STEM: Engineers of Future Erasmus Project

Project Title

STEM: Engineers of Future

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 2015

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

With the new arrival of constructivist theory in education in this century, more emphasis is put on the importance of self-learning and self-construction of information. This theory also brought many understandings with itself like STEM initiative which is now tried to be integrated to EU countries’ education curriculum. In last years, there has been a surge in the US, Japan and EU countries in terms of implementing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education initiatives, with the primary focus of preparing our students for the future’s economic and societal developments, which will revolve primarily around science and technology.

STEM, being such a strong initiative supported by many countries including Non-Eu countries such as Japan and USA, have not fully attained its place in EU educational curriculums, though it presented solid successes in schools where it was applied and produced young scientists. This partnership composed of Unione Valdera(12,000 students), Blackrock Educational Centre (50,000 students) and Şanlıurfa Provincial Directorate of National Education (545,000 students) along with Partner Schools/Organizations was established to “integrate STEM into schools’ activities to reap the benefits this method incurs”. Although these three countries have several initiatives to improve students’ motivation about STEM fields such as science, the teaching method is a traditional one as partner countries still use lecturing to teach complicated science topics while several other non-EU countries hold “robot races” under STEM initiative in middle and high schools. Unfortunately, our countries still use the textbook, from elementary school to college in teaching science or technology. Even if experimental activities are used, they are usually like recipes, for illustrating the theory and not for knowledge construction. In fact, as in the rest of Europe, the interest of young people about science and technologies has dropped. What is to be addressed is clear: involving STEM in schools.

The main activities in project are “Training teachers about STEM and its implementation in classroom through Legos, Demountable Robotics”; STEM Fairs, STEM course integration into science lessons, Seminars regarding STEM and the problems faced in implementing it; Online interaction through web 2.0 technologies and experience sharing through videos, booklet, reports …”
These will have varying effects on the students as the project will last two years and will have many benefits during and on its completion. With the partnership activities; we expect to get a deeper knowledge about STEM and be in more intensive cooperation among partners.

Through discussions on pedagogical, ethical, behavioral problems, inclusive topics, and common concerns on STEM, we will enlarge our perspective, working on students’ creativity. We are sure the impact and benefits of European cooperation will increase motivation and capacity in our students. They will raise the importance of learning and will enrich our pupils’ creativity. “Imagine. Create. Innovate”. These three ideas will also sustain our project, in which creativity will be the driver for innovation, and the most important key factor for the development of personal and social competence and the”well-being of all the individuals in society”.

General Objectives:
To ease burden of teaching in teacher-centered ways and put student in the center, instead as future engineers.
To prove that creativity and innovation is not related with the age and size, it is a learning method.
To enlarge students’ imagination boundaries by using STEM
To let students acquire information naturally by hands-on-activities.
To increase children’ attention in lessons through building their own products.
To guide children in developing engineering skills
To be a guide to children for building original products
To transform teaching from memorized schedule to more enjoyable teaching atmosphere with robot etc. building…

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 119568,89 Eur

Project Coordinator

SANLIURFA IL MILLI EGITIM MUDURLUGU & Country: TR

Project Partners

• SCUOLA SUPERIORE DI STUDI UNIVERSITARI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO SANT’ANNA
• Computers in Education Society of Ireland
• Unione Valdera
• Karakopru GAP Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi
• St Colmcilles Community School
• KARAKÖPRÜ ORTAOKULU
• Blackrock Education Centre