SUNRISE started from the assumption that the arts are undoubtedly a highly valuable educational tool, and therefore it developed a set of innovative and alternative training tools for secondary school teachers and educators to teach STEM subjects combined with artistic techniques that can facilitate inclusion and participatory learning. This approach was revealed to be very effective for students with disabilities/SEN. The project objectives were: > to improve teaching’s quality through innovative and alternative didactics that enrich STEM teaching with different artistic expressions, facilitating inclusive and participatory learning; > to integrate formal education with non-formal education by professional artists and artists with disabilities; > to help teachers develop their skills regarding STEM and creativity, fostering creative thinking and sense of initiative, useful to find innovative solutions to individual and collective challenges; > to help students to handle the pandemic social and emotional repercussions through new opportunities of self-expression exploring contamination between STEM and arts; > to foster students’ awareness, relational and communication skills and their ability to think out of the box.
The project SUNRAISE – Stem UNlimited Raise thanks to Arts at School in Europe was coordinated by NAZARENO (IT) with 6 partners from CY, ES, GR, PL (out of them, 2 partners are secondary schools). The project aimed to tackle a set of serious problems affecting education in Europe, such as: > the general reduction in the quality of learning and school performance, with a risk of disengagement and dropout; > the low interest and performance shown by European students in STEM disciplines, despite the key importance of these subjects to develop the necessary innovation to face contemporary challenges; > the inequalities in access to education for students with disabilities or with special educational needs (SEN), generally reducing their quality of learning and school achievements. It is vitally important to support young people in learning to combine knowledge and interdisciplinary skills to solve problems, exercise critical and creative thinking, with the goal of raising a more prepared and resilient generation. To do so, it is crucial to introduce new educational systems in the study of STEM, and a change of aptitudes is needed in teachers' approaches, with a greater openness to innovative methods.