CONTEXT In a recent OECD survey [oecdedutoday.com/succeeding-with-resilience-lessons-for-schools/], covering 25 European countries, almost all countries report shortfalls of skills that teachers need in order to meet school needs, combined with difficulties in updating teachers’ skills. However, digitisation is expected to profoundly change the way we learn and work. Many children entering school today are likely to end up working in jobs that do not yet exist. Preparing students for these uncharted territories means that we not only have to make sure that they have the right technical capabilities but that we have to strengthen their emotional and social skills. Resilience, the individual capacity to overcome adverse circumstances and use them as sources for personal development, lies at the core of being able to successfully adapt to change and thus actively engage with our digital world. At the same time we need to acknowledge Internet addiction and behaviours at risk of IAB (Internet Addiction Behaviour) as emerging problems for our youth [https://wb.md/3b9XWii]. A STEM approach bridging physical computing with environmental consciousness while focusing on off-screen collaborative activities is an excellent way of improving technical capabilities while strengthening emotional and social skills. OBJECTIVE STEM4CLIM8 has as primary objective to produce approaches and tools to help those working with children reach out to them with a view to help them engage with programming and develop STEM related skills. It aims to achieve this not by increasing screen time but by encouraging hands on play through the creation of a custom virtual world using Minecraft modding and the execution of missions dealing with natural disasters and using physical computing blocks which will be programmed to interact with the virtual world through the Raspberry GPIO. The missions will reveal the science behind natural phenomena frequently associated to climate change and inspire environmental consciousness while at the same time enhance STEM skills. PARTICIPANTS A school parents association, a university, a company offering bespoke software, a technical consultancy specialising in physical computing, a knowledge dissemination company with focus on gamification and a science NGO. ACTIVITIES The main objective will be achieved through the following activities: - Design, build and configure a DIY console based on the Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer. Under the guidance of the partners, teachers will build themselves the consoles to use with the help of a blueprint. - Assemble and use physical computing blocks and provide deliver a guide for their assembly, programing and use with the Raspberry GPIO for interacting with a custom virtual world created in Minecraft through modding - Connect the physical computing blocks to the GPIO and interact with the virtual world to complete missions with educational objectives relative to STEM and civic protection - Elaborate Lesson Plans for using all outcomes in the classroom - Provide a knowledge dissemination portal to access the project content - Use all the results in real conditions during the piloting period and provide feedback on all results - Create and manage the STEM4CLIM8 Club virtual space and supporting infrastructure. Participating teachers will help shape the Club as initial users and based on their feedback the final version of the Club will be launched to the general public. METHODOLOGY An iterative methodology: three versions of the results are produced, one in each iteration. After each iteration the results are tested/validated and based on the conclusions the next iteration is planned. RESULTS DIY console and physical computing blocks, a project made Minecraft world, guides for assembling the console and physical blocks, connecting them to the console and programming them to interact with the virtual world, a set of educational missions to be executed in the virtual world through interactions with the physical blocks, lesson plans for using all results in the classroom, a knowledge dissemination portal providing access to all content and a virtual club space supporting the use of the project results TARGET GROUP In the life of the project: professionals working with children (mainly 10 - 14 years). Apart from these direct target groups, the beneficiaries comprise also indirect target groups such as schools, children's/parents associations and organisations, policy makers and educational stakeholders deciding about subjects covered by school curricula, parents, content developers, etc. After the life of the project and subject to the delivery of concrete results, more target groups become relevant, such as companies active in educational technology, universities with pedagogical/engineering departments, educational bodies, STEM toys manufacturers. BENEFIT Improve digital skills of teachers/children and prepare them for the advent of IoT, Industry 4.0
As mentioned in the previous question, STEM4CLIM8 was born with the idea of helping kids, equipping them with exceptional digital and technical skills in the field of STEM-subjects, by using at the same time a hands-on approach, which limits kids’ time spent on a screen. At the same time, the project englobes an environmental consciousness, by treating the topic of natural phenomena, such as earthquakes or floods, equipping kids with the necessary tools and guidance on why and how to prepare themselves for these types of phenomena. Furthermore, STEM4CLIM8 also aims to help teachers update their skillset when it comes to digital and technical abilities. Indeed, it is possible to mention that the primary objective of STEM4CLIM8 is to produce approaches and tools to help those working with children helping them engage with programming and develop STEM-related skills while encouraging a hands-on play approach. Kids will indeed have to create a custom virtual world using Minecraft and execute missions dealing with natural disasters, which will inspire environmental consciousness, using physical computing blocks which will be programmed to interact with the virtual world through the Raspberry GPIO, enhancing their STEM skills.
The project STEM4CLIM8 was created with the main aim to provide teachers with the skills and the tools to encourage kids to use a hands-on play approach in learning about climate change and physical disasters, but also to equip kids with skills related to programming, physical computing, and other STEM-related skills. The rationale for this came mainly from the recognition that teachers lack nowadays the skills they need in order to meet school needs but also that digitisation is profoundly changing our kids’ future, requiring them to constantly adapt to something new, and therefore be equipped with exceptional digital and technical skills but also social skills and resilience. For this aim, the project used: 1. A wooden-based customised console and a custom Minecraft world in which students experience physical disasters connecting the sensors in physical computing blocks with the Pi microcomputer in the console, using the Python programming language. 2. Three custom virtual worlds using the Minecraft Education game in which students are taught about the topic of climate change, natural disasters, and the precautions and actions to stay safe during a natural disaster.