This projects is a joint cooperation between South East European University in North Macedonia, Linnaeus University in Sweden, Galatasaray University in Turkey and two high schools in North Macedonia. The aim of the project is to promote and improve the level of STEM education in North Macedonia through novel methodologies. Some of the activities planned by this project are as follows: 1. Establishment of the first makers-lab (Fablab) in North Macedonia, fully supported by South East European University 2. Creation of small STEM packs that will be distributed to high schools in North Macedonia 3. Creation of a modular training program for STEM education 4. Publication of a handbook that will be used for future training of pupils in STEM education FOSTEM aims to address a major deficiency in primary and secondary schools in North Macedonia: to inspire and encourage pupils to study STEM related fields. For this purpose, the project aims to ease learning of this courses through numerous experiments with tangible results in the form of robotics, 3D printing, mechatronics, chemical and physics experiments; all aided by micro-computing platforms.
The main objectives of this project were: 1. To establish a makers-lab that would be fully supported by South East European University 2. To create small STEM packs that would be distributed to high schools in North Macedonia 3. To create a modular training program for STEM education 4. To publish material that would be used for future training of pupils in STEM education
The main problem that we wanted to tackle with this project was raising awareness of high school pupils and teachers in regard to STEM education. As many in the country, we were shocked by the PISA results and delved deep into the OECD report that identified three main culprits for these disappointing results: - Lack of lab work for students, - Greater involvement of teachers and their expertise and - An adaptive approach that would involve individual support to challenged students We tailored this project to specifically address the above-mentioned issues. In addition, we established a partnership with high schools in North Macedonia as well as international partners that would assist us in implementing successfully this project.