To create and make available to teachers and educators accessible, easily-implemented STEM educational resources to raise students’ interest over STEM and improve their science literacy.
Context
“Knowledge of and about science are integral to preparing our population to be actively engaged and responsible citizens, creative and innovative, able to work collaboratively and fully aware of and conversant with the complex challenges facing society” (Science Education for Responsible Citizenship, EC, 2018).
Therefore, skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are becoming an increasingly important part for basic literacy in today’s knowledge economy. The interest in STEM needs to be developed from an early age: at school, children must be motivated to learn maths and science and to imagine working in these fields.
Thus, getting young children involved in STEMs and developing a STEM mindset should be a priority to enable having science-aware and active citizens in the future. This cannot be done without the active involvement of teachers. Teachers are key players in the provision of STEM Education and they are in a privileged position to get children interested in STEM: for this reason, teachers need to be equipped with resources and learning materials for interactive and appealing STEM activities in school and resources that are easy to implement in classroom.
Objectives
- Empowering teachers with appealing approaches to STEM education through learning by doing and development and promotion of effective and innovative pedagogies.
- Supporting STEM teachers and educators by enhancing their continuous professional development, giving them access to open educational resources and materials and concrete educational opportunities.
Activities
- Development of an empirical country report with an overview of the existing methodological approaches and equipment in each partner’s country used for creation of STEM lessons at schools and as extracurricular activities. The country report will contain a matrix map with selection of technologies that can be used in STEM environments.
- Development of Toolkit with guidelines for the creation of ready to implement STEM lessons related to programming, 3D printing, electronics and robotics, including resources and tools aiming to enable the teachers to use existing STEM resources, in line with the school curricula and the teachers’ needs.
- International training directed to teachers and trainers on the development of STEM lessons in programming, 3D printing, electronics and robotics: the participants will pass on their knowledge to their colleagues who will be able to search for, find or create new lessons in their professional fields.
- Creation of the Online WIKI with STEM lessons and resources to be of help in lesson development directed to teachers and educators.
- National workshops with teachers and educators for the co-creation of STEM lessons in programming, 3D printing, electronics and robotics.
- Development of 6 videos from the international training on using STEM methods at schools and on STEM as a solution for future professions, to be shared as promotional activities directed to schools’ communities.
Resources
- Toolkit with guidelines for developing STEM lessons
- Online Wiki with STEM lesson and educational materials
- Project brochures
- Press releases
- Newsletters
Impact
- Participation of 17 teachers and educators in the international training on the development of STEM lessons, who will strengthen their professional and personal development through the use of innovative educational tools.
- Involvement of at least 17 teachers in the national workshops, who will be able to search for, find or create new lessons in their professional fields.
- Promotion of the teachers and educators´ engagement and creativity in developing self-created STEM lessons for their students.
- Involvement of 80 stakeholders in the in the STEM by STEM national events to raise their awareness on how to use STEM resources at formal and non-formal education.
- Connection with 400 key stakeholders, reached by the project communication and promotion channels.
- Strengthening of the awareness among students and parents about the future occupations and requirement of specific skills and knowledge in STEM sectors.
Partners
- 139 OU Zaharii Krusha (Bulgaria, Coordinator)
- Know and Can (Bulgaria)
- CESIE ETS (Italy)
- IS “Duca Abruzzi – Libero Grassi” (Italy)
- INSTALOFI LEVANTE SL (Spain)
- CARLOS V SOCIEDAD COOPERATIVA DE ENSEÑANZA (Spain)
- S.C. PREDICT CSD CONSULTING S.R.L. (Romania)
