ECTN General Assembly 2021 Report

ECTN General Assembly 2021 Report

The ECTN General Assembly took place at the Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology (DCBB) of the University of Perugia, Italy on 11-12 September 2021.

This was a very successful hybrid meeting with 30 members present in Perugia and 32 members joining online. It was chaired by Emmanuel Sinagra, Head of Chemistry and Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Malta, who ended his 3-year mandate as President of ECTN at the end of the session. He becomes the ECTN Vice-President for the next two years. He handed over the reins of the Association to Sanjiv Prashar, Professor of Chemistry at Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, who becomes our new President.

Marjan Veber (University of Ljubljana) was re-elected as ECTN Treasurer, and three members of the Administrative Council, Lucjan Chmielarz (Jagiellonian University, Krakow), Cristina Femoni (University of Bologna), and Noelia Faginas Lago (University of Perugia) were re-elected for a further 3-year mandate as Ordinary Members of the Administrative Council.

The ECTN was welcomed to the University of Perugia by Prof. A. Macchioni (Director of the DCBB) and Prof. N. Balucani, Head of the School of Chemistry. They gave short presentations of the Department and the School of Chemistry, respectively.

The first plenary lecture, concerning technology transfer, was given by Prof. G. Cruciani, the Deputy Rector for Technology Transfer at Perugia University. He gave three recent examples of how bringing together university researchers and private companies, and facilitating dialogue between them, has led to successes in guanidine thiocyanate production (needed to abstract and analyse RNA SARS-Cov2 virus), surface sensitizer production, and finding a non-toxic substitute for Fibronil.

This was followed by a presentation of the Erasmus+ project STEM-CPD@EUni, of which ECTN is a partner, by Prof. Iwona Maciejowska (Jagiellonian University, Krakow). Details of this project, whose aim is to promote the idea of discipline-oriented Continuous Professional Development among STEM lecturers, can be found on the ectn.eu website.

A presentation of the activities of the European Young Chemists Network (EYCN) was given by Max Mensch, the EYCN President. We look forward to developing strong links with this very active network which is a part of EuChemS.

On the second day of our meeting we were provided with two presentations, a plenary lecture by Jürgen Langlet (MNU Germany) and a flash presentation by Javier Lacadena (Complutense University, Madrid). Jürgen Langlet presented the work carried out by the MNU (German Federal Association for Mathematics and Natural Sciences teachers committed to quality and progress in STEM teaching) to produce a Common Reference Framework for Natural Sciences (CRFS) using the model developed in the Common European Reference Framework for Languages (CERFL) that so successfully created the A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2 levels for language competences in Europe. The report can be downloaded from the MNU website at www.mnu.de

Javier Lacadena presented the work done at the Complutense University, Madrid on using the EChemTest as an evaluation tool in chemistry to compare students in three different teaching programmes: students taking chemistry with students taking a chemistry double degree; students taught in English with students taught in Spanish; and students taking their course in the mornings with those taking the course in the afternoons. The results were limited due to the Covid pandemic and the comparison will be made again in 2021/22. However it was clear that the EChemTest is a valuable tool for assessing students’ knowledge and skills in chemistry. More details are provided on the VEC Committee pages of the ectn.eu website.

The following is a list of activities/actions that ECTN has agreed to work on. It provides many activities in which members are urged to participate. The more you put into the work of the ECTN the more you will get out of it.

  • Set up a system for providing associate or emeritus membership of ECTN to keep ex-members informed of our activities and allow them to participate after retirement;
  • Link ECTN to the EuChemS work party on Ethics in Chemistry.
  • Submit at least one ERASMUS+ project proposal per year.
  • Members are invited to propose people for the ECTN Award of Merit.
  • Encourage each ECTN member to nominate at least one person to work on one or more of the EChemTest question libraries, especially General Chemistry 1 and General Chemistry 2.
  • Encourage each ECTN member to enter their students in the EChemTest competitions (see details on the Students Activities work group web pages).
  • Encourage each ECTN member to provide at least one person to help with translating the Chemistry in Everyday Life EChemTest. See details on the webpages of this work group.
  • The Chemistry Student Mobility database is going to be improved and updated. Once this has been done we will launch a campaign to get all ECTN members to provide details for this database.
  • The ECTN is a partner in an ERASMUS+ project proposal, DISTINCT, for Digital Support in Chemistry Teaching. The coordinator, Marek Frankowicz (Jagiellonian University Krakow) has not yet received the result of this application. However, we will work on at least some of the proposed activities in the project whether it is accepted or not.
  • We need to publicise ECTN more. We plan to revamp the website and have a wide ranging publicity campaign. We seek your suggestion for this.
  • We wish to set up new working groups, one per year, and invite members to submit proposals to the Administrative Council. Proposals should include the proposed clear remit for the new group, and the names of 3 or 4 people who will form the core of the group. The group can apply for ECTN funds if they believe this is necessary.
  • We encourage all members to apply for Eurolabels® and we seek to increase the number of accreditation agencies licensed to award these labels. A publicity campaign for this will be launched.

This list is by no means complete and further activities will be publicized later. There is plenty there for all members to get active in the ECTN.

Noelia Faginas Lago and her team, and Nineta Hrastelj and Anna Robinson, were all sincerely thanked for the great organization of the meeting both in Perugia and online. The Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Perugia are thanked for hosting our meeting.

The 2022 ECTN General Assembly will take place in Budapest on 8 – 9 April 2022 and will be organized jointly by Livia Simon Sarkadi (Institute for Food Science and Technology, the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Hungarian Chemical Society.

ECTN General Assembly 2022

ECTN General Assembly 2022

It has been decided that the 2022 General Assembly of ECTN will take place at the Institute of Food Science and Technology, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Buda Campus, Budapest, Hungary on 8 – 9 April, 2022. The meeting will be organised jointly by the Institute for Food Science and Technology (Chaired by Livia Simon Sarkadi) and the Hungarian Chemical Society.
As you see, we have moved the date back to April as has been the usual time of year for the meeting except for the past two years when the Covid pandemic upset our arrangements.
We are very hopeful that the pandemic situation will allow the meeting to go ahead as planned. We will make a further announcement at the end of January 2022 to confirm this or to provide alternative arrangements if necessary.
Please reserve these dates in your diaries now. We are planning a programme over two full days (Friday and Saturday) that will be attractive to all members.
ECTN General Assembly 2021 – Online Participation Now Possible

ECTN General Assembly 2021 – Online Participation Now Possible

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: ONLINE PARTICIPATION AT THE ECTN2021 GENERAL ASSEMBLY IS NOW POSSIBLE
Following a number of requests from members it has been decided to provide facilities for online attendance at the 2021 General Assembly. The meeting will be a hybrid meeting with both online and face-to-face attendance.
We hope that this will enable you to participate in the meeting and contribute to the work of the committees and work groups. If your institution has paid the ECTN membership fee for 2020 and/or 2021 you will be able to vote in the election.
It is important to note that for online attendance you MUST complete the registration form on the meeting website at https://ectn-ga-2021.weebly.com
 
The deadline for registration for online attendance is 8th September 2021.
 
Please note that for online attendance you do not need to pay the registration fee.
Details of how to join the meeting online will be provided in the near future.
ECTN General Assembly 2021 – Registration Open

ECTN General Assembly 2021 – Registration Open

Registration for this meeting is now open via the meeting website at https://ectn-ga-2021.weebly.com

The ECTN General Assembly will be held on 11 – 12 September 2021 at the University of Perugia, Italy.

Associated meetings for committees, the Administrative Council and coaching events will be held on 9 and/or 10 September.

Documents concerning this General Assembly, including those for the elections to take place, have already been sent to all members by e-mail. If you have not received these documents please contact the General Secretary (anthony.smith@cpe.fr).

Details about this meeting, including the meeting programme, are available on the meeting website at  https://ectn-ga-2021.weebly.com.

ECTN General Assembly 2021 – Date Confirmed

ECTN General Assembly 2021 – Date Confirmed

It is now confirmed that the ECTN General Assembly will take place on 11 – 12 September 2021 in Perugia, Italy. There will be committee, work group and project meetings in the days before the General Assembly. All University of Perugia Covid requirements and recommendations will be followed.

More details, such as registration, hotels, draft programme, and elections will be put on the ECTN website and the meeting website in the near future.

There will elections for three positions on the ECTN Administrative Council. Please consider nominating yourself or one of your colleagues.

This will be our first physical meeting since 2019 and we look forward to seeing you all in Perugia in September. Please make every effort to attend.

Workshop “How to design a MOOC?”

Workshop “How to design a MOOC?”

An on-line LTT event from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 17th to 20th February 2021

The workshop with the title “How to design a MOOC?” was organized in the frame of the STEM-CPD@EUni project (2020-1-PL01-KA203-081802) and took place on-line from 17th to 20th February 2021. Albeit the event was initially planned to take place at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, due to COVID-19 restrictions it was organized online. The programme of the training event can be found at: https://micromoocs.eu/moodle/course/view.php?id=2

At the workshop, groups from the University of Amsterdam, Jagiellonian University from Kraków, University of Ljubljana, Rey Juan Carlos University from Madrid, University Federico II from Napoli, and University of Oulu participated, with on average 25 people attending each session. The programme was composed of four key-note lectures given by Prof. Dr. Paul Taylor (University of Leeds, UK), Prof. Dr. Marko Radovan (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Prof. Dr. Andrew Parsons (University of York, UK), and Prof. Dr. Barica Marentič Požarnik (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia). Additionally, there were oral presentations and hands-on sessions by Mitja V. Iskrić and Sanja Jedrinović (both University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) and Nadya Stels (iSpring Solutions). As the workshop was principally a learning and training event, a large amount of time was devoted to round table discussions and group work. At the end of the workshop, short presentations by each group regarding their progress in designing their own microMOOCs were given. From these presentations and responses of the participants (in the form of questionnaires) it was clear to see that everyone had gained a huge amount of new knowledge in the design and production of microMOOCs, as well as additional confirmation regarding the importance and efficacy of MOOCs in teaching STEM disciplines and beyond.

                                                            Assist. Prof. Dr. Črtomir Podlipnik and Assist. Prof. Dr. Krištof Kranjc

(Organizing Committee at the University of Ljubljana)


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