PEC
European Science Teachers:
Scientific Knowledge, Linguistic Skills and Digital Media
Universidad de Lisboa
Lisbon is simultaneously the biggest city and the capital of Portugal and sits at the point where the river Tagus feeds into Atlantic. The lengend says that the beautiful city of Lisbon was founded by the mythic hero Ulisses. Recent discoveries near the castle and the Cathedral of Lisbon lead us to belief that this city was founded by the Phoenicians 1200 b.C.. Was named Alis Ubbo, that means "pleasant cove" in Phoenician. The monuments and archaeological discoveries evidence the millenary influence of different civilizations and cultures. In its early years were the Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians. In 205 b.C. the Romans began their two-century reign in Lisbon, and it became the most important city in the western Iberian 
region, renamed Felicitas Julia by the man of the moment, Julius Caesar. In 714, the Moors arrived to peninsula and resisted against Christian attacks for 400 years. When the Christians finally recaptured the city, it took one more century to repel all the Moors from the peninsula.
During the Portuguese discoveries Lisbon became a strong economic place where everyday arrived and left people from all the parts of the world. Today Lisbon is a modern and cosmopolite city turned to the future where many cultures and races fit together in harmony.
The University of Lisbon is a leading public university in Lisbon, Portugal, and is composed by eight faculties. This university has its origins in t he first Portuguese university school that was founded in 1288, by King Dinis in Lisbon which was called Studium Generale (General Studies). In the following 247 years, this first university school was moved several times between Lisbon and Coimbra . It was only in XIX century that higher education reappears definitively in the capital: Medical and Surgical School of Lisbon (1836), Pharmacy School (1836), Polytechnic School (1837) and the Higher Course of Letters (1859). These four schools were united in the Universidade de Lisboa, by the University Constitution of 19 April 1911, changing their denominations to those that everyone knows today. Lately, more changes in these faculties happened and more research and education institutions were enclosed.
The Faculty of Science of the Universidade de Lisboa was established by decree of 19th April 1911. From its establishment until 1985, the year the Faculty was transferred to the new facilities at Campo Grande, the Faculty of Science was based in the building where the Polytechnic School (Escola Politécnica) used to be. As an integrating organic unit of the Universidade de Lisboa, the Faculty of Sciences also has its roots in the history of the foundation of this institution. Nowadays, in the building of the Rua da Escola Politécnica (" Polytechnic School Street") there are important and rare museums dedicated to the field of Sciences. Nowadays it occupies new buildings in the campus of Cidade Universitária, corresponding to 8 buildings which host the classrooms, offices, cafeterias, libraries, book shop and leisure areas. This Faculty is organised into 9 Departments, which conduct teaching and research in different fields: Chemistry and Biochemistry; Education; Geology; Computer Science; Mathematics; Physics; Plant Biology; Statistics and Operations Research; Animal Biology.
The Department of Education develops its activity aiming to contribute to the excellence of education in Portugal, through initial teacher education and in-service teacher education, as well other graduate studies in education. Articulating the research dimension with the teaching dimension, this department is interested in the promotion of knowledge and personal and social competences of student teachers and teachers.
