There are more and more associations specializing in sciences education and this is a good thing. Therefore, what is the difference between educators form “Objectif Sciences International” and the others? Probably it is their diversity of origin and diversity in action, as well as their seriousness, effectiveness and efficiency. However, none of these things has been acquired; From the selection to the internal training, this is the description of a sciences educator at the Objectif Sciences Internationalg.

This page is addressed to both those who want to send their application and those who would like to gain an initial idea of being a sciences educator at the Objectif Sciences International, before meeting us at the location.

If you are employed stationary as a scientist or a teacher, you can contribute to this project very simply: visit this site.

Below you can read the summary of our daily expectations from the educators and who we want them to become after joining our team.

Diversity of origin

The people working with us are:

• employed stationary in laboratories, companies or schools etc. and they are seeking to have one foot in the mediation,

• employed full time at the association.

We receive between 6 and 7 times more applications than positions which are available. This allows us to recruit, as our new colleagues, people who are nice and friendly, who have the qualities that we require and especially these ones who are all different from one another.

The educators not only cover all fields of research and technology but also none of them received the same training or gained the same experience. If a member of the team was studying for a long time and he reached a very high level of abstraction, another one will be entirely self-taught and he will have the ability to achieve technological prototypes in a short period of time.

We recruit our teachers from the age of 17 and the age range goes up to over 65 years. The older people, not being external experts or interveners, will be considered elsewhere. This age diversity, which is very rare in other associations, is obviously a real source of wealth for the team, children, activities and ways to carry them out.

Diversity in action

All the members of our team, regardless of their origins (scientists, sociocultural educators, teachers etc.), have the same status of the sciences educator, even if it happens that they play different roles. For example, one of them can manage IT or logistical resources of launched activities, whereas another one will handle the relations with parents, schools and partner organizations.

Each team member has his strong points and various thematic affinities but above all they have their own ways of working. All the educators have a reputation amongst the team for their strengths or techniques they mastered the most. All this takes place even though the Objectif Sciences International has strongly marked scope of work. This is possible due to the constant communication between each team member.

We consider breaks to be a source of wealth, as they allow reviving „the biodiversity“of our educational activities and our projects. The antagonisms within our association are actually constructive. More than on the differences, we are focussed on the complementarity. This is not an empty word: an educator who will focus on the control will not be, in our association, the one who forbids”Professor Calculus" to speak, but rather the one who is appreciated for knowing how to deal with this side of Professors Calculus personality which he does not like to take care of. Conversely, Professor Calculus will be an important aid to the person being in charge, etc.

Finally, our educators have many other interests besides science or researches. One of them can practice the extreme kayak, another one teaches scuba diving, a third one makes beautiful natural jewels and yet another is a member of a music group. This cultural and sporting diversity is obviously fundamental to the educational work of good quality.

Professional research

As you can read on other pages of this site, each of our actions is the opportunity for campers to conduct real research. Some of them may be short or relatively easy for a particular age group but others are spectacular such as the realization of flying models using a new source of movement, the monitoring and protection campaign for Snow Leopards or the discovery or validation of a new technique of a agricultural production, etc.

Each one of these small researches is the element of a larger and more time-consuming research that may be formalized by an interested sciences educator in a professional form. Particularly by publishing numerous articles but also, and above all, by continuing to follow the campers in their work until their pedagogical technology transfer that we apply to the techniques which are worth of it and which are useful.

More generally, we put all our actions in the service of the human community. As in the example of IT Camps that make available the professional software to any farmer in the world who needs it!

Apply yourself what is applied to the others…

… or do not apply it.

• Cigarette: On the one hand, it is expected that a camper who comes to us and do not smoke, will remain non-smoking. On the other hand, the one who happened to be a smoker, will decrease the consumption of cigarettes or will even completely stop smoking. The same applies to the educators. Those who arrived to the Objective Sciences International as the non-smokers are encouraged to remain so, and those who were smokers on the arrival are invited to reduce the consumption of the cigarettes.

• Feats: Our educational approach has a major focus on the “Possibles”. Since we particularly work on the abilities awareness and the competences of our campers, we do the same to ourselves. The educators are required to perform technical feats in the accomplishment of which, in the pedagogical context, nobody believed. In this regard, we particularly appreciate this, full of common sense, sentence by Marcel Pagnol: “Everyone knew that it was impossible. He came, a fool who did not know about it and who did it.”

• Handicaps : We welcome and wish to host children or adolescents with disabilities on our trips. Therefore, it is logical that the handicapped can become educators in our team... In order that this kind of situation may occur, a lot of effort has to be made. However, it results in a large number of campers and educators with disabilities each year.

Reaping the benefits from association

The educators of the association are in accordance with their values. They are our field representatives and they bring our actions into play. They also drive the association every day.

You will understand it better by reading the following lines. Among our values can be found:

• the Diversity,

• the Realism,

• the Exchange,

• the Action,

• the sense of Service

• etc...

The Objective Sciences International educators conceive progress as the evolution. It is more than growth or development in the exponential meaning of the term. It is this kind of evolution where some techniques die of natural causes and they make a free space for others and different ones, we hope more advantageous.

The sense of Service, the Action, the Realization and the Transformation are the basis for our educators’ concept of Researches “TransformAction” and its application in the service of the society.
For example, if we have to choose themes for our sciences education activities, we prefer starting with the problems that are encountered by people in practice rather than with the scientific discoveries that may be “fashionable”. If any of them appears to us as an attractive one, thanks to its playfulness or newness, it can also draw our attention. In spite of all, we rather aim to use easy techniques or the knowledge easy to learn which our educators will be able to provide easily to the consideration of young people.

Seeking the solutions to the problems we presented above, the campers, in the context of our actions, lead fascinating and concrete projects. Here is a very simple example: if we prepare a Sciences Camp on the subject of Forest Fires, we do it in conjunction with scientific laboratories, working on this subject daily. Thanks to that we are able to give young people the opportunity of thinking about fire prevention, its treatment or caring for the forests affected by the disaster. The development of this highly practical topic renders service to the local residents in terms of the planetary ecology in general. It also touches upon a large number of concepts at once, such as the soil science, forest ecosystems, energy or chemistry of fire treatments, etc.

Tutors

The members of our team are tutors because they entertain children, they organize great outdoor games and original trips to make their dreams come true. They are tutors because they do their job with pleasure and their cheerfulness and joy are constantly present in everything they do.

Naturally, they are tutors because the majority of them received the BAFA training (the diploma for youth leaders and workers; French: Brevet d’Aptitude aux Fonctions d’Animateur) or another and they have the ability to supervise more or less numerous groups of people, outside the building with such ease as if they were indoor.

Some of them are athletes, some can write well, and others like crafting. For yet others kitchen has no secrets… They are tutors because they have received the necessary training to prepare at short notice all the possible and imaginable activities or set up sessions of quality even by making something out of nothing if needed.

Finally, they are tutors because they know to plan ahead. They can prepare themselves for a trip, which they will host, even 6 or 7 months before the departure.

Mediator

The members of our team are mediators because they are a real and effective link between the professional Research and our audience. Each one of them is in constant contact with several other researchers, what multiplies the possibilities of contact for the trainees.

They are also mediators because they know how to provide specialized information to all kinds of audiences educated or discriminated and all this without weakening or modifying the information.

They are also mediators because they understand, achieve and host all the scientific mediation tools such as the educational trunks, exhibitions, books, educational CDs, etc.

Educators

They are educators because everyone who works in our team followed two basic teacher trainings beforehand and in addition they signed the scientific education convention of our association.

They are educators because they actively help children, adolescents or young adults to build themselves, to find a way in their lives and to address their social and general issues outside science. They have the ability to assist troubled youth, as they pass through a difficult adolescence period for example.

They also have the tools and the skills to protect children against many attacks they may be the target of, such as the viciousness of other children, pedophile criminality, suicide, household accidents, but also the malnutrition and illiteracy...

Sciences Educators

Finally, they are science educators, as they help the future adult to find his inside engineer or researcher. They give him the opportunity to properly ask himself the questions and to learn how to do this through practice.

They actively participate in scientific literacy of their audience. It consists of people, who will be future professionals and they still have holes in their knowledge or of children, attending primary school and they have still a lot to discover.

They are sciences educators also because they share the same values with researchers and engineers such as the understanding of the conventional wisdom. This is possible because they themselves are scientists.

Yes, we set the bar very high, and we do this because we love our job.

In order to visualise all the camps of Smart Holliday that we propose : See this link Scientific Travel.

If you are hired stationary as a scientist or teacher you can contribute to this project very simply: voir ce lien.