Day 4

Today we stayed in the Eleftheriades Library. We started by having a meeting with Nikos who explained the program of the information literacy and user training sessions planned for Secondary school students. Then we met Apostolos who explained to us what the primary education program consists of.

In primary education they basically focus on user education and information literacy. They have a curriculum in which they have graded the contents along the courses.

Thus, in first grade they begin to distinguish between fiction and non-fiction books. They notice the differences and are taught that in non-fiction books they can find information about a particular topic. In second grade, they are introduced to the keywords and they are made to recognize what they are. In the third year, they explain the parts of a non-fiction book: table of contents, glossary, index...

Little by little they increase this content throughout primary school until in sixth grade they are required to know how to evaluate the resources where they find information (whether they are truthful or not, where to find good sources of information, how to select relevant information, etc.).

It is a very structured and well thought out curriculum that follows through all the courses until you reach university. The aim is that they learn to relate to the library, books and sources of information that can be found on the internet and that they are able to develop a critical ability to identify what is relevant to their projects.

In fact, since elementary school students have an annual project to do. The students themselves choose the topic and throughout the year they have to complete the project. This is where the role of the library becomes relevant and where these sessions they have received come to fruition.

In primary school they do a total of 4 sessions a year except in sixth grade where they only do two sessions. In these sessions it is the librarians who lead the session. Both Nikos and Apolos have shared ideas of activities that we could develop at school, such as treasure hunts. In this activity the students have to pass tests to find the treasure. These tests consist of answering a series of questions related to books. They can find all the answers and solve all the questions in the library.

Afterwards, Iro showed the facilities of the STEM building on campus and explained how they work from kindergarten to university.

She explained to us that they work in collaboration with the university of Sant Carlos in Madrid. They also collaborate with six erasmus projects related to STEM.

It has been an enriching day, with a lot of theoretical content but I think I will be able to apply some of those contents in the future in my school context.