Mind over matter Erasmus Project

Project Title

Mind over matter

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 youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

The name “Mind Over Matter” symbolizes the humankind’s aspiration to create a better world. STEAM, as a means to truly shape the world in a positive way, is perfect as a medium, as it shapes young minds so that they can use their creativity and intellect to transform the matter into something that is useful, sustainable and adds value to the world.
The MoM project identifies and leverages the opportunities inherent in STEAM educational activities that will engage and inspire young people to follow STEM pathways through education and into both STEM and new emerging STEAM careers. We distinguish between these two in the following way: STEM encourages deep specialisation within a scientific discipline. STEAM educational activities integrate the Arts and creativity with a broad range of sciences in an interdisciplinary approach that draws knowledge from across a diverse range of expertise. This creative combination allows young people who might not immediately self-identify as a candidate for a STEM pathway to have a positive experience of STEM subjects in the context of something that more readily captures the imagination, and is project and goal-oriented than detail-focused. This can then lead to a growing interest in a STEM specialism or further work in a STEAM-oriented career.
Therefore, the first objective is to develop hands-on, inquiry-based approaches to education which will demystify science and scientific processes in order to increase young people’s confidence in approaching STEM. In order to achieve it, partners will implement analyses of best practices existing on EU level and define improvement that has to be implemented according to the relevant researches. Analyses will define the methodological approach that has to be implemented when creating STEAM activities in order to attract young people who aren’t interested in STEM fields. The methodology developed will be based on an environment conducive to high youth engagement, an investment from the youth in their learning, problem solving in the context of the real world, and a non-traditional format where the educator facilitates the development of ideas without being prescriptive.
In order to test the developed methodology, 40 STEAM pilots will be developed and tested with 500 young people in online and offline environment. The main target group are young people, 13 to 18 years old, divided into age groups 13 to 15 and 16 to 18. The selection will be implemented in a way that young people who are generally less interested in STEM careers and education will be invited to attend the education (around 80% of young people not so interested and 20% young people interested in STEM). STEAM pilots will be based on a problem connected to SDGs that participants will address in teams using available equipment and materials The proposed methodology will not have a pre-set prescribed outcome, but will instead enable participants to collaborate on a variety of innovative solutions. Teams will present solutions to each other, thereby multiplying the learning outcomes across the group. Their confidence and interest will be measured at the beginning of the educational activities and at the end in order to prove if the pilots had impact on their educational and career considerations. It is expected that 10% of participants will report an increase in motivation and confidence in pursuing STEM and STEAM careers. That will impact the second project objective, which is to sustain the interest of youth in STEM and STEAM carriers. Besides the youth enrolled in project activities, through intensive dissemination activities we will reach other young people. For it, we will use videos of STEM and STEAM experts from the business sector, policy-makers and young people enrolled in STEM education and careers. The aim of the campaign is to send a message that young people can become STEM and STEAM experts regardless of their current perceptions of what STEAM is. We will demonstrate the different educational and career paths that STEM and STEAM experts had, allowing some to recognise themselves in those experts.
An evaluation of the proposed methodology will result in detailed methodology guidelines that will be disseminated with the pilots toward educators from formal and non-formal education contexts. They will be provided with materials developed and supported in the process of testing either existing pilots or in the creation of new pilots. That will give the consortium the opportunity to test the methodology in different environments. We will communicate the project results to the Ministries of Education and Youth in order to raise questions about the existing STEM education implemented in the formal education system and its possibilities for improvement using the developed methodology and pilots.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 292165 Eur

Project Coordinator

CENTAR TEHNICKE KULTURE RIJEKA & Country: HR

Project Partners

• CRHACK LAB FOLIGNO 4D ODV
• Šiaulių jaunųjų technikų centras
• MTF Labs AB
• ASOCIACION DE LA INDUSTRIA NAVARRA