The University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), founded in 1495, is one of the university institutions with a great tradition in Europe. USC is situated among the top ten Spanish universities regarding their positioning in the different international (ARWU, QS, SIR, Reuters, Nature Index, Webometrics) and national (U-ranking) university rankings. USC has extensive experience in the management of international cooperation projects through its active participation in different European and international programmes and networks. The USC partners in this project work in the field of science education and have a long expertise in science education projects at international and national level. They are part of the distinguished research group RODA (Reasoning, Discourse and Argumentation), www.rodausc.gal, that investigates scientific practices and critical thinking in SSIs and STEAM education contexts. USC´s extensive experience is demonstrated in the international cooperation projects and joint research record. They have co-authored numerous books, chapters and papers in refereed journals in the field of science education.The USC team, based at the Science Education Department, contribute with its expertise in the design of guidelines for teaching virtual labs based on previous problems-based studies developed in biology education. Socio-cientific issues (SSIs) constitute the main context explored in their investigations in the science classroom at different educational levels, being critical thinking and scientific practices the competences that guide the design and analysis of these studies. Its research focuses on examining the articulation of critical thinking and scientific practices in teaching & learning sequences designed around SSIs linked to the post-truth era challenges. Currently their research interest is focused on students’ development of scientific and critical thinking practices, and the examination of learning environment and teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for the significative implementation of these practices in different educational levels. The team has been working on National and European Science Education projects, such as CRITHINKEDU, P2D, Mind the Gap, S-TEAM, KidsINNScience. The USC contribute significantly to the project as regards the design of guidelines for the implementation of virtual lab activities and resources by teachers engaging students in scientific and critical thinking reasoning. The team has designed numerous resources with tasks conceived as authentic problems, with a focus on promoting argumentation and critical thinking, what would be valuable for this project. It has also developed rubrics to assess the development of scientific practices in inquiry-based activities that make part of laboratory experiences for learning SSIs. Five members and experts in biology and chemistry education at the USC are involved. See below a brief description of their contributions for the project. The representative for the Erasmus Plus project, Blanca Puig, Dr. Blanca Puig is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education at USC Galicia ((https://investigacion.usc.gal/investigadores/60004/detalle?lang=es) She coordinates the distinguished research group RODA (Reasoning, Argumentation and Discourse) in which she has developed her research in science education about argumentation and critical thinking in socio-scientific issues. Her research interest is to explore the practice of critical thinking in socioscientific contexts in the era of misinformation. She is involved as a principal investigator and as a senior researcher in diverse national, local and EU projects towards this goal. She works together with
science teachers and science educators in the design of learning environments to promote and study critical thinking in science education. Understanding the ocean is one of her passions and the main topic that she currently addresses in her research on SSIs. She has published international research articles, chapters, books, and resources for pre- and in- service teacher training at primary and secondary education on this topic for teachers’ training.
