Curriculum for the elective subject of Research in Practice (FIP1-01)

Purpose

Elective subjects shall help pupils develop a desire to learn and experience a sense of mastery, individually and as a group, through practical and varied work. Elective subjects are interdisciplinary subjects that contribute to comprehensive and contextual learning.

Research deals with gaining new knowledge and insight. Statements such as "research shows that" or "scientific studies have shown that" are often heard, proving that we rely greatly on research. Research shall also be critical, in the sense that it must retest previous results from research to confirm whether the results are correct, and to contribute to scientific debate. Experience with experimentation can therefore form the basis for one's own opinions and critical thinking and provide pupils with greater opportunities to participate in debates about research in a suitable and objective manner.

Learning in the elective subject of Research in Practice shall help pupils gain experience in the scientific method and scientific working methods. The elective subject shall stimulate a sense of wonder, inspire interest to test solutions and develop the ability to always ask new questions. Learning in the subject shall help pupils find explanations about observations and help pupils learn to verify whether explanations given by source materials, experimentation and observations are correct or not based on a critical approach to such knowledge.

The elective subject of Research in Practice will challenge the pupils to investigate current questions related to nature, the environment and the climate as well as culture, social life and working life. This involves finding problems the pupils wish to investigate and evaluating the many possible explanations and planning and carrying out investigations and using equipment and techniques to gather data and work with such data – eventually evaluating and communicating one's results. In this way the elective subject will contribute to learning by offering experience and skills in the practical aspects of research. The elective subject aims to stimulate curiosity and the use of imagination to find explanations. It also contributes to insight into how established knowledge and other research can be used in one's own investigations. Learning in the subject shall allow the pupils to experience just how providing and accepting feedback during an investigative process can improve the quality of results.

The elective subject takes its main elements from the subjects Natural Science, Mathematics and Social Science, but topics can also come from the other subjects from lower secondary school.