STEM TO STEAM Erasmus Project

Project Title

STEM TO STEAM

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; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

STEAM: How the sciences and arts are coming together to drive innovation?

There has been much talk and reportage of the importance of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and art (STEAM) subjects at further and higher education level – and beyond – recently. The Institute of Directors (IoD) – which represents company directors, senior business leaders, and entrepreneurs – say businesses would be pleased to see a rise in the number of entries in maths.

With the number of STEAM entries to Universities are up almost one-fifth from 2010 to 2015, the IoD says students are recognising the need to build skills to compete within a modern economy. The National Maths and Science Initiative points out some numbers that highlight STEAM’s essential role in the education system. Their data shows that:

– By 2018, we may be short by as many as three million skilled workers.
– In 2008, only four percent of bachelor’s degrees earned were in engineering; 31 percent of bachelor’s degrees awarded in China were in engineering.

These and other statistics paved the way for today’s heavy emphasis on STEAM subjects in the education system.

Another factor that contributes to the ongoing efforts to promote science and maths is that students who may initially take an interest in such courses often change their minds because of external pressures and stereotypes. If we’re teaching STEM subjects in isolation, and if we’re still teaching STEM from a textbook or through exams, then we’re not really teaching STEM. True STE(A)M education means that students are creating, applying, and incorporating mathematics and at least one of the other content areas into their work.

The motivation of making the STEAM disciplines more attractive to students in schools is to contribute to the headline education target of the Europe 2020 Strategy, namely the skills deficits in the workforce and the technological developments and global competition. We think that young people should gain access to affordable and high quality early childhood education and care. Gender, minorities and accessibility issues will also be addressed as the representation of our society in the STEAM disciplines does not appear to be balanced at all. Related to this, as a more specific approach, the present project is focused on the fact that the level of employability, competitiveness and wealth of our society will depend on the ideas and skills of its population. These have always been the EU’s most important assets and are detailed in the Bruges Communiqué on enhanced European Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training for the period 2011-2020 (Education and training for tomorrow’s Europe; The right skills ; Quality and excellence).

Based on the progress observed in our schools while we were running our eTwinning project on STEAM, we concluded that it is possible for us to reduce the number of low achievers in mathematics and science significantly in 2 years, should we be given the opportunity to deliver our programme within the framework of Erasmus+.

UPDATE:
Due to Covid19 pandemic and all of our schools being closed, one of the LTT (C1 – UK, due at the end) could not have been organised. Furthermore, as a result of all the closures, partners had to adopt to the changes and finish the final activities online only. The Career Fair 2020 was not organised.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 53115,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

Carr’s Glen Primary School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Csabrendeki Általános Iskola
• Scoala Gimnaziala Numarul 5
• OOU “Hristijan Karposh”