Science on Stage Festivals 2024 in Turku – apply now with your project!

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Teacher, early childhood educator, or teacher-student in the field of STEM education, do you have a teaching idea, material, or best practice that you would like to share with other teachers around Europe?

Science on Stage festivals is Europe’s largest educational event for STEM teachers. The international fair aims to share ideas, learn new things, and get to know international colleagues. In 2022, the festivals brought together 450 European teachers from more than 30 countries.

In 2024, the festivals will be held in Turku, Finland at the same time as the national LUMA days. Finnish teachers, among teachers from all Europan countries, will have an incredible opportunity to get to know the ideas of their European colleagues. The theme of the 2024 festival will be Sustainability in STEM education. We have compiled important information on this page for those interested in participating. You can read more about the event itself here.

How can I participate in the event?

There are three ways to participate in the Science on Stage festival:

  • By applying to present your idea at the event. The teacher presenting their idea or project has the opportunity to participate in all the programs throughout the event from 12 to 15 August 2024 for free. The presenters’ travel, accommodation, and meals are paid for during the event.
  • By applying to present your “Joint project”. Have you seen a project at the festival you especially like? Do you want to continue the exchange with an international colleague you met at the festival? School teachers from different countries who met each other at the European Science on Stage festival or at another conference/workshop (at least one of them must have attended the festival as a delegate) can apply for a travel scholarship to deepen the exchange or develop a new STEM project together. Read more here
  • As an event visitor, i.e. public, on the open day for free. We do not cover the public’s travel, accommodation, or dining expenses.

Apply now to join the Finnish delegation!

By filling out the application form within the application period, you are on your way to becoming a fair exhibitor. You can find more information about the search on this page. All teachers and teacher-students or other employees in the field of teaching and education who are over 18 years old and live and teach permanently in Finland can apply to be part of the Finnish delegation.

During the fall of 2023, 30 projects or practices will be selected from Finland, whose presenters will be able to participate in the festival for the entire four days. The project must be related to one of the guiding themes of the event, which are listed below. You can implement the project itself well before the application, for example in autumn 2022 or spring 2023. 

Guiding themes

All projects presented in the festival represent inquiry-based learning approaches.

  • STEM for the Youngest: Projects to promote STEM in elementary school for kids, 10 years or younger
  • STEM Education for Sustainable Development: Projects that contribute to the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
  • Digital Technologies in STEM Education: Projects on programming, digital education, ICT, Big Data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, etc.
  • Diversity in STEM Teaching: Projects that reflect the heterogeneity and diversity of our society, e.g. teaching methods that engage students with different learning levels or different cultural backgrounds.
  • STEAM in Education: Projects combining natural science with other disciplines, e.g. science, technology, engineering, or mathematics with arts, music, sports, history, etc.
  • Low-Cost Experiments in STEM Education: Projects that are low-cost to implement
  • Joint Projects: Projects developed collaboratively by teachers who have met at one of the past Science on Stage events (e.g., festival, webinar, professional development, network meeting, project)
  • STEM for Teachers in Training: Projects that have been developed during pre-service teacher training or teacher traineeship

The application period for the Finnish delegation was August 1–October 31, 2023. 

Project assessment criteria

The projects and practices presented at the Science on Stage festival must meet one or more of the following criteria:

  • is from teachers to teachers,
  • promotes research-based teaching of STEM subjects (natural sciences, mathematics, technology, and environmental studies),
  • integrates into learners’ everyday life or can easily be implemented as part of teaching,
  • is easy to implement with reasonable resources,
  • promotes sustainable development know-how.

In addition, we hope that selected teachers, supervisors, or students:

  • the ability to present a project or teaching practice in English,
  • a curious mind to get to know the teaching practices of other countries,
  • interest in European cooperation,
  • and an interest in sharing teaching practices within your own school, kindergarten, or learning community.


When and how are applications evaluated?

The applications are reviewed by a team of LUMA Center Finland educational experts. The team selects the 40 best applications from all the applications, after which the Science on Stage Finland steering group selects 30 projects or practices that will participate in the event. The remaining 10 applicants are on a waiting list if one of those selected cannot participate in the event.

We welcome applications from teachers, instructors, and teacher-students of all ages from all over Finland. In our selections, we try to take the following things into account:

  • different subjects and themes,
  • different levels of education and
  • the location of the school, kindergarten, or other learning community in Finland.

Selections will be made during November and applicants will be notified of the selections by email no later than 31 November 2023.

What happens when my project is selected for the Science on Stage festival?

First of all, we congratulate you! After that, we ask you to fill out the application with additional information, in English, during the winter:

  • A short summary of the project (max. 700 characters) in English.
  • An English-language poster about the project or practice, you will get more detailed instructions for this after the selection.

We will publish the name of the learning community, the name of the project or practice, and a description on the event’s website.

When the time for the event comes, we ask you to come to Turku on August 12-15, 2024. We pay for one project/practice presenter’s travel tickets/transportation, overnight stay during the event, and meals. We do not reimburse participants’ per diems or possible substitute expenses. The program of the event is free for participants.

Due to limited resources, we can only cover the travel costs of one presenter per project/practice. If you want to participate in the event with a colleague or friend, you can purchase another event ticket via the event registration form. The event ticket includes accommodation and meals during the event. The ticket office automatically calculates the ticket price and the ticket must be paid at the time of registration. Registration for the event and the ticket office will open in early 2024.

Do you have any questions?

Contact us by email at luma-keskus ((at)) helsinki.fi

We reserve the right to make changes to the information on the page.