Innovating the transition process from STEM to STEAM approach in science, teaching and training Erasmus Project

Project Title

Innovating the transition process from STEM to STEAM approach in science, teaching and training

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); Creativity and culture; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

STEAMProcess has the ambition to foster disruptive innovation for research and science, by promoting the use of artistic soft-skills in science/tech education and practice.
In particular the project wants to:

1) Encourage programmes for skills development and lifelong learning to include a clear component for culture and creativity. It is crucial to assess the actual use and impact of the projects funded in the frame of programmes, such as Erasmus+, that are promoting the transition from STEM to STEAM training.

2) Support programmes integrating the arts into STEM curricula as well as cross-sectorial projects blending the arts with STEM disciplines. The studio and the laboratory are learn-by-doing, learn-by-making educational experiences. The iterative process and experimentation are key components to advances and discoveries in both fields. Artists, designers, and scientists alike are utilizing data in new and interesting ways to inform their practices and affect positive change. Productive cross-disciplinary collaborations are being formed in both the academy and in the workplace.

3) The development of a Cultural and Creative Sector literacy policy, for example through an own-initiative report or via a pilot project/preparatory action. Such literacy policy would help to stimulate the interest and demand for European cultural diversity, as well as stimulate creative thinking across EU citizens, in particular, focused on specific policy issues. Art school students and graduates are also having a huge impact on social innovation by bringing to light and helping to solve important global issues. Architects and designers have a unique and ethical responsibility to develop, for example, environmentally creative solutions. And artists play an increasingly significant role in addressing societal challenges as many shift toward work that is collaborative and community-based.

Project Objectives:
General objective

Fostering cross-fertilization between technical/scientific skills and artistic/humanistic skills through the creation of innovative training materials and teaching supporting tools.

Specific objectives:

1 – Identification of a skills frame characterizing the most innovative subjects in the arts/science cross-fertilization field

2- Creation of a replicable methodology supported by gamification, aimed at integrating artistic and creative skills with technological skills, stimulating new forms of entrepreneurship and facilitating the formation of diverse teams giving birth to innovative projects

3- Solidification of common experience and best practices to promote STEAM cross-fertilization in a cohesive way across the European Union

Project Products

Intellectual Output 1 – Art Skills Framework

The objective of IO1 is to create the framework of the A (Art) Skills, the soft skills that are typical of artistic processes. In the general perspective of introducing the variable A in the STEM processes, it is, in fact, necessary to define the added value that artists can bring to the STEM sectors in terms of soft skills (e.g. the ability to think out of the box, the ability to manage unknowns, the ability to establish an empathic relationship with heterogeneous contexts, etc.).

Intellectual Output 2 – STEAM Methodology Skills Framework

The aim of the IO2 is the development of a methodology aimed at designing an innovative response to an economic or social challenge through cross-fertilization. The methodology stems from the hackathon methodology (challenge, limited time, competition between teams), including the letter “A” of arts among the STEM competencies: from STEM to STEAM.
The main features of the methodology make it a useful tool not only with toward its primary purpose – i.e. the generation of ideas and solutions from a specific need – but also from an educational point of view: the challenge favours teamworking, stimulating participants to collaborate with people often unknown, or coming from fields of study or professions far from their own; the limited time favours problem-solving: as reported in the literature on creative thinking (see for example Edward De Bono), the more the human mind is stressed by constraints the more lateral thinking is activated.

Intellectual Output 3 – STEAMProcess Game

The objective of IO3 is the creation of an original and engaging educational tool for the training of students and STEM professionals in Artistic Skills, in order to stimulate a STEAM approach to research and design.
Through a gamification process, the methodology developed during IO2 will be “translated” into a game aimed at training the creative and artistic skills of professionals and students in the scientific sector.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 226052 Eur

Project Coordinator

KAAKKOIS-SUOMEN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY & Country: FI

Project Partners

• SINEGLOSSA
• CHANGEMAKER AB
• CONSORZIO MATERAHUB INDUSTRIE CULTURALI E CREATIVE SCARL
• C2MASI SL