EuroSTEAM Erasmus Project

Project Title

EuroSTEAM

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 2016

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; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

Context of project
The EuroSTEAM project is an Erasmus+ funded project that aims to increase basic maths, literacy and Science skills of students throughout Europe by introducing STEAM teaching methodologies to teachers. Low attainment levels in these subjects is a common problem throughout Europe with a varying underperformance throughout different regions. This is highlighted in various Euopean poilicy documents which claim that approximately 20% of young learners throughout Europe are not adequately equipped with relevant STEM based skills.The EuroSTEAM project has a key aim to tackle this problem and identify a new approach to nurturing these skills within students.
The Eurosteam project had a duration of 36 months beginning in September 2016 and concluding on the 31st of August 2019.

Project objectives
By taking into account our key aim of boosting skills of young learners, the EuroSTEAM project had these objectives:
1. Formulate a research study identifying underachievement in maths, science and literacy skills of learners aged 11–14 throughout Europe and identify how problem based STEAM methodologies can address these shortcomings.
2. Develop a range of STEAM resources which are accessible for teachers to deliver in their classrooms to boost the required skills set and to provide teacher training handbooks in 5 European Languages.
3. Develop an Online Toolkit which acts as a hub for downloading resources and also allow users to contribute their own resources to ensure the continuity of the toolkit.

Participating organisations
The project consisted of:
– South West College (United Kingdom) – SWC is a vocational and technical college located in Northern Ireland. SWC is the lead partner on the EuroSTEAM project.
– Thomas More Kempen (Beglium) – TM is the largest University college in Flanders with Aproximately 14,000 learners participating in a multitude of programmes.
– Childrens museum Rome (Italy) – Il Museo Dei Bambini is a non-profit museum for children, schools and families where the exhibits can be observed, touched and interacted with in order to support learning.
– ETIC (Portugal) – ETIC is an educational institution in the fields of creative industry and has a focus on promoting innovation, technology and creativity within education.
– TKNIKA (Spain) – TKNIKA is the Institute for the Innovation of the Vocational and Educational Training System which promotes innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in schools and VET centres of the Basque Country.
– Heilig Graf (Belgium) –HG is a school organisation and one of the first secondary schools in Belgium to start with a specific programme called STEM.
– Via Mar dei Caraibi (Italy) – VMDC is a school situated in a heterogeneous district of Rome.

Main activities undertaken
The project has had 7 transnational partner meetings. With the inclusion of face to face meetings, partners have also gained the opportunity to collectively test and consult with each other on project outputs.

Intellectual outputs
Throughout the project, partners have produced the following 3 outputs.
1. Comparative analysis report which identifies the underachievement of Maths, Literacy and Science skills within young learners throughout Europe and the need for a “problem based” STEAM approach to teaching.
2. The development of 3 creative and educational camps which use STEAM based teaching methods to educate students in a variety of subject areas, piloted to 730 students.
3. The development of an online toolkit which provides an online area where educators can learn about the project and access the outputs of the project.

Multiplier events
Throughout the project there has been 3 Multiplier events participated by 167 stakeholders . The events were:
1. A workshop seminar hosted by Thomas More in Belgium which disseminated the results of the comparative analysis report.
2. A demonstrative launch of the STEAM camps which was hosted in the Children’s Museum Rome.
3. The final event was a showcase for the entire project results and was held at South West College in Northern Ireland.

Results and impact
Each organisation trialled the STEAM camps to a minimum of 100 students carrying out baseline surveys and following up with evaluations to understand each students experience. Results proved that there was a boost in skills in the key areas of Science, Literacy and Maths. The number of students carrying out the pilots was 730. The online toolkit hosting all of the outputs has had a total of 753 unique users at time of writing which will reach over 1000 within a year.

Long term benefits
The dissemination of the project will continue and results are expected to take a noticable leap when the new School year begins in September with the amount of users and feedback continuing to grow between September – December 2019. We foresee the online toolkit continuing to grow and evolve with continued contribution from teachers and educators to produce a growing library of resources.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 329049,73 Eur

Project Coordinator

SOUTH WEST COLLEGE & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Escola Técnica de Imagem e Comunicação Aplicada
• TKNIKA
• THOMAS MORE KEMPEN VZW
• MUSEO DEI BAMBINI SOCIETA COOPERATIVA SOCIALE ONLUS
• Istituto Comprensivo “Via Mar dei Caraibi”
• Heilig Graf