The so called STEM-fields experience our lives very often: our environment, weather and climatic changes, natural phenomena and catastrophes, plants, animals, food, digital media, inventions, shopping … “Science”, “Technology”, “Engineering” and “Maths” surround us. For our children “STEM” will be a very important part of their lives, will be their “future” in a “competitive Europe”. Some researchers say that a high percentage of areas in the future will require skills that the school does not effectively develop nowadays. Seeing how important this education is, we all took part at a partner finding conference in Oostende, Belgium, in December 2015. We soon discovered that we have much the same challenges in our schools: Students not motivated for school work and not performing at their best, especially when it comes to STEM related subjects. This again leads to a large number of students quitting higher education before they have reached their exams.We also found out that all partners are already doing something in this field of education, but not enough and often without a clear progression. We decided to work together realizing that we could learn a lot from each other and help each other on the way to a better and more meaningful STEM education for our students. We will implement a project focused on the STEM-fields, where the teachers will be encouraged to change the way they see the learning process and, at the same time, to reflect on their teaching practices. Moreover, the students must have the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas. It is important to encourage STEM learning early in schooling. Primary pupils are „curious“, want to explore, ask questions and want to tell about their findings. Learning can be seen as a permanent process of “constructing and changing concepts”. To arrange appropriate teaching and learning environments for children to stimulate cognitive performance should be the ”log in” to successful, attractive and sustainable learning that takes away the fear of and negative attitudes towards STEM related topics.We will change the STEM acronym to STEAM and use a new definition in this work: S- search, T-think, E-experience, A- active learning and M-motivation – “Full STEAM ahead for better education”. Our aim is to motivate all students by adapting STEM education to questions and phenomena the students are really interested in and thus giving a new meaning to this education. In our project we will develop new strategies and a new methodology combining traditional STEM fields with eg. drama, art and physical activities and create synergies between different fields of education. In order to obtain this we have to enable our teachers using new methodologies, new material and to “think new thoughts” for the benefit of our students. Our project aims at promoting pupils´ dynamic participation. Planning, Team Work, Decision Making, Reflecting, Sharing and Communicating results and conclusions - our project pursues this objective: to make school a place where children are active in the learning process. We will approach the STEM subjects from many different angles. Using outdoor learning activities, ICT, coding, games, story line, art, music and every day activities means that the approach to STEM will place emphasis on the interdisciplinary manner of teaching those subjects.The project will have its own web site at the e-Twinning platform where we can communicate and discuss the progress of the project, the methodologies or the newly made learning material. In order to make the STEAM work more interesting and motivating some of the students' work will be a cooperation on the net. During the project we will build up a "collection" or "database" of useful tools, methodologies and units for STEM/STEAM teaching and learning. In addition to this “bank”, which will be open to everybody also after the project has ended, we will also produce and publish folders eg. “Teaching STEM subjects using outdoor activities” etc.The tools, methodologies and ways of teaching from the project will be implemented in each school´s curriculum/working plan and thus can be modified due to specific national and/or local needs and requirements. The participants of the workshops will spread our ideas at their schools as "multiplicants" and we expect a positive "long term" effect from our project work.
Background and objectives: Our partnership started at a partner finding seminar in Oostende, Belgium in December 2015.The theme for the seminar was STEM education at primary level. During the seminar we got to know each other and we all had the same impression, that to many students STEM education could be theoretical and difficult to approach. We therefore all agreed that in our project we wanted to approach STEM education in a new way. Instead of teaching each subject as such, we wanted to approach the STEM subjects from a different angle, using outdoor learning activities, ICT, coding, games, story line, art, music and every day activities. In this way we would have a diversity in our STEM education which also would enable participation of those who didn't fancy these subjects at first, but would be positive because of the new methods of teaching. This was made possible by the joint talents of our partnership. We all found qualities in the others that could fill the missing gaps in our own school's teaching / curriculum. Each country / school brought valuable resources to the rest of the group to empower and broaden our common knowledge. Participating organisations: Kringsjå school, Kristiansand, Norway has experience in international projects, also as co-ordinators. The school is well aquainted with ICT as a tool in all subjects. There are teachers at school who are specialized in natural science and mathematics, and the school also has some experience in outdoor learning. The school has an active and frequently visited web page, which was used for publishing project results. Bodelschwinghschule, Münster, Germany has experience in international projects. Many arts and music projects take place at the school. There are good connections to local and national artists who come to the Bodelschwinghschule in order to do projects, workshops or other activities with the pupils, and the school has good relationships to the University of Münster and to the Academy of Arts. Thus the school has very good basic requirements for planning, organizing and conducting activities, seminars, workshops or (teacher) training courses combining STEM topics with arts and music. Kuressaare Gümnaasium, Kuressaare, Estonia has experience in international projects, also STEM projects. The school has highly developed ICT skills and starts programming from 1st grade. Myrskylän kirkonkylän koulu, Myrskylä, Finland has experience in international projects. They activate their pupils in many ways using different learning environments, also outdoor learning, by projects with different content and by using ICT in a creative way. 2nd Primary School of Chios, Chios,Greece has experience in international projects. This is an innovative school, good at combining traditional teaching methods with stories framing problem solving in math and science. Rigas 22. vidusskola, Riga, Latvia has experience in international projects. They emphasize the importance of seeing the individuality of each child, giving them the opportunity also to take part in different creative classes like music, drama and art. New methods using different games to teach children basics of creative thinking, mathematics and other subjects and special computer games which develop mathematical, algorithmical and logical thinking of children show increased ability to think logically and the students are able to achieve excellent levels at different fields and professions. CEIP Costa Teguise, Costa Teguise, Spain is well-known for a long and strong experience in project – based learning and active methods. Teachers work together in the design and the implementation of different proposals focussing on interdisciplinary and cooperative learning. Visiting our web page will give you an impression of the results achieved. As our achievments are more in the field of teacher training, it is difficult to be spesific and point to a concrete result. Our main activities are our five learning, teaching and training activities. Here we shared the good practices with each other. Selected teachers from all schools visited a school and brought back valuable learning for the colleagues at home. The results are lesson plans and activities open to everybody. During the project all schools took part in a logo competition for the project and all schools also participated in a short introduction video. All schools made and filmed a "chain reaction" putting some of the STEM elements into practice. After the meeting in Greece, learning about the "story line" method, each school made their own "story line" - sharing their results and lesson plans at our eTwinning site. Coding and robotics have been a major activity at all of the schools as a result of the project. New equipment has been bought and used by the teachers as well as the students. All the schools have been better at using their environment in their daily education, having outdoor lessons more often.