Aristotelio Panepistimio Thessalonikis (AUTH)

The ATLAS Research Group at the Digital Analysis and Educational Design Research Lab at the School of Education of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki has been founded by Prof. Fanny Seroglou since 2003. ATLAS is the acronym for ‘A Teaching and Learning Approach for Science’ and the research work of the ATLAS Research Group attempts to develop and evaluate functional ‘windows’ to the world of science for every citizen who seeks scientific understanding and awareness in order to be able to participate in the on going interaction between science, culture and society and assimilate scientific information necessary for making decisions that lead to a better quality of life. Prof. Fanny Seroglou is the Head of ATLAS, Dr. Vassilis Koulountzos Director of the senior researchers’ projects and Anna Letsi is Coordinator of the PhD students’ projects. The ATLAS Research Group has more than 30 members including pre-and in-service teachers, science education researchers and curriculum designers. The ATLAS group has designed, developed and evaluated multimedia instructional material (e.g. documentaries, short movies, animations, slowmations), web based learning and communication environments (http://atlaswikigr.wikifoundry.com, http://atlaswikiwork.wikifoundry.com, http://hipstwiki.eled.auth.gr ) and many case studies enriched with theatrical practices and narratives (literature, cinema etc.) for the primary school and for pre- and in-service teacher education. The ATLAS group has participated in a series of international research projects, such as: a) The International Pendulum Project , b) The MAP project: A teacher training program based on science education and history of science, c) Science Teacher e-Training (STeT): Teaching science using case studies from the history of science , d) HIPST: History and Philosophy in Science Teaching.

For the CASE project, the ATLAS Research group is focused on introducing teachers and educators to the use of slowmation in science teaching and learning. Digital narratives developed by non-experts become fresh and intriguing teaching material, while the design and development process of slowmation movies becomes an inspiring and creative learning environment.