On Wednesday 29th June, 2016, partners in the Newton Consortium gathered together in Salerno, South of Italy, to launch the project to local stakeholders and assembled media. The launch event was coordinated by QUI! Group in partnership with Beyond Srl and was attended by UK partner White Loop and San Pablo-CEU from Madrid, Spain. The launch event was chaired by the head of the Newton steering group in Italy, Professor Domenico Cariello and attended by, among others, the Deputy Mayor of Salerno who expressed her support and enthusiasm for the project and its aims. During the event, each partner spoke briefly about the project and presented the key objectives that we hope to achieve during the forthcoming months. The event received widespread media coverage across local TV and newspapers.
Following the event, all project partners attended a specific Workshop with involved teachers and school leaders at a technical institute in Salerno, which will be a location for piloting the Newton technologies and methodologies. The workshop allowed the project partners to make an ‘early exploration’ of a number of aspects of the Newton concept with key end-users. The response from the assembled educators was positive with a recognition of the need to address shortcomings in STEM teaching and an enthusiasm for the varied approaches proposed as part of Project Newton.