The Stichting Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (Radboud University) was established in 1923, is a broad-based student oriented research university that is internationally recognized not only for the quality of its research and education, but also as a centre of international relations. It has seven faculties, about 4800 staff members and enrolls over 19,000 students. The Science Education Hub Radboud University (Duth: ‘Wetenschapsknooppunt Radboud Universiteit’) is a regional Centre that aims to bring together teachers, pre-service teachers and scientists to bring science in primary education practice. The Science Education Hub is also involved in teacher education, training of (young) scientists to communicate their research and outreach activities.
The Science Education Hub Radboud University (WKRU) was established in 2009 as one of sic Science Education Hubs in the Netherlands with the main goal to make scientific knowledge accessible to primary schools, and improve the scientific attitude of primary school teachers and children. It is now the leading Science Education Hub in the Netherlands, supported by the Dutch Academy. Each year the WKRU distributes the Radboud Science Awards to researchers involved in the best and most exciting scientific breakthroughs of the university. In interdisciplinary teams with teachers and pre-service teachers, these researchers translate their research into inquiry-based science education activities. So far, this has resulted in 9 educational strategies that have been tested in primary education. Based on the experiences of the participating schools, these activities have been translated into best practices, wich are made accessible to other schools via an annual book publication ‘Scientific breakthroughs in the classrooms!’, a website and several outreach activities. In addition, the Science Education Hub Radboud University is well known for its annual Winter school, a one-day training for (pre-service) teachers in bringing scientific themes into their classrooms, by means of inquiry-based learning (IBL).
