COVID-19 meant a change in every area of life, radically altering education and the way we approach technology, thus showing that not all schools and teachers were prepared for the challenge. Our project wanted to address, on the one hand, the UN priorities namely "enabling technology, in particular ICT, to promote the empowerment of women (goal 5)" or the EU priority "leading the transition to a new digital world where everyone has a fair chance to reap the benefits of digitalisation" and on the other hand, develop the STEAM skills in teachers and students alike in order to encourage scientific vocation in both girls and boys. Moreover, the project had to explore how teacher trainers were doing their job at a time where there was a big need to redefine the role of the teacher in pandemic, the methodologies and the resources to be used both online and in blended scenarios and how all these variables have an impact on the student's performance, motivation and skills. Thanks to the knowledge/skills acquired in the project, teachers trainers have been able to reflect on different methodologies related to online, blended and face-to-face learning and on the teacher's role in the 21st Century and how COVID-19 has accelerated its changes; design innovative online/blended courses related to STEAM and create an open resource bank for the teaching of STEAM; involve the participant teachers in the trainings in becoming the change agents of innovation, whose methodologies, know-how and expertise will increase the students' levels of achievement in STEAM and will make them digitally competent citizens, including special needs students and those at risk of social inclusion; popularise robotics by integrating it in the curriculum and not as an extracurricular activity afforded by a minority; reduce the STEM gender gap by enhancing science in girls; create groups of work in the 3 countries with teachers from primary and secondary education to ensure the continuation of the creation of the resources for the open resource bank. The project has comprised 5 Short Joint-Staff Training Events and 4 main in-between activities organised at the 3 countries involving primary and secondary schools which have had their corresponding online events where participant students and teachers have exchanged their views on the topic (Asteroid Treasure Hunt, I wanna be a scientist TOO, Scratch our country's tale, "Safer Internet Day" awareness campaign, Erasmus Days, European Robotics Week, Code Week, etc). Additionally, we had 3 transnational meetings: kick off (being online due to Covid-19), intermediate (to evaluate the first year of the project and plan the second one) and final transnational one (to reach conclusions and finish the outputs). Last but not least, although it was not contemplated in the project, we decided to organise a dissemination event in a primary school and a secondary school in Menorca during the final transnational meeting to disseminate the project results, make teachers aware of the importance of teaching STEAM and to disseminate the importance of developing European projects such as this KA2. Through the training and observation of good practices, the teacher trainers have improved their knowledge regarding the creation of educational materials related to digital competence and STEAM based on new methodologies related to online, blended and face-to-face learning, being able to adapt them to students with special needs and this has been compiled in the open resource bank for interactive teaching of STEAM, with resources available in 5 different languages namely Spanish, Catalan, Finnish, Italian and English. New groups of work in each country have been established in both primary and secondary education with online international meetings to keep up what has been done in each country and continue with the exchange of good practices. Contests have been organized to enhance the interest in science and technology in girls and boys, reduce the gender gap and to improve students' digital competence and knowledge on robotics by integrating it in the curriculum. A handbook of good practices has been compiled to serve as an inspiration and guidance for other teachers to disseminate results and foster new European projects and a web page is available to know the project in depth, as well as a Twinspace.
Thanks to the knowledge/skills acquired in the project, teacher trainers have been able to reflect on different methodologies related to online, blended and face-to-face learning and on the teacher's role in the 21st Century and how COVID-19 has accelerated its changes; contribute to design innovative online/blended courses related to STEAM and create an open resource bank for the teaching of STEAM; involve the participant teachers in the trainings in becoming the change agents of innovation, whose methodologies, know-how and expertise will increase the students' levels of achievement in STEAM and will make them digitally competent citizens, including special needs students and those at risk of social inclusion; popularise robotics by integrating it in the curriculum and not as an extracurricular activity afforded by a minority; reduce the STEM gender gap by enhancing science in girls; create groups of work in the 3 countries with teachers from primary and secondary education to ensure the continuation of the creation of the resources and get to know the teacher's professional development system and the education system in the 3 countries thanks to the joint-staff training events.
COVID-19 meant a change in every area of life, radically altering education and the way we approach technology, thus showing that not all schools and teachers were prepared for the challenge. Our project wanted to address, on the one hand, the UN priorities namely "enabling technology, in particular ICT, to promote the empowerment of women (goal 5)" or the EU priority "leading the transition to a new digital world where everyone has a fair chance to reap the benefits of digitalisation" and on the other hand, develop the STEAM skills in teachers and students alike in order to encourage scientific vocation in both girls and boys. Moreover, the project had to explore how teacher trainers were doing their job at a time where there was a big need to redefine the role of the teacher in pandemic, the methodologies and the resources to be used both online and in blended scenarios and how all these variables have an impact on the student's performance, motivation and skills.