The STEM education initiative “The Universe for All” is an international professional development program aiming to enhance science education through simple experiments and activities in modern physics and technology. In collaboration with leading institutions such as the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, the European Gravitational Observatory in Italy, a team of CERN researchers in Switzerland, and the Eugenides Foundation, as well as academic institutions in Greece, the program was piloted in Greece with science educators working in public primary and secondary schools. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to assess the program's effectiveness, focusing on the participant's needs and the impact on classroom teaching. Findings showed that hands-on teaching methods and direct interaction with researchers increased the educators' confidence and ability to engage students in STEM subjects. The collaboration fostered a shared learning environment. Suggestions were made for continuous scientific support and simplified educational tools. Overall, the educational program in question has the potential to enhance STEM education. The program's results indicate a strong need for continuous professional development in the modern sciences.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents one of the most rapidly developing fields of the current era, with its applications already supplementing various aspects of everyday life. But, with this ever-widening adoption, concerns arise regarding the processes behind its decision-making and the fairness of the produced results. This paper uses the Restricted Systematic Review format to investigate the relationship between AI, women, and engineering education. The review, conducted from IEEE Xplore Conference Papers and Journal Articles from 2010 to 2024, seeks to indicate the evolution of the subject over the designated period, the various ways AI is used in different aspects of education, the gender-related biases and discriminative outcomes that can be inadvertently replicated, but also how this technology can be deployed to advance equity. Initially, 279 papers were retrieved from IEEE Xplore, of which 111 were considered potentially relevant and were read. Finally, 34 papers were found to be relevant and were thus synthesized for this review. The results support the potential of AI in educational processes, a part of which is already being actively researched, especially regarding learning analytics and outcome prediction. In addition, the review confirms that researchers are becoming aware of the gender-based issues that can occur based on historical evidence and have begun proposing some potential actions to mitigate them. The review aims to help stakeholders further explore and leverage the capabilities of AI to foster an inclusive engineering education field for both students and teachers by identifying under-researched areas and applications.

In the context of women's integration into the working domain, the gradual reduction of the gender gap across numerous professional fields continues to be a reality. However, it is imperative to underline that the attainment of full gender equity across professional domains, including engineering, remains an unfulfilled objective. This document is aimed at presenting a general view of the gaps regarding women in engineering through a literature revision of the works included in the proceedings of IEEE EDUCON, to identify the factors that may still underlie the low representation of females in engineering and provide guidance to this conference stakeholders for upcoming studies and publications on this topic. The results indicate that factors such as entry and affordability hurdles, inadequate training and built-in prejudices, along with prevalent sociocultural norms, constrain greater diversity and inclusiveness of females in engineering majors. As such taking action now aiming to eliminate the gender gap by reversing these trends may result in the desired outcome. It may also provide new sources of global economic growth and support the implementation and achievement of sustainable development and inclusive growth. Finally, the literature review highlights the importance of going beyond the diagnostic phase while identifying lines of work to be strengthened.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have seen a rise in popularity, as they are considered as providing high-quality, diverse educational content to an equally heterogeneous student body from around the globe. However, high dropout rates have been recorded, thus raising concerns about their efficacy. This paper aims to pinpoint some of the factors behind non-completion among students in a hands-on physics MOOC in Greece. Triangulation was performed using a combination of specific research methods to collect both qualitative and quantitative statistical data. Personalized emails were sent to all MOOC students. According to the findings, key factors that influence completion rates include learner-specific characteristics, external life factors, as well as course design and structure. The results of this research may offer valuable insights for MOOC designers and educators if they are to control dropout rates and create more efficient learning experiences and student-centered MOOC environments.

The introduction of students to physics education from a young age is essential in stimulating scientific thinking and maximizing the effectiveness of STEM teaching at all levels. According to international research, the desire to pursue a profession in physics may begin in the primary school. Large research infrastructures worldwide are ideal educational environments for the development of training courses addressed to science teachers as part of their educational programs. The training lab presented in this paper was part of a CERN initiative titled “Playing with Protons," which was addressed to Greek primary school teachers who teach physics and information technology. The purpose of this lab was to integrate modern physics, cutting-edge scientific research and scientific methodology at the primary school educational level, through simple hands-on experiments on astrophysics and cosmology. Our paper focuses on the CERN astrophysics lab, which was tested in the K-6 school laboratory. The outcomes of both labs and the comprehension of fundamental physics laws by the participating teachers and students are analyzed.

This paper describes the technique and outcomes of a Massive Open Online Course lab on a series of electric experiments for primary school students, predominantly engaged physics teachers. This course will integrate simple electric and electronic experiments with fundamental physics concepts through simple hands-on experiments. The research concentrated on a teacher’s online physics lab that students in a classroom setting evaluated. The findings of both labs are assessed, and teachers’ and students’ comprehension of fundamental physics laws applied to simple electric circuits. By introducing students to experimental physics, the hands-on experiments encourage teachers to foster a research culture in their students. Our findings indicate a need for more emphasis on specific electrical and electromagnetic themes and research-based and research-validated educational materials.

This paper aims to illustrate the implementation of a lab on climate change, which is addressed to K-6 students. A part of the lab material was presented to Greek science teachers in the context of a Massive Open Online Course. The findings of both labs are assessed, both teachers’ and students’ comprehension of fundamental physics laws of heat transfer, thermal conductivity, and absorption of solar radiation. The hands-on activities encourage teachers to foster a culture of research in schools, by introducing students to experimental physics. The students who participated in the lab were able to comprehend the lab’s heat and climate change concepts, which helped them become more environmentally aware.

In this paper, we present school science teaching and learning activities using large research infrastructures as tools for primary teachers eager to engage their students in cutting-edge physics and engineering research. The activities were deployed from 2016 to 2019 in the framework of a professional development course addressed to primary school teachers, which took place at CERN. We focus on a laboratory of electromagnetism which Greek teachers tested with their students after participating in the course. The Large Hadron Collider and the particle detectors at CERN served as exciting engineering paradigms. The laboratory introduced participants to learning-by-doing methodologies for conducting simple experiments that aimed to foster student learning. The proposed laboratory is examined in terms of its impact on both teachers' and students' knowledge regarding experiments and the construction of engineering models as well as on their basic understanding of scientific and engineering research.

In October 2019, the first Greek Massive Open Online Course on science experiments for students took place online and lasted five weeks. Its content consisted of a substantial number of science experiments based on the school curriculum with simple, everyday materials. The audience addressed were not only students but also science teachers and people interested in science. A total of 7266 enrollments were recorded, the vast majority of participants being teachers of primary and secondary education. The data received during the course and the statistics that followed revealed notable findings on the need for epistemological development among teachers teaching science and engineering, the extent of teaching through experiments in Greek schools, the gender-biased inequalities in the communities of students and teachers, and the challenges that exist in the field. The course was repeated in March 2020 as soon as the pandemic spread in the country.

University students face several difficulties in comprehending electricity, as the relevant literature shows. It is well known into the scientific community that understanding electricity and circuits is fundamental to both science and technology. Thus, the design of new educational tools and their implementation are at the forefront of educational research today. Various methods have been proposed and implemented in order to overcome these difficulties. A very significant method is the Learning-by-doing (LBD). It is a modern, interesting and easily applied approach to students. In this paper we present some simple experiments on electronics we created, based on LBD, and how they helped undergraduate students improve their performance in electronics labs as well as their comprehension of scientific laws and natural phenomena.