Clean air classroom startup promotes STE(A)M studies across Europe and encourages curious minds to learn more about the environment, globally and locally with the help of a self-developed measuring device. Education professionals and employers agree that there is a strong need for more widespread good practices in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths ) education. European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) lists STEM professionals as one of the top five skill shortages across the EU. The need for STEM experts and the problem of attracting students, especially girls, to STEM fields persists in all participating countries. One of the main objectives of this project is to encourage students to study STEM topics and promote science education within their respective communities. Building upon their experiences with Phenomenon based learning (PhBL), STEM education and the SpaceTEAM.eu STEAM course, the two partnering schools based in Belgium and Finland work together in promoting STEAM opportunities and the value of European cooperation in a new and exciting way with the help of a STEAM course based on exploring each others environment. Heilig Hartinstituut Heverlee based in Leuven, Belgium is a catholic secondary school. Suininlahti School is a public lower secondary school based in Siilinjärvi, Finland. Each school will select a team consisting of around 6 teachers to work on the project. The course will consist of groups of around 20-24 students between the ages of 15-16. We focus on gender equality, and aim for an even 50/50 distribution between boys and girls. The aim of the project is to create a framework for a project based STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths) course where secondary school students will examine the environment globally and locally through a wide range of activities. In the first part, student teams work together simultaneously in the partner countries, creating a measuring device measuring relevant parameters of their environment at ground level and in the troposphere. An online learning space, where students can learn from each other and communicate with their peers in other countries will be an essential platform during the course, ensuring transnational cooperation. The scientific data gathered during the exploration of the different environments will be compared and analyzed to have a good idea about the global air quality. In the second part of the project, these results alongside the physical products will be used to explore their habitat, the classroom. Students will measure the air quality in different type of classrooms (steam-, laboratory–, normal classroom…) and hopefully conclude it needs improvement. Starting from the necessity of a healthier study environment, they will brainstorm ideas to improve the air quality and develop it into a product or service. At this stage the focus shifts to entrepreneurship and creative problem solving processes. These student startups will have the opportunity to visit each other’s classroom and environment and explain their solutions to one another. Finally they will pitch their findings and solutions to the wider community with the hope of inspiring the public to be interested in clean air solutions and environmental topics in a local as well as global framework. Next to a Twinspace on eTwinning, a project website, www.CLAIR.eu, will also be created, as it will host a blog kept by students during the project and report on the project on a larger scale. The aim is to engage the online community to get interested in STE(A)M through a strong online presence with the help of the website and social media. The course is carried out in Finland and Belgium, by a combined total of 48 students. To create the framework for the project, the schools involved will rely on their experience gained in their previous common project, ‘SpaceTEAM.eu’, where they exchanged ideas, methods and best practices in introducing STEAM to the schools in an innovative way. In the years to come, all schools in Europe who want explore their environment and learn more about global and local air quality themselves, will be able to join the program through a suitable platform like eTwinning. Future participants of the program will have the framework with all materials, lesson plans and guidelines, which are created during this project at their disposal. The partnering schools are already deeply involved in STEM education, and see opportunities of further professional development in the shift to STEAM approaches. The inclusion of activities involving arts and soft skills that contribute to the A of STEAM, closely align with European Key Competences such as cultural awareness and EU citizenship. From our experience in the SpaceTEAM.eu project we can say that it’s an tremendous added value for the student to communicate with their peers in English.
Clean air classroom startup promotes STE(A)M studies across Europe and encourages curious minds to learn more about the environment, globally and locally with the help of a self-developed measuring device. Education professionals and employers agree that the need for STEM experts and the problem of attracting students to STEM fields persists in all participating countries. One of the main objectives of this project was to encourage students to study STEM topics and promote science education within their respective communities. Building upon prevous experience, the two partnering schools based in Belgium and Finland worked together in promoting STEAM opportunities and the value of European cooperation in a new and exciting way. Heilig Hartinstituut Heverlee based in Leuven, Belgium is a catholic secondary school. Suininlahti School is a public lower secondary school based in Siilinjärvi, Finland. Each school selected a team consisting of around 6 teachers to work on the project. The course was carried out in groups of 20-24 students between the ages of 15-16. The aim of the project was to create a framework for a project based STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths) course where secondary school students examined the environment globally and locally through a wide range of activities. In the first part, student teams worked together simultaneously in the partner countries, creating a measuring device measuring relevant parameters of their environment at ground level and in the troposphere. The scientific data gathered during the exploration of the different environments was compared and analyzed against that of local environment agencies and health guidelines. In the second part of the project, these results alongside the physical products were used to explore their habitat, the classroom. Students measured the air quality in different types of classrooms (steam-, laboratory–, normal classroom…). Starting from the necessity of a healthier study environment, they brainstormed ideas to improve the air quality and develop it into a product or service. At this stage the focus shifted to entrepreneurship and creative problem solving processes. These student startups had the opportunity to visit each other’s classroom and environment and explain their solutions to one another. Finally they pitched their findings and solutions to a wider community. The course started out in Finland and Belgium, by a combined total of 48 students. In the second year, they were joined by an Italian school, that could rely on the framework that was already created. At the moment of writing, the course is in its third iteration year and the schools and teachers keep strengthening their STEAM education. Every year there were 2 exchange weeks. The first week was used to become familiar with the culture of the host country, to brainstorm on possible solutions to improve air quality in classrooms and to present to each other the measurements performed at the home institutions. Also classes on how to build up pitch presentations were given. During the second exchange week, again familiarity with the culture of the hosting country was established and the changes to the classroom environments were presented to each other through pitch presentations. Next to that, a number of professionals from circular economy were invited to share their expertise and explain their vision on sustainability. Finally a number of presentations and posters for other interested stakeholders were developed and given to disseminate project results. The project originally started out in schoolyear '20-'21 in Finland and Belgium. Due to the covid pandemic no exchange weeks could be organized, so both schools worked separately on the project and only exchanged information online. Because of the restrictions an extension of the project was requested. In schoolyear ’21-’22 the project had a new start in Finland and Belgium. Again because of covid the original planning got shaken up, but we were able to reschedule the exchange weeks and we organized a back-to-back exchange. In April of ’22 first the Finnish students came to Leuven and the week after the Belgian students went to Finland. In ’22-’23 the project was continued and even extended because there was an additional class of STEM students. In February 2023 a group of 20 Belgian students visited the students from Istituto Istruzione Superiore Vallauri (Italië - Fossano) for a week. In April 2023 the 20 Italian students visited us a week in Leuven. These exchanges happened at the same time as the exchanges with Finland, so the whole group (with students from Italy, Finland and Belgium) performed the activities together.