Children's Universities spreading in Europe

[DetlefK]

The concept of a university for children is spreading over europe: Universities offering lectures for children, ranging from one week to several months per year.

The goal is not to replace the school curriculum, but to encourage curiosity and give a glimpse into the world of grown-ups. They hand out, quote: "appetizers for science". Accordingly, only snapshots are presented, not coherent overviews of disciplines. (Although parents tend to believe, that these programs do make their kids smarter.)

The lectures cover topics like:
* Why is the sky blue?
* Philosophies promoted in "Winnie the Pooh".
* How to dissect a dead chicken.
* Where do wars come from?
* What causes stress in snails?
* Why do germs make you sick?
* Why do girls wear skirts and boys wear pants?
* How do surgeons treat a broken limb?
* What is grammar good for?



http://eucu.net/ - Homepage of the European Children's Universities Network

http://www.spiegel.de/spiegelwissen/0,1518,715595,00.html - article about it in german

[notadmblnd]

1. there's a couple of odd subjects

wonder why they need to know how to cut up a dead chicken? And the skirts and pants thing, what's that about?

[DetlefK]

3. What dead chicken are good for?

What about kids who want to become cooks, veterinarians, doctors, biologists?

Skirts and pants? That sounds like sociology and cultural history to me, talking about sexual conventions in society. Why is a man supposed not to dress like a woman?
Or maybe the answer is more like "Skirts are from south of the alps, pants are from north of the alps."

[midnight]

2. This looks more thoughtful than race to the top. There seems

to be an effort to encourage social interaction vs competition. I wonder if any American teachers will be drawn to teacher over in Europe?

[exboyfil]

4. I am encouraging my children to watch

the myriad opportunities for online learning. We have lectures in core subjects from some of the best professors in the country available for free. Berkeley, MIT, and Stanford just to name three. I am actually amazed in how deep my daughters go in Math and Science at their age in their public school. My oldest Algebra I and Biology classes are harder than the comparable classes for me, and I took them a academic year later than she has. My youngest daughter's PreAlgebra is moving at a blistering pace covering material that is usually only reached about the 2nd Quarter of Algebra I (she is already doing multistep Algebra and different

I would not say the same for English or Social Studies (that is why I am Homeschooling those subjects for my youngest). English has gotten better for my 9th grader though (even though the talent pool she is in class with is pretty shallow).

[mzteris]

5. sounds like our homeschooling groups

in NC!

[dimbear]

6. grammar is good for

a fiver at Christmas and something on the birthday.

[DetlefK]

7. And for writing a source-code...