STEMachines Project

Project summary

Context As highlighted by EU (2015), there is a a mismatch between STEM education supply and demand, and as highlighted by EC (2014) and EU (2015), a large majority of EU Member States are currently experiencing serious difficulties in recruitment of STEM skills. There is a process of growing disinterestedness of students towards STEM education, especially at secondary school level (Rohaan et al. 2010), a process whose causes can be traced back to different factors (EU, 2015):  Attitude of students towards science and technology have changed, becoming more pessimistic;  Shortages in STEM professions have not been accompanied by an increase in average wages levels, discouraging students to undertake STEM training, usually implying a consistent amount of years of study;  Persisting gender segregation across study fields, often starting from family environment and then spreading at secondary school and university level, still hinders girls’ and women’s later study and career opportunities;  The way in which STEM subjects are taught has a great influence on students' attitudes towards science, on their motivation to study and, consequently, on their achievements. With reference to the last point, Simple Machines (as any of various elementary mechanisms formerly considered as the elements of which all machines are composed and including the lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw) have been individuated as particularly suited to STEM education. Objectives/goals Project aims to pursue the following: - To develop concepts and knowledge about Simple Machines, in terms of the learning about the composition and functioning of each device and its parts, and the identification of common uses for each of Simple Machines. Such task will be pursued throughout all activities included in the project; - To develop and practice engineering problem solving skills, by using the concepts of mechanical devices to produce creative solutions to Problems, as well as by carrying out and practicing the iterative engineering design process Research <--> Simulate <--> Prototype; - To enable students to individuate and fully understand the existing connections between physical devices, mathematics, and scientific principles; - To encourage students to self-reflect on their work, activities, and hence on their learning processes; - To develop knowledge about concepts and functioning of Simple Machines among teachers, with the aim to promote the adoption of a more integrated, practice- and empirical-oriented STEM teaching methodology, especially with reference to engineering, combining theory and practice. Expected results In line with OECD PISA, 2006 context, learning outcomes that students will achieve will be framed in the following contexts: Science: - Explain phenomena scientifically; - Evaluate and design Scientific Enquiry; - Interpret data and Evidence Scientifically; Mathematics: - Change and relationship; - Space and Shape; - Quantity; - Uncertainty and data. Progressive achievement of learning outcomes will be evaluated mainly, but not only, OECD PISA questionnaires to students and teachers. The OECD PISA tool will facilitate comparison of results between schools. Intellectual Outputs: 1. STEM Need Analysis teachers and students 2. Elaboration of a teacher training material 3. Simple Machines Games Online Educational Resource. Learning/teaching/training activities abroad: • Pilot testing of developed training material: Training activities with in-service teachers. • Summer camps with students: teachers who are trained during "Teachers training units" can accompany students during summer camps and implement what learned during their training. Students will develop simple machines, develop peer-learning and share results on elios platform. Direct target: • Students • in-service teacher training for teachers • Schools Impact Impact will be assured at local, regional, national and European level to direct target groups and other stakeholders. Impact will be measured according to objectively measurable indicators. Long Term Benefits Developed outputs are fully transferable and adaptable to other school grades and other EU countries, not directly involved in the project. This will be assured by ELIOS platform, where already more than 20 European schools have been enrolled and use the existing tools for innovative teaching practices. Other schools and teachers will be reached via etwinning. Being free of charge, schools and teachers will be stimulated to use the developed tools in their teaching practices in order to make lessons more interactive and attractive to their students.