Supporting the continuation of teaching STEM subjects during the COVID-19 Pandemic through project-based online practices Erasmus Project

Project Title

Supporting the continuation of teaching STEM subjects during the COVID-19 Pandemic through project-based online practices

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 : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

As the pandemic unfolds across countries around the world, the normal lifestyle and educational practices face challenges. This proposal draws upon the needs emerged in secondary school education during the pandemic outbreak. Amongst many institutions secondary schools have also
shifted their base to online platforms to conduct classes online as an alternative to ordinary face to face classes. However, the teachers in many countries were not ready for this rapid change. The project builds a strategic partnership for Digital Education Readiness in the field of STEM
education, aiming at reinforcing the ability of school education to provide high quality, inclusive digital education in the field of STEM with the focus on building capacity to implement online, distance teaching and learning.

The proposal aims at supporting secondary school teachers of STEM subjects in continuing their teaching online. In achieving this goal, an online course with 4 projects will be developed with a focus on Physics, Math, Engineering and Programming. These projects will act as exemplary projects for online education and will come together with training materials, simulations, videos, presentations. The training materials will be tailored to the thematic of each project. The participant teachers will be trained online in these projects and will be called to use the developed resources and online methods with their students.

The innovative aspect of the project is that instead of simply providing ready-made resources, it smoothly reveals the methodology (pedagogical and technical) upon which these resources are designed. In other words, the teachers not only use the resources for carrying out the 4 projects
but also explore how these resources are designed. The online course that will be designed will guide them through this process. Several tools suitable for online teaching will be selected for supporting brainstorming, online collaboration, ideation, creation and sharing.

Having practically engaged the teachers in the 4 projects and released the online/distance methodology, the project goes a step further by calling the teachers to design their own projects and resources and test for students them online with students with the support of the project team. In this way, the project ensures that the knowledge gained is really put into practice.

Main outputs include:
-The pedagogical handbook which includes the development of the online/distance methodology: project-based learning, supporting teamwork, serving synchronous teaching (live webinars) and asynchronous online classes.
-The online course that revolves around the development of 4 exemplary interdisciplinary STEM projects for secondary school education. These 4 projects come together with training materials suitable for online/distance learning incl. simulations, video, presentations and how-to instructions (that will enable teachers to look behind the development of the resources).
– The development of Open Educational Resources that follows the project methodology and results in STEM projects and OERs for students for online education.

It is estimated that the BEREADY learning intervention will be validated with 120 students and 40 teachers through specifically designed pilot stages. Many more students (approx. 200) and teachers (approx. 600) will be involved in the project in the context of dissemination events and workshops, multiplier events and promotional webinars.

Since teachers play a fundamental role in supporting students to develop STEM skills, 21st century skills and positive attitudes towards STEM, particularly in the current situation, the communication of project results and the wider adoption of the innovative and flexible training and learning scheme can benefit school communities (apart from local) at regional, national and European level. The partnership aims at promoting networking of institutions across the EU, sharing of resources and expertise, collaboration with digital technology experts in STEM Education and finally contributing to the development of online & distance pedagogical practices based on project- based learning and costructivism/constructionism pedagogy as a response to the challenges faced during the pandemic outbreak.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 233984 Eur

Project Coordinator

POLITECHNIKA WARSZAWSKA & Country: PL

Project Partners

• EUROPAIKO ERGASTIRIO EKPAIDEFTIKIS TECHNOLOGIAS
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA
• X Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im.Krolowej Jadwigi
• ISIS “Cavazzi-Sorbelli”
• 23rd GYMNASIUM OF ATHENS
• UNIVERSIDADE DO MINHO
• Externato de Vila Meã