The Karlstad University (KaU) was originally founded in 1843 as a teacher college. Over 100-year transformation and developed, in 1999, Karlstad University was founded to become one of the leading universities in Sweden.  KaU is located on one campus offering a modern and stimulating environment. The architecturally inspiring library lies at the heart of the campus providing a much appreciated study environment for about 12,500 students. Regarding education, KaU offers approximately 50 Bachelor’s degree programmes, 30 Master’s level degree programmes and 900 courses in the humanities and fine arts, social and economic sciences, natural sciences, engineering and technology, health care and teacher training. At present, several master programmes and more than 100 courses are offered in English. Today, doctoral degrees are awarded in as many as 27 disciplines. Further the University has an extensive e-learning programme with about 25 percent of the total number of students choosing to study via the internet, for example. Research at KaU has grown rapidly in recent years. To meet future demands for sustainable development, much research at the university is multidisciplinary, and the ambition is to further develop its leading research fields, notably communication and services, the environment, education, working life science, tourism and leisure, and gender relations. Cooperating with companies, authorities and organisations is a major task for the University. Besides, KaU also puts efforts on developing different activities to connect science & technology to society and schools. For example, KaU has ‘children’s university’ and ‘virtual science museum’ run regularly. This cooperation is of mutual benefit and is part of the exchange of knowledge and experience that enriches both education and research. KaU cooperates with universities in many other countries through visiting researchers and the exchange of teaching staff and students. We have agreements with about 100 universities and are involved in a number of international networks. In addition to European contact, cooperation with universities outside Europe is also of great importance and the University has agreements with institutions in many countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, India, South Africa, Korea, China and Latin America. Through open dialogue KaU also contributes to regional development and at the same time is the region’s link with the international academic community. Multi-disciplinary education and research as well as internationalization are the main goals of KaU.

Prof. Dr. Shu-Nu Chang Rundgren is a full professor of Science Education in the Department of Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences as well as the scientific leader of the Center of Science, Mathematics and Engineering Education Research (SMEER) at KaU. Her  research include teaching and learning about socioscientific issues and information argumentation, cognitive psychology in learning sciences, science communication, teacher education, students’ learning interests towards sciences and scientific literacy for all. To date, she has published 22 articles in different international peer-reviewed journals and presented 33 international conference papers. Prof. Dr. Chang Rundgren has also involved in different research projects and cooperation internationally with colleagues in Taiwan, Hong-Kong, Norway, UK and Sweden. Under the team of SMEER, there are a total of five senior lecturers and 15 PhD students in Biology Education, Chemistry Education, Physics Education, Mathematics Education and Technology Education. The main task of SMEER is to develop research about teaching and learning in sciences and to bridge the gap of research and school practices.

Dr. Carl-Johan Rundgren is a senior lecturer of Biology Education in the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at Stockholm University. He was an experienced biology teacher in a senior high school for 10 years. His research is about visualization and science communication. In this project, he will work for the Delphi part as well as project dissemination.

Dr. Thomas Persson is a PhD in bioinformatics at Stockholm University. He is interested in ICT development in relation to teaching and learning in sciences.

Mr. Torodd Lunde is a science teacher in a junior high school in Sweden and he is interested in inquiry- and context-based science education. In this project, he will work on the teacher training part.

Mrs. Susanne Walan, an adjunct lecturer, has Master of Science in biology. She has worked on promoting science and technology learning for 16 years at the university and acts as the project leader of the science center ‘Kunskapsgatan’ since September 2011. Mrs. Walan is also deeply involved in the project ‘Teknikerjakten’ since 2004, which is a recruitment project in science and technology at Karlstad University, and until today, this project has involved thousands of pupils, teachers and headmasters in the region around the university.

Local website of the PROFILES group of the Karlstad University