EUse science to STEAM up your school In this project, six ambitious secondary schools from Dordrecht (NL), Recklinghausen (DE), Pamplona (ES), Copenhagen (DK), and Split (HR), partners in earlier European projects, and a new school from Vänersborg (SE) have established the need to address an alarmingly large and growing shortage of (future) employees with STEM skills. Priorities are promoting of the acquisition of skills and competences and to promote entrepreneurship in education and social entrepreneurship among young people at their schools, focussing on STEM, involving both secondary and primary school pupils. Pupils need to become more actively involved and take charge of their own STEM education. Erasmus+ topics in this project are natural sciences, teaching and learning of foreign languages and gender equality. Six exchanges are included in this project. During these exchanges the schools organize a science week with transversal topics, e.g. integration, women in science and sustainability. In each country, regional and national science centers and universities will be involved to give the participants an new impulse in STEM. It is through the synergy of transnational teams that all parties involved, both pupils from secondary and primary schools, teachers and school management, will rise above themselves. Prior to an exchange, participants use eTwinning to meet and prepare STEM topics and transversal topics. Also, they do an English test online to determine their CEFR level of English before and after the exchange. During the exchange, science and language skills will be practiced in an authentic learning environment. Secondary pupils will pass on their newly gained impulse in STEM to primary school pupils, teaching them, using their own custom-made activating lessons. Working with other cultures will improve the social skills of all actors involved.This project addresses 1500 active participants, 250 per school. An important target group is formed by primary school pupils, a total of 500. Research has shown that pupils who have a deficiency in numerical skills early on avoid science subjects later on in their school career. In this way, they lock themselves out from many interesting and important jobs in the field of science. Much of the STEM curriculum is aimed toward attracting underrepresented populations. Female students, for example, are significantly less likely to pursue a college major or career. Though this is nothing new, the gap is increasing at a significant rate. Women leave STEM disciplines in disproportionate numbers during their higher education studies, in their transition to the world of work and even during their career cycle. Preparation started in November 2017. During a two-day international preparatory meeting in February 2018 in Dordrecht we made our ideas concreet. Communication takes place before, during and after exchanges and also in between, in regular intervals, using email, eTwinning, video conferencing and whatsapp. During the project we expect results on different levels. We expect tangible results including free online teaching and learning material, evaluation forms, certificates, renewed partnership contracts, promotional material, adapted school curricula and best practices. But we also will produce intellectual results such as improvement of foreign language skills or developing a personal interest in science, stimulating pupils, especially girls, to seek a job in science. Teachers improve their knowledge and experience in coaching and monitoring the entrepreneurial projects. During each LTTA, our pupils teach primary school pupils. As the groups work on their transversal topics and science topics in an international setting, it will also involve the use of foreign languages also exposing the primary pupils to STEM and foreign languages. Our experience in previous projects and exchanges ensures implement responsible project management strategies and monitoring of budgets. The international coordinators monitor financial administration and time management at their own school. Science coordinators coordinate STEM activities. Evaluation on different levels will ensure quality. Certificates will be provided to all participants in this project. All participants in the project are active in an ongoing dissemination process, both inside schools (e.g. colleagues, departments) and outside schools (e.g. public institutions, website, youtube). In June 2020 a STEM exhibition will be organised in the Netherlands showing important results. The virtual-tour of the exhibition will be set on our projects website. By embedding project activities in curricula, the sustainability of this project will be ensured and the quality of the activities is high, because they have been evaluated and scrutinized by other teachers of the school. Sustainability of the project is also ensured by publishing the material on our website, on eTwinning and on the Erasmus+ platform.
EUse science to STEAM up your school In this project, six secondary schools from Dordrecht (NL), Recklinghausen (DE), Pamplona (ES), Copenhagen (DK), and Split (HR), partners in earlier European projects, and a new school from Vänersborg (SE) have sought to jointly address a growing shortage of (future) employees with STEM skills, during the preliminary meeting in February 2018. Six exchanges were included in this project, of which the last one had to be cancelled, unfortunately, due to force majeur caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. During these exchanges the schools organized a science week with transversal topics, e.g. integration, women in science and sustainability. In each country, regional and national science centers and universities were involved to give the participants a new impulse in STEM. It is through the synergy of transnational teams that all parties involved, both pupils from secondary and primary schools, teachers and school management, have met and succeeded in the challenges of this project. Prior to an exchange, participants used eTwinning to meet and prepare STEM topics and transversal topics. Also, they did an English pre-test and post-test online to monitor their CEFR level of English. During the exchange, science and language skills were practiced in an authentic learning environment. Secondary pupils passed on their motivation for STEM to primary school pupils, teaching them, using their own custom-made activating lessons. Working with other cultures improved the social skills of everyone involved.This project addressed 1250 active participants, 250 per school and, quite important, primary school pupils, a total of 430. Research has shown that pupils who have a deficiency in numerical skills early on avoid science subjects later on in their school career, foregoing on interesting and important jobs in the field of science. Female students, especially, are less likely to pursue a college major or career. What’s worse, the gap is increasing at a significant rate. Women leave STEM disciplines in disproportionate numbers during their higher education studies, in their transition to the world of work and even during their career. Preparation started in November 2017. During a two-day international preparatory meeting in February 2018 in Dordrecht we set up the structure of the project. Communication at regular intervals saw the use of email, eTwinning, video conferencing and whatsapp. We sawt results on different levels. A host of tangible results was produced, including free online teaching and learning material, evaluation forms, certificates, renewed partnership contracts, promotional material, adapted school curricula and best practices. Besides that, we saw improvement of foreign language skills, developing a personal interest in science, and pupils, especially girls, seeing possibilities for a job in science. Teachers improve their knowledge and experience in coaching and monitoring the entrepreneurial projects. During each LTTA, our pupils taught primary school pupils. As the groups worked on their transversal topics and science topics in an international setting, it involved the use of foreign languages, exposing the primary pupils to STEM and foreign languages. Our experience in previous projects and exchanges facilitated the implementation of responsible project management strategies and monitoring of budgets. Evaluation on different levels has ensured quality. Certificates have been provided to all participants in this project. All participants in the project have contributed to ongoing dissemination, both inside schools (e.g. colleagues, departments) and outside schools (e.g. other schools, public institutions, website, newspapers, youtube). The STEAM exhibition of project results, planned in June 2020, was cancelled due to the Corona pandemic. Instead, a collection of results has been placed on the website. By embedding project activities in curricula, the sustainability of this project has been ensured. An application of a follow-up project involving the same focus and more or less the same set-up, named FutEUre Food, has been approved and will continue to motivate pupils to engage in science.