Occupations of the future are changing rapidly and the knowledge and skills acquired are not foreseen to be sufficient to prepare our students for being the future citizens of our society. Key competences and basic skills are needed by all for personal fulfilment and development, employability, social inclusion and active citizenship (European Commission- Report on Key Competences and Basic Skills, 2019). One of the key elements in improving the quality, and efficiency of schools is to give stronger support to teachers and school leaders. Teachers play a pivotal role in imparting knowledge and common values and in giving support to students (European Commission- Report on Improving and Modernising Education, 2016). Research also shows that a competent citizenship in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) is more needed than ever since STEAM education and tools offer today new ways of learning, open up new possibilities for education, and give opportunities to access the job market. The importance for STEAM education for meeting the demands of today’s knowledge-based economy is underlined by European Schoolnet and decades of academics and researchers (e.g., Gunn, 2018; Liao, 2016, Harris & Bruin, 2017; Herro&Guigley, 2016; Ifenthaler & Spector, 2016; Jamil, Linder & STEGELIN, 2018). However, in order for young people to seize the new opportunities and reap the benefits, the education system needs to innovate and respond to these changing realities by equipping students with the necessary skills. To meet the above-mentioned needs the STEAMitUP project will develop an interdisciplinary STEAM program to empower in a systematic approach teachers, students, school leaders, and school staff to implement STEAM activities using robotics and digital tools to develop 21st century skills for students namely creativity, problem-solving, self-esteem, collaboration and digital skills. Among other, the STEAMitUP project will develop rich pedagogic material, innovative e-learning space, gamified blended learning modules and trainings and will use blended methodologies (f2f, online), tools and activities. The project will involve students, teachers, school leaders, and school staff in a participatory and empowering manner. We aim to reach 2000 students, 500 teachers, 100 school leaders, and 100 school staff in all partner countries, while more than 10,000 members of the abovementioned target groups, from all EU, will be reached via implementation and dissemination activities. The consortium is comprised of partner organisations coming from 6 different countries across Europe: UK, Cyprus, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Netherlands, including educational organisations/schools (Lancaster & Morecambe College & Doukas School), educational and/or research centres (FIPL), NGOs active in the school education sector (CARDET, Fundacion Siglo22) and universities (University of Groningen). The overall objectives of the STEAMitUP project are to: •Build the capacity of educators, school leaders, and school staff to organise and implement STEAM activities in schools with the use of digital tools (such as robotics) and non-digital tools •Develop digital skills, creativity, problem solving, self-esteem and collaboration to students •Design and develop innovative quality resources for school education for all key stakeholders •Encourage and motivate students to be engaged in the fields of STEAM The consortium of the project will develop a compendium of learning resources and blended learning activities on STEM, digital tools and robotics to support the development of basic skills to students by enhancing teachers’ education and professional development. The outputs of the STEAMitUP include the STEAMitUP Toolkit, the blended gamified learning modules, the impact assessment study and practice recommendations and a policy recommendations report. Specifically, teachers in all 6 partner countries will directly participate in STEAMitUP events and trainings to build their capacity on the use of innovative ICT learning tools for STEAM education and be informed on how to use the STEAMitUP toolkit for personal and professional development. They will also be trained on the use of online digital tools, and specific educational robotics kits namely ‘Lego WeDo’ and ‘Lego Mindstorms’, while they will also be supported in their daily practice with students by providing them with pedagogical material which they can adapt and use. Students will directly participate in the STEAMitUP implementation activities including lesson plans, workshops, thematic school days, and other relevant event with the aim to support them acquiring and developing basic digital and non-digital skills and competences. Students will be reached even after the end of the project since teachers that will be trained/ informed is expected to continue using the project’s material even after the end of the project’s lifecycle.
The consortium had a variety of desired aims and objectives to achieve via the implementation of the STEAMitUP project. The key aim was to develop a suite of open educational resources (OERs) that support primary and secondary school teachers to deliver innovative STEAM related activities. This was achieved by developing deliverable classroom resources via the STEAMitUP Educational Toolkit (IO1) and a professional development resource in the form the STEAMitUP E-learning Platform containing a variety of blended learning modules (IO2). The OERs were further complimented by an extensive research phase consisting of teacher training and impact assessment workshops and policy recommendation focus groups with key educational decision makers in each partner country. The aim of these activities was to gain a deeper understanding of the issues facing STEAM education and develop key practice and policy recommendations to address them. The implementation of these activities led to the development of the STEAMitUP Impact Assessment Study (IO3) and Policy Recommendation Report (IO4). The STEAMitUP project central aim was to do all we could to promote STEAM education at all levels and encourage students to consider potential STEAM careers.
Lancaster and Morecambe College (LMC) established the consortium and applied for the STEAMitUP project to address a number of issues facing the STEAM fields in school education. The core themes included the promotion of the STEAM fields in both education and as potential career paths, encouraging female participation in the STEAM fields of education and developing innovative interdisciplinary approaches to delivering STEAM activities in schools. The specific objectives of STEAMitUP were to: 1. Develop an interdisciplinary STEAM program to empower school communities to apply STEAM activities, lessons, workshops into their existing educational provision; 2. Build the capacity of educators, school leaders and school staff to organise and implement STEAM activities in schools with the use of both digital and non-digital schools; 3. Develop digital skills, creativity, problem-solving, self-esteem and collaboration in students; 4. Encourage, motivate and empower students to be engaged in the STEAM fields. The consortium represents a broad range of educational institutions and research organisations, covering all levels of education, with access to an extensive network of schools across the six partner countries.