‘Agencia de Nanocrític@s: Timeline Trip’ is the fourth edition of a solid project that arose in 2017 from the need to cover educational content on nanoscience and the development of critical thinking that did not exist in the educational curriculum. It is an inclusive project to improve scientific, technological and innovative education, aimed at students of Early Childhood Education, Special Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education and Baccalaureate of the Community of Aragon. This project aims to train participants in the search for solutions developed by their own means, enabling them to think critically and make better decisions.
In this edition, it expands and evolves towards innovative contents of critical thinking oriented towards the history of science with a gender perspective. This project is funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and designed and coordinated by the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon (INMA), CSIC-UNIZAR, the initiative seeks to introduce the necessary didactic elements to continue innovating through the renewal of attractive and updated formats. The ultimate goal is to maintain the interest of the target public in this activity and to pay special attention to the adaptation of some of the resources generated for Special Education.

Activities and formats

Thanks to the didactic tools and workshops of Nanocrític@s Agency, both its face-to-face version and its digital version, 100% practical, students take responsibility for solving the problem proposed to them and learn the methodology by applying it to solve a situation by their own means. The contents are adapted to the different educational levels and the contextual themes have been specially designed to capture the attention of the target audience.  In this sense, the theme of the workshops for Infant, Primary and Special Education is called ‘Dinosaurs and nanotechnology’. Pupils have to find out how and why the Earth is populated by dinosaurs overnight, and what to do to survive by applying the steps of decision-making and evidence-based enquiry. Meanwhile, for Secondary and Baccalaureate the theme is called ‘Space travel and nanotechnology’. In this case, young people must apply critical thinking and evidence-based enquiry to survive on Mars and make it back to Earth. 

As for the rest of the content, the project already has different tools in the form of graphic stories (stories and comics), didactic guides, experiential nanoscience briefcases and workshops adapted to be carried out both live and online. The formats of the Detector Nanocrític@ competition, which seeks to assess the skills acquired by students through a challenge, and the format of the Atomic Fake News Agency for social networks have been renewed. In this case, we propose an extension and evolution of the ‘Nanocrític@s Agency’ project, focusing it on the History of Science, with the aim of turning it into a transversal project that can be used by teachers from different disciplines, as it works on the real historical context, with the ultimate goal of demystifying aspects of the history of science, with a special nod to women scientists. 

New features

This year we will use an innovative format such as the creation of a ‘real game’ through complementary briefcases with experiences related to myths or false beliefs about the contributions of women scientists and technologists throughout history. The briefcases will be accompanied by educational cards with the appropriate historical context and dynamic activities for the classroom, based on gamification, which will allow the key concepts to be worked on. 

A collaborative Timeline Trip will also be created, thanks to the participation of different schools, which will collaborate in the creation of a Timeline by educational level on the history of science with the aim of disproving unproven scientific facts or clarifying false information.