Project Cl4bio

𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙙𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙨?
Key Takeaways 🔑by Antonia Symeonidou from Cl4Bio Final International Conference:
✨ Increased Job Satisfaction: Creative teaching methods can make teaching more enjoyable and rewarding for educators. Seeing students actively engaged and learning effectively can boost teacher morale.
✨ Professional Development: Implementing creative teaching methods often requires ongoing professional development, which can enhance a teacher's skills and knowledge, keeping them up-to-date with the latest educational trends.
✨ Improved Classroom Management: Engaged students are generally more focused and better behaved, reducing classroom management issues and allowing teachers to concentrate on instruction.
✨ Innovation and Adaptability: Teachers who use creative methodologies are often more adaptable and open to experimenting with new teaching strategies, technologies, and approaches, which is important in an ever-changing educational landscape.
✨ Better Assessment: Creative methods often require more varied and authentic forms of assessment, allowing teachers to assess students' understanding and skills more accurately. This can lead to more precise feedback and grading.
✨ Professional Growth: Implementing creative learning methodologies can provide opportunities for professional growth and recognition, as teachers often share their innovative practices with colleagues and contribute to educational research.

👉 Find out more at:
🌐 https://cl4bio.web.ua.pt/

Universidade de Aveiro University of Nicosia Council of the European Union ISCA - Universidade de Aveiro UNIgreen Alliance
SGGW / Warsaw University of Life Sciences

Nina Drejerska Marcin Zbiec Fedele Colantuono Demetris Vrontis Alkis Thrassou George Yiapanas Stelios Stylianou Chrystalla Pachita Valentina Chkoniya Pam Burnard

𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙙𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨?
Key Takeaways 🔑by Antonia Symeonidou from Cl4Bio Final International Conference:
✨Increased Engagement: Creative methods, such as project-based learning, gamification, or arts integration, make learning more enjoyable and interactive. This engagement can lead to higher retention of information and a more positive attitude toward learning.
✨ Critical Thinking: Creative learning encourages students to think critically, analyze problems from multiple perspectives, and develop innovative solutions. This helps them become better problem solvers and decision-makers.
✨ Deeper Understanding: By engaging in hands-on activities, discussions, and projects, students can gain a deeper understanding of the material. Creative methodologies often emphasise comprehension and application over rote memorisation.
✨ Personalised Learning: Creative approaches allow for more individualised learning experiences. Students can pursue topics and projects that align with their interests and abilities, leading to a more personalized and meaningful education.
✨ Collaboration: Many creative learning methods involve collaboration among students. This helps them develop teamwork, communication, and interpersonal skills, which are valuable in both academic and real-world settings.
✨ Long-term Knowledge Retention: Because creative learning is often experiential and inquiry-based, students are more likely to retain knowledge and skills for the long term, as they have a deeper connection to the material.

👉 Find out more at:
🌐 https://cl4bio.web.ua.pt/

l Universidade de Aveiro University of Nicosia Council of the European Union ISCA - Universidade de Aveiro

Nina Drejerska Marcin Zbiec Fedele Colantuono Demetris Vrontis Alkis Thrassou George Yiapanas Stelios Stylianou Valentina Chkoniya Marcin Zbiec Fedele Colantuono Demetris Vrontis Alkis Thrassou George Yiapanas Stelios Stylianou Chrystalla Pachita Valentina Chkoniya Ευφροσύνη Σάββα

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙖𝙮.
Key Takeaways 🔑by Pam Burnard from Cl4Bio Final International Conference:

👉 When creativity is considered as a change agent in this way, then it is possible to explore what kind of change is implied.

👉 Integrating arts and sciences through first-person experiential methods engaging the senses, and along with second-person methods to refine awareness and the ability to talk about the fine texture of experience.

👉 With posthumanising creativity inherently involving an ethico-onto-epistemology, that is, researchers are entangled with the phenomena being explored and the methodologies used, change is entwined across both methodological and pedagogical processes. Boden et al. (2021) remind us that this kind of change is not something ‘out there’ to be found, or a future to be envisioned in a linear progression, but is an emergent phenomenon that enfolds through its exploration. Similarly, Amsler and Facer’s (2017, p.1) positioning of educational futures is influential here as they forefront the role of critical anticipation, which “assumes an active and critically reflective interaction with futures that are unknowable”.

👉 Find out more at:
🌐 https://cl4bio.web.ua.pt/


@universityofnicosia @eucouncil Universidade de Aveiroil .u

Nina Drejerska Marcin Zbiec Fedele Colantuono Demetris Vrontis Alkis Thrassou George Yiapanas Stelios Stylianou Chrystalla Pachita Valentina Chkoniya Ευφροσύνη Σάββα Antonia Symeonidou

𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘆 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀
👐 From Play Dough to Powerful Ideas! Creativity took a hands-on turn at Coimbra Business School ISCAC, where students used modelling clay to prototype ideas for a new product communication campaign. Instead of jumping straight into slides and strategy documents, teams were challenged to model their campaign concept physically, turning abstract marketing ideas into tangible representations.
💡 The Challenge
Students were tasked with:
Developing a communication campaign for a new product
Defining the target audience
Clarifying the core message
Designing the emotional positioning
Identifying key touchpoints
But there was one twist: before presenting their strategy, they had to build it.
🟡 Why Use Play Dough in Marketing?
Using play dough in a communication and branding exercise unlocks powerful learning outcomes:
✔ Encourages divergent thinking
✔ Breaks rigid, linear planning habits
✔ Makes intangible concepts (brand identity, emotion, value proposition) visible
✔ Strengthens storytelling skills
✔ Enhances team collaboration
When students sculpt their ideas, they are forced to simplify, prioritise, and clarify their thinking.
🎯 From Model to Message
Each team created a physical representation of:
The product’s personality
The customer journey
The emotional impact of the campaign
The central message metaphor
The models became visual anchors for storytelling, making presentations more engaging, structured, and memorable.

Sometimes, the most powerful campaigns start not on a screen but in your hands.

👉 Keep sharing your learning and teaching experiences with us! We love seeing how the CL4Bio tools and ideas continue to inspire creative approaches in higher education.

🌐 https://cl4bio.web.ua.pt/

Universidade de Aveiro University of Nicosia Council of the European Union ISCA - Universidade de Aveiro
Nina Drejerska Marcin Zbiec Fedele Colantuono Demetris Vrontis Alkis Thrassou George Yiapanas Stelios Stylianou Chrystalla Pachita Valentina Chkoniya Antonia Symeonidou Ευφροσύνη Σάββα

𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙
Key Takeaways 🔑by Antonia Symeonidou from Cl4Bio Final International Conference:

✨ In the allegory "The Cave", Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected onto the wall by objects passing in front of a fire behind them and give them names. The shadows are the prisoners' reality, but are not accurate representations of the real world. The shadows represent the fragment of reality that we can normally perceive through our senses, while the objects under the sun represent the true forms of objects that we can only perceive through reason.

👉 Three higher levels exist:
the natural sciences;
mathematics, geometry, and deductive logic;
and the theory of forms.

👉 Socrates explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are actually not the direct source of the images seen. A philosopher aims to understand and perceive the higher levels of reality. However, the other inmates of the cave do not even desire to leave their prison, for they know no better life.

👉 Find out more at:
🌐 https://cl4bio.web.ua.pt/

.ua .ua

Nina Drejerska Marcin Zbiec Colantuono Demetris Vrontis Alkis Thrassou George Yiapanas Stelios Stylianou Chrystalla Pachita Valentina Chkoniya Ευφροσύνη Σάββα Antonia Symeonidou

𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀.

This semester, the classrooms of Coimbra Business School ISCAC, Portugal, were transformed into a dynamic innovation lab as students applied Design Thinking using Post-its as a core tool for ideation and collaboration.
💡 Why Design Thinking?
Design Thinking is a human-centered methodology that encourages teams to:
Empathize with users
Define real problems
Generate creative ideas
Prototype quickly
Test and refine solutions
It shifts the focus from finding the “right answer” to exploring multiple possibilities.
🟡 Why Post-its?
Post-its may seem simple, but they are powerful tools for creative thinking:
✔ One idea per note → clarity and focus
✔ Easy to move → flexible thinking
✔ Visual clustering → pattern recognition
✔ Equal voice → every participant contributes
As ideas accumulate on the wall, thinking becomes tangible. Participants can reorganise, combine, and refine concepts in real time.
🚀 Impact in the Classroom
Using Post-its in Design Thinking sessions:
Increases engagement
Encourages divergent and convergent thinking
Promotes collaboration and shared ownership
Makes creativity structured and actionable
The result? Rich discussions, unexpected connections, and solutions built collectively.

💡Sometimes innovation starts with something as simple as a small square of paper and the willingness to think differently.

👉 Keep sharing your learning and teaching experiences with us! We love seeing how the CL4Bio tools and ideas continue to inspire creative approaches in higher education.

🌐 https://cl4bio.web.ua.pt/

Council of the European Union .ua
Nina Drejerska Marcin Zbiec Fedele Colantuono Demetris Vrontis Alkis Thrassou George Yiapanas Stelios Stylianou Chrystalla Pachita Valentina Chkoniya

𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲
Key Takeaways 🔑by Pam Burnard from Cl4Bio Final International Conference:
🔹 Why does Creative Learning matter for the bio-economy?
🌱🎨🔬 Because the future of education isn’t just about knowledge transfer — it’s about future-making through arts + science collaboration.

➡️ What if,
researchers re-search possibilities of ‘things’ and move beyond ‘human exceptionalism’?

➡️ What if,
Researchers stubbornly refuse the censoring correction and coercion that draws them back to conventional research inquiry and foreground distributed agencies of human, nonhuman, and more-than-human materiality?

➡️ What if,
We acknowledge the inseparable arts-science duo and allow them to collaboratively catalyze eruptive research practices.

👉 Find out more at:
🌐 https://cl4bio.web.ua.pt/

Universidade de Aveiro University of Nicosia Council of the European Union ISCA - Universidade de Aveiro

Nina Drejerska Marcin Zbiec Fedele Colantuono Demetris Vrontis Alkis Thrassou George Yiapanas Stelios Stylianou Chrystalla Pachita Valentina Chkoniya
Antonia Symeonidou Ευφροσύνη Σάββα

𝗔𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘃𝘀 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲
Key Takeaways 🔑by Pam Burnard from Cl4Bio Final International Conference:
👉 A ‘line of flight’ connects us on a compelling journey of possibility thinking (What if?) that has the potential to produce new ways of thinking rather than just continuing to ‘reterritorialize’ the same old recognisable ways.
👉 What if science also was…
✨ embodied
✨ sensory
✨ relational
✨ creative
🌱🎨🔬 By integrating artistic and scientific inquiry, Creative Learning reimagines knowledge not as abstraction, but as lived, felt, and co-created experience.

👉 Find out more at:
🌐 https://cl4bio.web.ua.pt/

of Nicosia Council of the European Union ISCA - Universidade de Aveiro

Nina Drejerska Marcin Zbiec Fedele Colantuono Demetris Vrontis Alkis Thrassou George Yiapanas Stelios Stylianou Chrystalla Pachita Valentina Chkoniya
Antonia Symeonidou