STEAM : Attractive Gateway In Classroom Erasmus Project

Project Title

STEAM : Attractive Gateway In Classroom

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

According to the European Union’s report named “Science Education Now: A New Pedagogy for the Future of Europe” in 2007; in recent years, many studies have highlighted an alarming decline in young people’s interest for key science studies and mathematics. Recent work by the OECD indicates that over the last decade, in many European countries, the number of young people entering universities is increasing but they are choosing study fields other than science and in consequence the proportion of young people studying science is decreasing.STEM skills are considered valuable for economic progress and are highly valued in the labour market. STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workers play a key role in the sustained growth of economy. STEM jobs are the jobs of the future. Unless more effective action is taken, Europe’s longer term capacity to innovate, and the quality of its research will also decline. Furthermore, among the population in general, the acquisition of skills that are becoming essential in all walks of life, in a society increasingly dependent on the use of knowledge, is also under increasing threat.
Furthermore according to PISA results, there is lower interest towards STEM subjects and underachievement in STEM subjects.
There is obviously a need to prepare young people for a future that will require good scientific knowledge and an understanding of technology. Education is under pressure to respond to a changing world. Unfortunately, there is a lack of interest to STEAM subjects among students and they aren’t successful enough. In most European countries, science teaching methods are essentially deductive. As long as we use traditional and deductive method to teach STEAM subjects, we won’t be able to promote the students’ interest and motivation towards STEAM subjects. We must change the mehtodologhy from deductive to inquiry based, problem based , project based learning based on STEM. Moreover if we insist on teaching STEM subjects in isolation, we it won’t be useful enough. We need to develop integrated lesson plans. And also arts is a part of STEM education.While we are teaching STEM, we must inherently teach the art. For those students who may not be motivated by the math, the science, or even the technology, it may be the creative piece that gives them the spark they need to truly engage.

So the earlier students are exposed to the STEAM disciplines, the better. Science teaching at primary school has a strong long-term impact. STEAM is crucial to educate and prepare the next generation of the partner countries, to allow this generation to grow the economy. So we aim to :
-exchange know-how, methods and techniques and good practices in the field of STEAM,
-to develop interdisciplinary/cross curricular STEAM lesson plans (integrating art),
-to develop innovative, student-centred teaching method and inquiry based, problem based , project based learning and hands on learning based on STEAM.
-to develop our students’ skills and competences, innovative abilities, creativity needed in European job market of the 21st century.
-to build up critical and creative thinking
-to raise the ambition, the learning outcomes and achievement of all the students

To achieve these goals , we will run activities and workshops with students , teachers, parents and other stakeholders related to STEM field. Firstly questionnaires will be administered to the students to measure the students’ attitudes towards STEAM subjects, 21st century skills, and STEM careers.This questionnaire will be applied both at the beginning of the project and at the end of the project.We will analyze its results and prepare reports. Then a workshop for teachers will be held C1 “Exchange of the Expertise on STEAM Education” Each partner school will present the method/technique/program that they have an expertise on and the teachers will practice them. They will prepare integrated cross-curricular lesson plans, materials and programs to integrate art into STEAM education. Then each school will adapt and transfer them in their schools to be applied. Each partner school will run an international workshop on topic that they have an expertise ( C2, C3, C4, C5 ).Both the teachers and the students will attend them. After going back to their schools, they will practice them in the lessons.The last workshop C5 will include all the topics and will be STEAM fair. The questionnaire applied at the beginning of the project (to measure the students’ attitudes towards STEAM subjects, 21st century skills, and STEM careers) will be administered again to see what has changed in their attitudes. After finishing all the workshops we will prepare a “Good Practices Handbook” .

By the means of these activities we will educate and prepare the studens of the partner countries for future,develop our students’ skills and competences needed in European job market of the 21st century and allow this generation to grow the economy.

Project Website

http://www.steamagic.org

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 73783,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ozel Diyarbakir TED Ilkokulu & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Nuova Direzione Didattica Vasto
• Colegio Nuestra Señora de los Remedios
• Agrupamento de Escolas do Forte da Casa