Transforming FabLabs into STEAMLabs Erasmus Project

Project Title

Transforming FabLabs into STEAMLabs

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: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

PISA – an international indicator study on the skills and attitudes of 15-year-olds in mathematics, science and reading – shows that young people from many OECD countries score low to average with regard to these items.
While the number of top performers remains relatively high (but drops), the number of pupils who do not reach the basic level is rising. That basic level is the minimum level to be able to stand on your own feet in society. The difference between the weakest and strongest pupils is also large.
Boys get a better score for science than girls. They also indicate much more often that they have fun and interest in science. For all pupils, those who have pleasure or interest also score significantly higher in the science test. There is a need for quality development in STEAM education in the EU. We use a FabLab to do this.

A FabLab is a workplace where pupils (and in many cases a wider public) can use machines to jointly realise a physical or digital (intermediate) product. Although education is provided in a FabLab, this education is often limited to the use of the machines offered. In the context of kindergarten and primary education, this is, of course, insufficient. After all, a context needs to be created around the machines that are used. This context can be created through complementary learning activities, which focus, among other things, on designing, studying the machines themselves and how the machines can be combined. By framing these STEAM-related learning activities in FabLabs, we are creating what we call STEAMLabs. In other words, a STEAMLab can be defined as a FabLab where pupils not only focus on the realisation of an (intermediate) product, but where attention is paid to the complete process to come from an idea to the realisation of an end product.

Currently, the different participating schools focus on the use of a limited number of machines or on a limited number of techniques (after all, certain machines can be used for several techniques). This makes it impossible for them to offer a package covering all aspects of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics). By allowing participating schools to share their knowledge and experiences between pupils, parents and teachers, the utilisation of their FabLabs can be broadened, allowing them to evolve into fully-fledged STEAMLabs with dissemination to European Schools.

Project Website

http://tfisteamlabs.com/index.php

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 60501 Eur

Project Coordinator

GO! basisschool Unescoschool Koekelberg & Country: BE

Project Partners

• CEIP Tagoror
• Istituto Comprensivo di Loreto Aprutino
• GO! basisschool De kleine Geuzen Jette
• Osnovna skola Jagode Truhelke
• EKPAIDEFTIRIA BOUGAS OE