Knowledge dissemination
This activity of the diploma offers our students an experience of transmitting knowledge to non-specialist audiences (general public, primary, secondary or high school students) or to teachers in secondary or higher education.
It is part of ENS Paris-Saclay's desire to actively participate in the promotion of science and knowledge in society.
Objective of the activity
The aim is to develop skills in knowledge transfer, teamwork and autonomy. It also encourages students to reflect on the didactic, pedagogical and organisational issues inherent in the realisation of a knowledge transmission experience.
During this activity, students are accompanied by a teacher from ENS Paris-Saclay in the realization of their production. It can be carried out in groups or individually and can last for one or more years.
Validate the 'Higher Education' competence
This activity is part of the ENS-Paris Saclay diploma and allows the validation of the "Higher education" competence. The conditions of validation, specific to each activity, are based on common requirements:
- Be involved for a minimum of 20 hours;
- Produce an integrated written resource: an article, a video, a digital presentation or a report on the pedagogical and didactic reflection carried out...
A wide range of learning experiences is offered to students in connection with the various teaching and research departments.
Examples of knowledge dissemination activities
Written resources
Students write an article or a blog post, a summary note, a tutorial...
- Biology - Angelman syndrome monitoring action: scientific monitoring and writing of summary notes for the French Angelman syndrome association (AFSA). Examples of monitoring carried out by students of ENS Paris-Saclay in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
- Sciences pour l'ingénieur: writing an article for the eduscol website - Culture Sciences de l'ingénieur. Examples of articles written by ENS Paris-Saclay students: Simulation of the propagation of a forest fire, Behaviour of sponges in drying: State of the art, Realism of constructions in video games - Should we ban Minecraft?, Collapse and reconstruction of Terminal 2E of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, Yavuz Sultan Selim bridge, third bridge on the Bosphorus.
- Humanities and social sciences: writing of an article for the blog "Saclay des champs", a notebook of the research of the students of ENS Paris-Saclay in humanities and social sciences.
Videos - Physics: the 2020 virtual science festival
Scientific mediation workshops
Chemistry - The chemistry kits
Since 2015, mobile kits of simple and fun chemistry experiments have been developed by Jonathan Piard and students from the Department of Chemistry Education and Research to promote chemistry in facilities for people with disabilities or in hospitals.
The themes of the workshops linked to the kits are molecular cooking, chemistry and light and forensics. The presentation of the scientific concepts of the kit is followed by the performance of experiments.
Jonathan Piard wins the 2021 Science Mediation Award for these chemistry kits.
Computing - The "unplugged" workshops
The students design "unplugged" activities (without computers) to talk about computer science and, more generally, about science with pupils in primary, secondary and high school classes.
The cordées de la réussite
ENS Paris-Saclay is involved in the "cordées de la réussite" scheme and each year offers a day during which scientific mediation workshops are presented to middle and high school students.
Other actions
The activities are also likely to be part of the dissemination of knowledge insofar as they include a mediation or scientific popularisation component aimed at non-specialists or the general public: