Bitten & Mads Clausen's Foundation together with five other Danish foundations has given a donation to the initiative LEAPS. In cooperation with four municipalities, the project’s aim is to develop, during the course of six years, new engaging ways of teaching science by integrating the science lessons through interdisciplinary project based and application-orientated teaching.
LEAPS is developed by the Kata Foundation and is a school initiative that, through project-based learning, seeks to strengthen children and young people’s competencies within natural sciences and interdisciplinary skills such as problem solving, decisive thinking and communication. The aim is to prepare the students even better for the future, and to create a series of innovative model schools that can inspire other schools.
LEAPS is supported by a number of the largest foundations in Denmark; The Novo Nordisk Foundation, The Lundbeck Foundation, The Villum Foundation, Bitten & Mads Clausen's Foundation and the Association for the Manufacturing Industry.
”Good schools are important, when we are to attract employees to a local region. It is our experience that new settlers so often ask questions concerning the local schools. Therefore a local LEAPS school will be a great advantage”
Peter Mads Clausen, Chairman of Bitten & Mads Clausen's Foundation
The initiative gathers inspiration both internationally and nationally. In the USA, for example, a series of schools are very skilled in using systematic project-based learning. It can, for example, be a theatre performance that also integrates science by focusing on the construction of the stage, the sound and the lighting of the performance. The possibilities are many when you start focusing on the activities in the perspectives of an overall learning platform.
In the project LEAPS, it is emphasised that teaching is not only based on books. Projects with very definite teaching goals, demands on visual results and the use of problem solving and cooperation competencies are in focus, along with the fact that LEAPS must be useful for all students.
LEAPS stands for Learning and Engagement through Authentic Projects with focus on Science. The first schools in the LEAPS project are the Sønderskov School in Sønderborg and the Signature School in Kvaglund, Esbjerg.
Read more about the project (in Danish) by following this link.
The Kata Foundation is a charitable foundation, with the purpose of promoting knowledge and practical use of teaching and innovation. The foundation has at the moment two other teaching projects: New Science (Ny Naturfag) and Smart about Science (Klog på Naturfag) and they both support the teaching of science within the Danish primary school system. Ny Science supports schools in designing/redesigning the science classrooms, while Smart about Science helps to upgrade science teachers.
The Kata Foundation’s homepage can be visited using this link:
