The overall objective of the SYSTEMIC project (“Say Yes to STEM In the Classroom”) is to increase young Europeans’ interest in maths, science, engineering and technology education and careers and to provide teachers with the appropriate pedagogical tools to enable them to teach STEM topics differently and in a more attractive way. Underpinning new teaching approaches to be further developed, SYSTEMIC will build a network of STEM schools involving guidance counsellors and head of schools. The project will also contribute to a European Science awareness campaign organising and promoting in all European schools a Science Discovery Week, which will be the culminating event of a school year campaign (engaging students and teachers in the contextualisation of STEM teaching). SYSTEMIC is a joint initiative of both Ministries of Education (via EUN Partnership) and industry (through CSR Europe, the leading European business network for corporate social responsibility). SYSTEMIC will be coordinated by EUN Partnership, in Belgium. Since 2007, STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Maths) has been one of its major thematic areas. The SYSTEMIC proposal will develop complementary blocks of activity:1) Developing new teaching approaches (new ways of teaching STEM, with particular emphasis on contextualizing STEM teaching using industry practices in teaching lessons in classes), as continuing professional development of STEM teachers in Europe (comprising both primary and secondary teachers).2) Training career counsellors to address the challenge to provide information and knowledge on existing STEM jobs and skills needed to access them. Career counsellors will be trained on methods to collaborate with Science and Technological stakeholders that are external to the schools to have all the necessary information to guide the students on the possible career paths existing in STEM fields.3) A European STEM awareness campaign including a European STEM Discovery Week in all European schools as a culminating event of a school year campaign. The aim is to allow students and teachers to participate in various projects such as the contextualisation of STEM teaching in cooperation with industry with for example professionals from industries going back to schools to take part to events with teachers and pupils. Also, several STEM competitions will be organised throughout the year to award outstanding achievements during the campaign.The SYSTEMIC project will address (1) the school education challenges (with two Ministries of Education involved - DGE and DCM) and (2) the role of industry in STEM education (with the active support of the STEM Alliance, mainly via European Schoolnet and CSR Europe and a local Technological centre in Obodos, Portugal). The SYSTEMIC project will be developed using the STEM Alliance platform, which has received prior support from the industry (http://www.stemalliance.eu). This has brought together Ministries of Education and industrial partners to help define and test optimal approaches for involving industry in school STEM activities, and will provide established foundations for the project.
The overall objective of the SYSTEMIC project (“Say Yes to STEM In the Classroom”) was to increase young Europeans’ interest in maths, science, engineering and technology education and careers and to provide teachers with the appropriate pedagogical tools to enable them to teach STEM topics differently and in a more attractive way. The project contributed to a European Science awareness campaign, STEM Discovery Week, targeting teachers, schools, industry and educational organisations, engaging students and teachers in the contextualisation of STEM teaching). SYSTEMIC was a joint initiative of both Ministries of Education (via EUN Partnership) and industry (through CSR Europe, the leading European business network for corporate social responsibility). SYSTEMIC was coordinated by EUN Partnership, in Belgium. Since 2007, STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Maths) has been one of its major thematic areas. The main SYSTEMIC outputs were: 1) The development of two MOOCS, targetting both teachers and career counsellors, which provided information and knowledge on existing STEM jobs and skills needed to access them. These MOOCs were supported by videos and webinars. 2) A European STEM awareness campaign including a European STEM Discovery Week in all European schools as a culminating event of a school year campaign. The aim of the campaign is to allow students and teachers to participate in various projects such as the contextualisation of STEM teaching in cooperation with industry with for example professionals from industries going back to schools to take part to events with teachers and pupils. Also, several STEM competitions have been organised with the support of other projects, to award outstanding achievements during the campaign. A guide aiming to help schools and other organisations interested to organise such campaign, was also published. 3) The SYSTEMIC project developed four additional guides .Two on how to bring professionals to schools, one for schools and one for industry. Two on teacher placements (one on examples of successful teacher placement initiatives, and the second one on how to develop teacher placement schemes). These guides have been developed with the active support of the STEM Alliance, mainly via European Schoolnet, CSR Europe and a local Technological centre in Obidos, Portugal aiming to educate support industry in cultivating fruitful collaborations with schools. SYSTEMIC outputs have reached over 130,000 students across Europe through the different activities organised and have been made available through Scientix, the community for science education in Europe, to ensure they are used beyond the duration of SYSTEMIC.