact the EPS Project Officer Michael Gregory: michael.gregory@eps.org.

Author: Giljan de Vries

The European Physical Society and e-EPS are pleased to share the latest news for EUROfusion, an EPS Associate Member.

• Bursting the bubble of artificial solar flares
  https://www.euro-fusion.org/news/detail/bursting-the-bubble-of-artificial-solar-flares/
  

• ITER Robots: check out the video of this high school contest inspired by managing the ITER remote handling system
  https://www.euro-fusion.org/news/detail/iter-robots-la-10eme-finale-a-eu-lieu/
  

• Testing the tritium modules for breeding fusion fuel
  https://www.euro-fusion.org/news/2021/june/europe-ready-to-prove-the-fabrication-of-test-blanket-modules/
  

• Digital twins for fusion plasmas
  https://www.euro-fusion.org/news/detail/digital-twins-for-fusion-plasmas/
  

• ITER data connector prototypes pass testing successfully
  https://www.euro-fusion.org/news/detail/iter-feedthrough-prototypes-pass-testing-successfully/

The UK elections that took place last December brought no good news for all the individuals that were hopeful the UK would remain in the EU. With this outcome, it has been decided that the UK will leave the EU at the end of January 2020 and it will enter in a transition period ending in December 2020. During this one-year time-frame, the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the EC President, Ursula von der Leyen, will have to negotiate a new trade relationship. The agreement struck between the EU and UK says that this transition period can be extended by up to two years if both sides agree, but a decision must be made before July 2020[1]. Many commentators have warned that the negotiations on the future relationship between the EU and the UK are going to be difficult, especially taking into account the time-frame provided in the Withdrawal Agreement.

Brexit footprint on the European R&D

The earlier optimism that hoped that the EU would find its stability once the Brexit process was complete is being challenged. Now, it seems that the period that will follow will bring more uncertainties. Both sides, the UK and EU should strike a trade deal by the end of 2020, which most say it is an almost impossibly brief time to design a full agreement. According to Andre Geim, Nobel Prize winning physicist, Regius professor and Royal Society research professor at Manchester University, in order to prevent a disaster in the research area, the UK has shifted their populist approach and has adopted pragmatism for the post-Brexit negotiations. He also stated that he sees a slight hope in this regard, as the UK has already restored the student visa programme, cancelling the changes introduced by ex-prime minister Theresa May, which severely harmed universities and economy. “If things continue this way, it should be possible for the UK to stay in the European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Curie frameworks, two of the most valuable EU programmes and important for UK universities” [2] – Geim  pointed out. It is worth noting that UK is the biggest beneficiary of the ERC programme.

Participation in the Horizon Europe Programme

The UK government and the European Commission have both expressed interest in future cooperation on research and innovation. But such an agreement, which would include association to the EU’s research programmes, would be “unprecedented” due to the fact that every country that is associated to the ongoing Horizon 2020 has a pre-existing broader trade arrangement in place with the EU.[3]

Furthermore, Mariya Gabriel, commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, said that the basic principles for UK entry into the EU’s next big research programme would be the same as for other non-EU countries and that there is no place for “cherry picking”.[4] The UK “will be considered as a third country” and the basic principles of its Horizon Europe membership would be the same as for Canada, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand and other rich non-EU countries with which the Commission has raised the possibility of full partnership.

Nonetheless, under the terms of the Brexit transition, the UK remains eligible to participate fully in the Horizon 2020 programme, which finishes at the end of the year but there is no agreement as of yet for the next EU research programme.