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Manipulative activities are a popular learning tool that promotes the effectiveness on scientific and technological education. Aiming to promote its widespread use in all possible areas, in 2003 it was established the educational network "Hands-on Science" (HSci) in the frame of the Socrates program of the European Commission. It enrolled initially twenty-eight institutions from ten European countries (BE, CY, DE, ES, MO, MT, PT, RO, SL, UK) and a multinational consortium (CoLoS). Once finished the three-year project the network was established as an international association with the same purposes and philosophy. In an open and open-minded and participated way we approach and involve teachers, schools and educational boards, presenting, discussing and implementing well-established practices of the learning of Science and Technology. Its objective is to promote the development and use of manipulative activities in formal and informal learning, so that students "do" science rather than simply being "exposed" to it, while in the same time increasing society' scientific literacy. In this paper we will briefly present the main objectives, pedagogical strategies and proposals of the network as well as the outstanding achievements so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce an professional learning environment based in viewing the chapter "Vector" of Numb3rs. We introduce the meaning of environment of professional learning as a theoretical framework for the instructional actions of the project titled EarlyStatistics: improving statistics instruction in European elementary and middle schools though online professional development''. (Action 1: COMENIUS Project 226573-CP-1-2005). We, also, include the didactical analysis of the activities that students should do before, during and after viewing the chapter, and the proposals of its contrast as teachers' professional tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]