Instilling interest in STEM entrepreneurship to European students Erasmus Project

Project Title

Instilling interest in STEM entrepreneurship to European students

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

The project “STEMitUP (Instilling interest for STEM entrepreneurship to young people across Europe) was designed to stimulate entrepreneurship and encourage STEM uptake by making STEM-related courses fun and interesting for students aged 4-15. It was also designed to plant “seeds of interest” that could grow into rewarding STEM entrepreneurship careers.
Adding an entrepreneurial layer to STEM education helps young people to apply scientific and mathematical to solve real-world problems, to think creatively and to benefit their communities. STEMitUP developed a range of gender-sensitive activities to promote scientific and entrepreneurial thinking, which are now available for download on the project website:
https://www.stemitup.eu

The project achieved this through its fusion of STEM, Entrepreneurship and gender-sensitive Education, and the development of a state-of-the-art professional development training programme, targeting pre-service and in-service teachers. It implemented the innovative activities of STEMitUP at European level through cooperation between universities, science museums, NGOs, SMEs and their European networks.

The project has also produced state-of-the-art reports on STEM entrepreneurship, which is a neglected, trans-disciplinary area in European education. These are also available from the website.

All the objectives of the project were achieved, as follows:
1) STEMitUP improved teacher training in the area of STEM entrepreneurship by providing materials and workshops.

2) STEMitUP developed students’ skills related to STEM entrepreneurship subjects, through workshops and a science fair.

3) STEMitUP promoted the increased participation of girls and other groups of learners at special risk of exclusion from scientific and entrepreneurial studies and careers, by adopting an inclusive STEM entrepreneurship education model.

4) STEMitUP encouraged sharing of experiences from all partners across Europe to identify best practices for the incorporation of ideas related to science, technology and entrepreneurship in STEM classrooms and in teacher education;

5) STEMitUP fostered a mutually beneficial relationship between research communities in STEM entrepreneurship subjects, teacher networks and local education systems for the on-going advancement of the disciplines;
6) STEMitUP 
facilitated the widespread dissemination and sustainability of resources and innovative pedagogical approaches to the wider EU community and internationally, through its website https://www.stemitup.eu,

The main activities of the project included:
1) 
Mapping of best practices at national, European and international level;

2) Development of STEMitUP activities for teachers and students;

3) Development of pedagogical material related to STEMitUP activities;

4) Definition of a methodological framework for “fun” as a founding element of work;

5) Organisation of training events for teachers to create the conditions for the implementation of STEMitUP activities;
6) Organisation of multiplier events to widely disseminate project activities;. Report Form

The potential impact of STEMitUP will depend on long-term trends in entrepreneurship education in general, and the interaction between entrepreneurship and other trends in STEM education, such as inquiry-based learning. We identified some of these trends in two of the main documents resulting from the project: IO1, the national state of the art report and IO2, the consolidated report on STEM entrepreneurship in Europe.
In order to provide robust evidence of impact, the project would, however, need to collect data for a considerable length of time after the end of its official funding period, which is not possible under the current arrangements.

Areas where the project has achieved potential impact included:

• Increased motivation for students towards STEM-related and entrepreneurship subjects;

• Increased awareness by students of the relevance and functionality of STEM entrepreneurship, leading to a probable increase in the number of students taking up academic studies and careers related to STEM disciplines.
• Improved problem-solving and critical thinking skills, reasoning, and literacy, both to facilitate science education and to increase the scientific literacy of citizens;

• Greater implementation of inquiry-based teaching methods and related interdisciplinary approaches by teachers;

• Engagement of students in STEM entrepreneurship from an early age;

• Increased interest of parents and the general public in science and technology
• Increased number of women in STEM-related studies;
• 
Enhanced STEM entrepreneurship levels, leading, in the long term to reduced youth unemployment, while boosting job creation and growth;

• Increased number of STEM startups due to improved innovation capacity.

Project Website

http://www.stemitup.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 184936 Eur

Project Coordinator

NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU & Country: NO

Project Partners

• STEMworks Limited
• CY.R.I.C CYPRUS RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CENTER LTD
• EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY CYPRUS
• ENGINO.NET LTD
• GRANTXPERT CONSULTING LIMITED
• STICHTING NATIONAAL CENTRUM VOOR WETENSCHAPS- EN TECHNOLOGIECOMMUNICATIE
• Programamos