Constantly changing European societies and economics require permanent focusing on new developments. In our project, we want to aim at stimulating high-quality, innovative ways of teaching and learning through a new approach. Opening up education proposes actions towards more open learning environments to deliver an education of higher quality and efficacy and thus contribute to the Europe 2020 goals. To succeed in this new information-based and highly technological society, students need to develop their capabilities in STEM to levels much beyond what was considered acceptable in the past. STEM education creates critical thinkers, increases science literacy, and enables the next generation of innovators. The general objective of our project is to motivate teachers of STEM and other vocational subjects to use a multidisciplinary approach of teaching with the support of ICT. The more specific objective is to suggest and recommend for implementation a model of integrating STEM subjects and ICT in teaching and project-based learning. By using this approach, students should gain enhanced learning outcomes. To achieve and fulfil the objectives, we plan to develop these main outputs: a) Survey on teaching STEM containing a list of STEM subjects taught in each partner school, list of topics/chapters, learning outcomes, textbooks used, digital tools involved, methods of teaching and assessing students in partner schools, experience with a multidisciplinary approach in teaching, examples of best practices; b) Survey on the digital potential of partner schools made by a SELFIE test; c) The methodological guide will contain practical guidance for planning and creating a STEM lesson and for implementing it in common teaching practice; d) eBook will form a portfolio consisting of multidisciplinary lessons. It will integrate STEM subjects (possibly also e.g. history, geography …) according to partner schools focus and needs. Use of ICT and digital tools will be integrated as well. Creating the eBook will be followed by implementation/pilot testing and then it will be adjusted if needed. It will be produced in national languages, half will be translated in English as a source for CLIL method. Three e-evaluation forms (e-evaluation of teachers toward students, e-self-evaluation of students toward themselves, e-peer-evaluation of students toward other students) will be an integral part of the e-Book; e) Project for students. Teachers from partner school will specify together content for one project with various kinds of complex assignments/tasks covering the entire area of STEM subjects. It will contain various activity components: videos, quizzes, problem-solving etc. Two student groups in each school will be selected and will solve these tasks within a team. Solving of the Project will last up to 2 months. In the end, teams will present their results and findings using various kinds of digital presentation tools in their home schools. The final assessment will befollow 3 types of e-evaluation forms that had been developed as a part of the eBook; f) International team competition for students. Teachers of all schools will prepare together specific requirements and conditions for collaborative work of students. Two students from each school will participate. They will form 3 teams consisting of 4 students and will produce a visual presentation on a given topic The competition will be held during the last Blended mobility. During the project lifetime, we will organize three Short-term joint staff training events for two teachers from each school and one Short-term exchanges of groups of pupils for two students from each school accompanied by one teacher. Virtual meetings will take place between partner meetings.
Through collaboration with our partners we wanted our teachers: - to focus on increasing students´ collaboration, communication, research, problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity, skills that students need to be successful in today's world regardless of specific interests or career goals - to motivate teachers of STEM subjects to use a multidisciplinary approach to teaching - to suggest and recommend for implementation of a model of integrating STEM subjects and ICT in teaching and project-based teaching/learning to a greater extent. Our goals were also to promote innovative teaching/learning methods, deepen the competencies of students in STEM subjects, facilitate the preparation of STEM lessons, raise interest and motivation in learning STEM subjects and assure a necessity of them in life, support students in acquiring professional and soft skills, particularly in self-evaluation and teamwork, create more attractive ways of learning and promote teamwork at the national and international level among teachers and students. As each partner school had different experiences with using the different pedagogical approaches for effective teaching, the partnership of teachers at the EU level was a solid solution for exchanging good practices and for peer support
The “STEM in Education” project was originally a two-year project that was extended by one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even with this challenge partners reached their primary objectives. According to discussions and preliminary analyses of needs, we made among our partner schools, we are facing similar challenges that could be dealt with by close cooperation. All schools were aware of the need to start changing the way of teaching technical subjects that until now have been taught separately without emphasising their connection. We agreed that multidisciplinary education and project-based teaching should be our priority for implementation to a greater extent. And international cooperation made this process much more manageable. So we focused on integrating STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) in ways that connect disciplines and relate them to each other. We realized the importance of connecting classroom learning to the real world and thus developing students´ higher-level thinking skills. We also knew that our teachers need help to prepare them to use this new approach. We are persuaded that STEM principles are and will be one of the important trends in teaching and learning and should be implemented more within European schools. Developed materials contribute to that goal greatly. Even if there are possibly other sources for multidisciplinary teaching and learning, we see from our partners and other colleagues around Europe that the tools for STEM teaching we created will continue to be a relevant and promising way to ensure the quality of VET learners' education. We are aware that well-prepared teachers guarantee that students are motivated more to learn. Using many digital resources and new pedagogical methods and approaches for teaching increases the interest of students in given topics of study.