Enlivened Laboratories within STEM Education – Motivating EU students to choosing STEM studies & careers and improving their performance in courses related to STEM education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Enlivened Laboratories within STEM Education – Motivating EU students to choosing STEM studies & careers and improving their performance in courses related to STEM education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

The Project objective was to develop a new approach, that would combine Augmented Reality (AR)/Mixed Reality (MR) technologies with Remote and/or Local Laboratories, for encouraging 12-18 year-old students’ STEM engagement. In particular, via targeting students of lower and upper secondary schools and irrespective of the expected varying individual inclination to STEM subjects, we aimed to:

(a) attract students who currently might not be interested in STEM related studies/careers and enhance the interest of those who have already chosen this field of studies/careers, and (b) improve students’ performance in courses related to STEM education.

Inspired by emerging technologies of IoT (Internet of Things) and AR (Augmented Reality), we managed to connect the physical and/or the remote laboratory to the digital world and turn it into an “Enlivened Laboratory”. We explored various digital solutions to “immerse“ students within STEM laboratories while implementing experiments and managed to attract students to STEM related studies through intense hands-on experiences, where they actually participated, transformed and augmented what they were implementing. By developing and applying various digital competences and via collaborations with peers they were increasingly more engaged in STEM education. The EL STEM approach was supported at school as well as at home through the involvement of appropriate online tools offering the capability to experiment with simulated remote laboratories.

Acknowledging the crucial role of teachers in any effort to bring about change and innovation, our project made available the necessary knowledge, indicative tools, and introduced underlying dynamics in teaching cultures to enable STEM education obtain the full benefits of AR/MR. This was achieved by providing teachers with high quality professional development opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills to effectively embed AR/MR in teaching and learning. More specifically, we created a comprehensive teaching and learning framework for providing teachers with innovative digital tools to enrich their laboratory-based courses, in order to not only attract students’ attention towards STEM education but also to achieve better performance in STEM related subjects. Project outputs included AR/MR educational scenarios expressed in Lesson Plans (LPs) and implemented using technologies that explored the utilization of AR/MR Remote and Local Laboratories. Mobile Technologies (e.g. smartphones and/or tablets) and associated hardware (e.g. AR glasses) were extensively used in the teaching and learning of STEM courses.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 287430,71 Eur

Project Coordinator

ANOIKTO PANEPISTIMIO KYPROU (OPEN UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS) & Country: CY

Project Partners

• Gymnasium Palouriotissas
• PANEPISTIMIO AIGAIOU
• DOUKA EKPAIDEFTIRIA AE – PALLADION LYKEION EKFPAIDEUTHRIA DOUKA
• HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
• EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY CYPRUS
• Ingeniarius, Lda.
• TARTU ULIKOOL