The quality of our stays is our pride and our strive. We want to offer the best experience to our participants wich is why we set our quality and security standards at the highest.

The NGO Objectif Sciences International organizes and contributes to scientific vacations stays since it was created in 1992, over 30 years of experience in 2022, and, all of this without one single accident or incident having to be deplored. After the basic but fundamental question of security and serenity during the time of the stay, comes next the questions on behaviours, and then comes the ones on the pedagogical quality, the quality of the contents and of the supervisors, the quality of group cohesion, and more... a list as long as the job of a Scientific Instructor at OSI is engaging and rich in experiences!

So concretely, what is it?

Let’s go from exemple to exemple :

In animation and education courses accross the world, it is explained to new instructors, that they should not offer « pearls activites », saying they are as futile as making pasta necklaces. Yet, when in 2005 the Inspection from the Youth & Sport office (La Jeunesse et les Sports in France) et came to visit one of our Scientific Camp Center to see how we are working, they were pleasently suprised by all the fantastic pearl art that was made by the children, following the ancestral way of the Millefiori technique.

This famous inspection of the Youth and Sports office is automatic and systematic in any country where the stays of minors are subject to a legislative supervision, and this is very good. Even if some organizers fear the arrival of this inspection, it is the part of the general culture of the NGO OSI to consider that a new stay that is yet to have had it’s inspection is not granted the status of stay. Moreover, all our scientific educators are informed as soon as they join the team that we consider that Youth and Sports inspections are always welcome, both during the day and at night, and when possible, without having been informed beforehand (surprise inspection).

We consider ourselves to be in a natural partnership with the Youth & Sport Office, which we integrate as one of our prescribers. Their organization has expectations regarding the stays of minors, and we make it a point of honor, not only to meet these expectations, but also to be a force of proposals. Always at the forefront of innovative pedagogy, nature education, sustainable development education, and science Science La science est désormais l’affaire de tous. Découvrez la science d’une manière ludique et active. Nous vous proposons d’en découvrir plus sur nos expéditions à la voile, découverte du plancton. education, our organization is also well anchored in approaches such as Action Research, Citizen Sciences, and already had its first innovations in place before the creation of La Main à la Pâtes by Professor CHARPACK.

Today, the former partners of Georges CHARPACK or Pierre-Gilles de GENNES, come to see us at the UN, every year at the GENEVA FORUM organized by OSI in December, to contribute to our work. And in December 2016, precisely... it is an Inspector of Youth & Sports who did actually come to attend a presentation given by 7 of our young participants (aged 11 to 17!) as part of the 5^th Annual International Conference on the Rights of Nature for Peace and Development, still organized by OSI at the UN, as part of the GENEVA FORUM. This is a good example of the bridges, much stronger than simple footbridges, that our teammates work on every year, and on a daily basis, to build between the NGO and the major Institutions.

For adults, as well as family groups, what about travel agencies, world discovery trips, scientific excursions? What is the difference between a hike in the mountains with a guide who talks about the snow leopard, and our participatory research trips on the territory of the leopard and where, systematically, our participants collect footprints, signs of presence, droppings and photos of panthers, and produce results of genetic analysis of the populations of leopards in presence? What is the difference between a sailing course where the instructor will show dolphins swimming a few yards away, and a participatory science Science La science est désormais l’affaire de tous. Découvrez la science d’une manière ludique et active. Nous vous proposons d’en découvrir plus sur nos expéditions à la voile, découverte du plancton. trip where each dolphin Dolphin
Whale Dolphins, whales, plankton... discover the wealth of our oceans by attending one of our nature courses on dolphins and whales. is recognized by its fins and identified by its first name, participants who, at the end of the year, will communicate their results to the UN? How can these differences be evaluated and explained? Can the famous NGO Scientific Holidays offer its know-how and proposals to the travel organization community? Yes, and this is why OSI organizes every year at the UN the Annual International Conference on Responsible Travel and Tourism for Peace and Sustainable Development, where actors from the tourism, education and scientific travel sectors meet to allow a transfer of practices within the community of professionals concerned.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. Or it doesn’t start there. Every year, the local OSI groups perform thousands of daily tasks that makes a difference: relations with the local policeforce, the firemen, the neighboring farmers, with each family of the registered participants, with the transporters, the cooks... Beyond these tasks, we find of course the training and preparation of our teammates, which will allow the registered children, teenagers and adults to leave with real results to their assets, but we might also find YOUR presence at all the stages of consultation in the year, within the very organization of the association. Indeed, it is possible for you, and this is a rare commodity, to be present at all stages of pedagogical preparations during the year. Even the national and international General Assemblies of the NGO are fully public! And to our knowledge, we are still the only organization to practice such transparency.

See you soon on the field for your next adventures!