The theme from which we designed the project started from the idea to create a new school model. The project starts from the idea that, in order to guarantee curriculum innovative, it is necessary to work according to guidelines of innovation that simultaneously involve: the methodological innovation and the innovative function of the teacher. According to the latest international surveys on the competences of teenager students, OCSE-PISA and TIMSS, Italy is one of the countries where there is a greater need for intervention in STEM subjects. The STEAM curriculum was originally designed in the USA to better integrate the innovative themes and teaching methods useful for fostering an integrated and active learning of the sciences in various disciplines, teaching at the same time to think critically and effectively. So the language of Maths is not considered as an abstract mathematical calculation but as a creative approach for the application tool in Art and Design. This partnership is formed by 3 Secondary Schools from Italy, Portugal and Greece with a wide range of European diversities, in which we will develop and enhance a European dimension to our curricula. We all share a common wish to collaborate and work hard as a team for our objectives. About 90 students with 10 accompanying teachers will travel abroad to experience the international educational activities. 14 teachers will participate in management meetings and employee training activities. With this project we will favour the use of IT as a tool to explore, learn and create. Students will carry out different activities in the visits, show results and products, evaluate the impact of the project, participate in different workshops. The project is scheduled for 24 months from 1st September 2019. At the beginning and end of the project we will perform activities at project meetings in all countries as planned in the application form. Other pupils who will not be able to travel will be also engaged into the project. Pupils will be prepared in advance to the performance of the tasks during the exchanges. Students will present workshops in English. We would like that the results of this project could have a positive impact on various levels: firstly, on our schools, also on a local level, the schools that are situated in our district can benefit from the direct contact of our students and also from the materials we want to develop, on national and international levels, we would like to be known in other forums about education thanks to the promotion of the results of our efforts, publication of materials and articles where we will show the positive aspects of this collaboration among different schools from distant countries, which can bring upon a feeling of belonging to a common European identity. Thanks to the European funded grant, we will see that with our efforts we have turned our schools into better, democratic places to work, to study and to live.
The project arises from the realization that nowadays modern society revolves directly or indirectly around the disciplines STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths), in fact, STEM Education includes the fields of Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Science, Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology and Art. According to EU estimates, employment in STEM professions is set to increase. Despite the fact that we live in an increasingly technological world, there is a drop in interest in STEM among young people and, moreover, the most frequent causes of early school leaving are the failures that students experience in learning mathematical and technological-scientific skills; students who leave school prematurely find themselves with low basic skills. For this reason we came up with of a project that could promote interest and motivation for STEAM (Art in addition) disciplines. The task of the school has been to encourage interest and curiosity among students towards scientific disciplines. Our project aims are: - promote the acquisition of a culture of lifelong learning through a learning path called self-learning empowerment; - support of the development of students’ basic and transversal skills by moving them towards the world of work - support dissemination actions and open and innovative teaching methods; - improve quality, innovation and internationalisation of education and training through transnational cooperation. The students who took part in the 3 planned mobility actions were a total of 36, 12 for each school, aged 14-17, and 6 accompanying teachers, 2 for each partner. These exchange actions allowed workshops and seminars using stem disciplines but also discovered the culture of the host countries. During the 3 training events (Learning/Training/Teaching Activities) the hosting organizations have each prepared a program on a different activity involving the use of STEM education, using teaching techniques and methodologies such as flipped classroom, use of ICT and OER (Open Educational Resources), useful for integration in other school disciplines. This training has had an even wider impact than on the direct beneficiaries: in fact, it have benefited from it, all the staff and the student body of the institutions involved also parents hosting. The training events, opened the institute to the exchange of good practices and a positive contamination among the participants. In addition, the students ware also directly involved in some of the proposed activities. Thanks to the exchanges, the students had the opportunity to relate with people and peers of different native language and culture, to compare in person their respective contexts of life, in order to: take inspiration for the next project activities; develop the English language, which was used by students and teachers to communicate; and intercultural awareness and European citizenship. The construction of the STEAM Project activities was a huge achievement. There were many challenges along the way in the design and construction of all the workshops and jobshadowing. However, the motivation and commitment of the project held firm the goal to approach the students to Science and Maths learning. This Project officially opened in September 2019, (Short-term joint staff training in Bragança) , but the pandemic situation, that started in March 2020, obliged us to stop all the mobilities. The health emergency has hit our country so hard, prevented us from proceeding with the project, not only because regulatory constraints but also because of the psychological condition of all of us. Of course lockdown and distance learning, from a monitor, marked a strong demotivation in our students to the various school activities and even more to the extra activities that the project required. The only contacts were both among students and teachers through the use of social networks such as emails, facebook, whatsapp or messanger. Particularly praiseworthy was, thanks to the Erasmus agency actionthe, the opportunity, to postpone the project for a year. For us it was a "wet blanket ", as it shook us to our core to have missed a great opportunity in our lives. So, in agreement with the two foreign partners we started the whirlwind of the activities in October, and we were ready to start the first mobility in Italy from 7th to 13th November 2021. Thanks to the dedication of the three coordinator teachers of the project, it was possible to carry out the second mobility in Greece from 27th March to 2nd April and the 3rd mobility in Portugal from 8th to 13th May. Finally, we concluded the project with the last meeting, from 18th to 23rd July, with the teachers for the drafting and revision of the final report of the project. Of course we very much hope, that the effectiveness of our collaboration will continue in other projects.