Relevance

Demands and requirements for the workforce have been changing rapidly due to digital transformation, and the knowledge and skills acquired today will not be enough in future. At the same time, demand for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) skills is on the rise and expected to grow, and educators should take it into account. In the time when STEM has become one of the most important values in European education, it is particularly important for schoolteachers and trainers working in the informal education to acquire the skills that make them STEM and STE(A)M (including Arts in STEM programmes) – ready.

How to achieve this? How to make teachers and trainers STE(A)M-ready and help them develop and sustain students’ interest in STE(A)M? How to ensure the change when educators are eager to acquire new competences themselves, adopt the cross-disciplinary STE(A)M approaches and implement those in their work? And how to support educator preparation for this change?

The consortium of seven partners from six countries have designed the STEAMonEdu project to address this challenge.  We believe that if the change is carried through collaborative networks of educators, students, researchers, and other stakeholders, it is likely to be more successful.

In this context, the STEAMonEdu project will research how to strengthen STE(A)M education and will provide an online environment to support the eco-system, that will be based on a bottom-up approach, where  different stakeholders work collaboratively to design, develop and implement STE(A)M content, practices, projects, and policies. The project will develop and test the integrated modular training system that can be easily transferred and adapted at local, regional and national level.

 Partners

The partnership was set up considering the required expertise to realise the professional development of educators and includes:

• R&D state institute Computer Technology Institute and Press “Diophantus” (CTI) with its expertise in project management and in ICT solutions for training;
• four non-profit organisations experienced in developing methodologies, community outreach and training: 21st Century Competence Centre in Germany, Stati Generali dell’Innovazione (SGI) in Italy, EOS Foundation in Romania, Colectic in Spain,
• The Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of Western Greece (PDEDE) bringing expertise in design and evaluation of methodologies, and
• a European network – ALL DIGITAL with its experience in advocacy, dissemination, and exploitation

The two-year project was kicked-off with the partners’ meeting on 21-22 January 2020 in Athens hosted by the lead partner CTI. During the meeting the partners reviewed all aspects of the project implementation. They explored the  plans for the roll-up and promotion of the project, considered carefully how to develop the STE(A)M repository, the learning materials, how to build and grow the community of practice, and carry out the STE(A)M policy evaluation. The pilot partners agreed on a number of following steps, and it was a valuable and productive start to the project.

Follow the project news on social media with the hashtag #STEAMonEdu

Teaching and learning in the virtual environment are powerful solutions for education, given the social distance imposed by the coronavirus. Classic study tools had to be quickly replaced with digital tools and internet resources in order for the educational process to continue.

With the closure of schools, the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research encouraged teachers to be innovative and recommended the use of a set of digital classroom teaching tools. STEAMonEDU project partner EOS Romania, as a partner for education of the Ministry, has implemented a remote working system: video conferencing applications, a common place in the business environment, are now used as «virtual classrooms». Shared, the computer screen becomes the «writing board»; the class can be put “on mute” while the teacher explains the topic;  the chat field hosts questions until the teacher opens the lecture time for discussion.

Teachers were not prepared to use this kind of tools and resources and required training and assistance to use them and adapt their teaching process. To support them, EOS Romania developed a range of resources and guides available in the national language, provided technical support to schools, and prepared a series of webinars about obtaining and using connection accounts to the resources made available by the Ministry of Education and Research. All the guides, resources and webinar recordings were uploaded onto EOS website and are available for free for all schools and teachers who want to use them.

The virtual courses are organized on secure web domains, from which the educational resources made available by the Ministry of Education and Research are accessed. Video conferencing systems facilitate not only simple screen sharing, but also learning how to use other computer applications and encourage collaborative work in the projects developed by students.

During 15-31 March 2020, EOS Romania ran 22 webinars to train and support Romanian teachers.

How the required skills of future employees are trained is hardly anchored in the rigid German education system. Meanwhile implementation of individual competences in connection with media use or in connection with STEM subjects has already taken place. However, STE(A)M education is still in its very early infancy in the German education system. Some actions and initiatives are already visible for kindergarten and pre-school, but for primary, secondary and high school STEAM is not anchored in German educational system. In contrast, a considerable number of non-formal educators and initiatives offer a wide range of STE(A)M educational opportunities.

Nationwide initiatives on STEM and Arts

The digitisation is already demanding that education policy focuses on broader skills – especially the 21st Century Skills – communication, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration.

Even if the education policy level has not yet shown any efforts for the implementation of a STE(A)M framework, some initiatives that can be linked to STE(A)M education are visible in Germany.

In the nationwide initiative «Code your Life«, children and young people experience the connection between algorithms and artificial image creation or create music. «We encourage the imagination and creative use of programming tasks by teaching children and young people to use our Turtle application to define geometric shapes and algorithmic sequences that produce artistic images,“ explains Jutta Schneider, Project manager of «Code your Life». In recent years, around 300,000 children and young people were involved in activities as well as their teachers and educators which are trained in using and preparing the coding activities. A comprehensive range of teaching materials, online tutorials and teacher training courses are part of the offer.

The combination of art with technology, mathematics and computer science is made visible every year by the award and the associated exhibition Der Deutsche Multimedia Preis mb21 (German multimedia Award mb21). Children and young people from different age groups submit their own creative multimedia ideas and products like creative blogs, sound combinations for the city of the future or painting music by using artificial intelligence. At the annual media festival, the winners’ objects are exhibited, they can be viewed and tried out by the audience. For example, 3D printers can be used to make imaginative or useful things, soldering irons can be used to repair or reassemble technology, and artistic designs can be created.

Helpful STEM structures

STE(A)M education is not yet structurally anchored in the German education system, but for more than 14 years, STEM education has been a central issue in Germany at civil society and political level. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research published the STEM Action Plan in 2019 and defined four fields of action: STEM education for children and young people, STEM professionals, opportunities for girls and women in STEM, and STEM in society.

It would also be possible to access the structure of the previously established STEM networks, which have already created local bodies for STEM education and training and support educational institutions such as kindergartens and schools in exploring and discovering the world of mathematics, IT, science and technology with children and young people.

The aim of these measures is to secure skilled workers in Germany and to promote female employees in technical and scientific fields. There are already numerous civil society initiatives, ranging from the early childhood sector – Stiftung Haus der kleinen Forscher (House of Little Researchers Foundation), through pre-schools and primary schools – awarding STEM-friendly schools – to STEM regions for secondary schools.

STEM Education in Germany

The foundation «Haus der kleinen Forscher» promotes STEM activities for very young children and promotes the natural urge to research. With local players in over 200 local networks, it supports educational professionals in kindergartens with ideas and training to support and awaken interest for STEM education in children.

But even in the area of STEM education, German secondary schools do not provide cross-curricular schooling on the one hand and do not anchor individual STEM subjects on the other. The disciplines of engineering and computer science are not or only rudimentarily included in the educational plans of the Länder. Interdisciplinary lesson planning between several teachers takes place only rarely. The German learning and school structure, in which teachers conduct and organise lessons, leaves little room for interdisciplinary exchange between colleagues. «In an international comparison, Germany has a relatively high number of teaching hours – up to 28 compared to 15-18 hours in China, for example. This leaves little room for further training or for the development and implementation of interdisciplinary learning opportunities in German schools,» said Dr. Ekkehard Winter, Co-speaker of Nationales MINT Forum (National STEM Forum).

Dr Ekkehard Winter (image – Andres Süß/NFM)

National STEM Forum

One of the central tasks of the National STEM Forum (Nationales MINT Forum, NMF) is to provide impetus for strengthening STEM education in Germany at federal, state and municipal level. The members of the NMF – 30 renowned institutions from science, business and the foundation sector – are involved, for example, in linking school and extracurricular activities in more than 130 STEM regions. These are networks that create locally appropriate, centrally coordinated and sustainably effective offers along the entire education chain in the STEM subjects. Project days, researcher workshops and labs, teacher training and teaching materials are common offerings for those responsible for education. With Parliamentary Evenings or the annual National STEM Summit, the NMF stimulates political debates and addresses key demands to education policy decision-makers. But what about the connection between Art and STEM? Dr. Ekkehard Winter sees this as a broadening of perspectives also with regard to the demands on the workforce in a digitalised working environment. In a working group, the NMF now wants to develop recommendations on how cooperation across subject boundaries can be successful and thus stimulate the debate on STE(A)M education in Germany.

The European project STEAMonEdu

The current project STEAMonEdu initiates a discussion on the STE(A)M educational and competence framework for pedagogical training. In addition, a MOOC and an online-supported in-service training course will illustrate examples of good practice and STE(A)M learning activities to educational staff, teachers. A European STE(A)M community provides impulses for the establishment of STE(A)M education. Helliwood media & education (21^st CCC) is the German consortium partner and is responsible for the implementation of the project in Germany. With its experience in implementing media education and offering activities for children and youth within nationwide educational initiatives, it will create and support the German STE(A)M Community.

by Katrin Schuberth, Helliwood media & education

Repubblica Digitale project is a national strategic initiative promoted by the Department for Digital Transformation of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers to «combat the cultural digital in the Italian population, to support digital inclusion and promote education on the technologies of the future, accompanying the process of the digital transformation of the country».

The aim of Repubblica Digitale is to create an «alliance» of public and private entities, which has as its reference point the Manifesto of Repubblica Digitale and which operates as a community of co-design, sharing and collaboration. In order to adhere to the Manifesto, the proposed initiatives must relate to three areas:

1. basic digital literacy and overcoming the digital cultural divide;
2. development of digital skills for work; and
3. education in emerging technologies and the dissemination of digital culture.

Repubblica Digitale proposes the idea that supporting the digital transformation of the country with educational and cultural actions is a common civic duty for the State, businesses and individuals. For this reason, all members of society, starting from the media, schools and families, can contribute in a decisive way to overcome the gaps that currently divide the country.

STEAMonEdu has been listed among valuable Italian and European initiatives proposed by public and private entities that will help Repubblica Digitale in reaching the objectives foreseen by the Manifesto.

Greece’s educational system has also entered the “big run” among European countries by conducting research, surveys and by coordinating discussions among experts and policy makers on the way through which STEM or STEAM education could be integrated in the curricula. Both STEM and recently STEAM concepts are becoming a subject of study in Greece whereas plenty of mainly private educational providers, as well as universities, schools and educational institutes are investing time and money focusing on the embedding of innovative educational approaches within the teaching and learning procedure.

The Greek Ministry of Education is providing educational institutions with general guidelines about the implementation of STEM and STEAM education. Notably enough, despite the fact that European countries recognize the usefulness of STEM education, however, funding and government support are mainly focused on higher education in the Greek Educational System as well.  (Kalolo, 2016:68)

Typical, Official, and Unofficial Implementation of STEAM in Greece

The fact is that remarkable progress has been made in terms of official and unofficial educational actions happening in Greek schools and universities. The Greek Ministry of Education has released plenty of Ministerial Decisions related to STEM education and the implementation of new ICT methods and tools. Nevertheless, there is no integration of STEM or STEAM education or robotics in the official curricula.

Smaller or bigger official initiatives towards STEM and STEAM education include easier access of high school students to higher education when they have won the first, second or third place in Balkan or International Students Competitions in STEM fields, such as Mathematics, ICT or Robotics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Also more hours are dedicated to ICT teachers in Primary Education after 2010 whereas in the official curricula of high school it is clearly written that “The general aim of the course «Informatics Applications» is «to expand the general computer education of students with an emphasis on developing skills and abilities in use of computational and network technologies as tools for learning, thinking, communication and collaboration» (F.151/220830/Α5/23-12-2016, F.3/609/60745/Γ1/28-5-2010 Greek Ministers’ of Education Decisions).

Furthermore, experimental schools are allowed to create thematic educational groups, in which innovative tools and methods could be implemented. Teachers and educators are free to co-operate with higher education institutions, and following that direction plenty of Greek teachers working in experimental schools choose STEM and/or STEAM as a thematic educational group. Finally “Competence Laboratories” are being introduced at the moment in a piloting phase, by the Greek Ministry of Education in co-operation with the Greek Institute of Education Policy as an innovative element of the new cutricula following the identified need of cultivating “21^st Century’s Competences”.

Finally, official licenses and sponsorships are granted for relevant competitions by the Greek Ministry of Education, in accordance with its internal terms and regulations for running contests under its auspices. The Educational Robotics Competition has run under its auspices, whereas several festivals and robotics competitions are running with the support of the Greek Ministry of Education such as World Robotics Olympiad, Students ICT Conference, Students Robotics Festivals, Regional Conferences of Computational and Mathematical Thinking supported by Regional Directorates of Education, Grand Prix of Natural Sciences, etc.

Good STEM and STEAM Practices in Greece

Last but not least several STEM European Projects are being implemented by Greek Schools of Primary and Secondary Education, as well as Higher Education Institutes participating in strategic partnerships and integrating autonomously several of their elements in the daily teaching and learning process.

Such projects implementing good practices are:

• ROBOESL-EDUMOTIVA-European Lab for Educational Technology
• FIND: Future Innovators, New Discoveries
• Addressing underachievement in STEAM education through real product design and making practices
• Developing Innovative Science Outreach for Vocational Education to Encourage STEM Careers and Education
• Steamon

Furthermore, important STEM and STEAM-oriented initiatives are taking place in Greece mainly by higher institution synergies. Namely the  Open Technologies Alliance (GFOSS) comprised by 31 Universities and Research Centers is co-ordinating nationally the Scientix Project, and numerous STEM good practices are available to educators through its annual conference. Best practices for mentoring and training STEM students to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to connect their learning to real-world problems are also provided by the ambitious initiative of HI-STEM and the Universities of Patras and Athens. Finally, several private educational organizations provide STEM Education courses with a STEAM perspective.

By Elena Sarlis and Spyridon Papadakis, Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of Western Greece

On 30 April, at the IEEE EDUCON2020 Conference, Natalia Spyropoulou and Achilles Kameas, members of the STEAMonEdu project team of Computer Technology Institute and Press “Diophantus” (CTI), presented the scientific paper “STEM Educator challenges and professional development needs: the educators’ views”.

The IEEE EDUCON2020 conference was the eleventh in a series of conferences that rotate among central locations in IEEE Region 8 (Europe, Middle East and North Africa). This year, the conference focused on «Engineering Education for the Future in a Multicultural and Smart World» and took place online, due to the pandemic. EDUCON is the flagship conference of the IEEE Education Society.

The paper summarized preliminary results regarding the challenges and professional development needs of STEM Educators based on a survey that was conducted using an online questionnaire. The data was collected across 19 different cities/regions of Greece, including remote islands and included 59 respondents (26 women), who at the time of the study had implemented STE(A)M-related courses through formal and non-formal education in preschool, primary and secondary education.

The preliminary results show that educators need support with appropriate equipment, infrastructure and resources alongside with a reform of the education system in order to support STE(A)M education. In addition, professional development of educators is considered necessary, however, there is a need to understand in-depth the skills and competences that a STE(A)M educator should possess.

The presentation led to a fruitful exchange of ideas during the discussion that followed, also causing strong interest of the participants for the activities and future actions related to STEAMonEdu project.

In response to the Covid-19 health crisis, our partner Colectic has launched some STEAM initiatives to help generate collective awareness against the coronavirus and also to directly support the communities, in which they operate.

Colectic is located in Barcelona, in the neighbourhood of Raval. Schools and other educational centres throughout the city closed their doors on 13 March, due to the health crisis. Knowing the difficulty for many families in Raval ​​to have all the necessary material resources and being aware of how the digital divide can make many students unable to follow the instructions of the schools normally, Colectic staff have joined to help the neighborhood to respond to this situation.

In this way, Colectic staff have decided to act as facilitators in collaboration with other organizations and entities in the neighborhood so that families, adults, young people and the elderly have access to computers, either to carry out school tasks, communicate with the family or take self-training courses online.

Another initiative has been helping and contributing to manufacturing different parts and protection material for healthcare workers with ‘Makers for inclusion’ project. Colectic has four 3D printers taking smoke out day and night in the houses of their revitalizers creating incessantly at full capacity.

Through the Coronavirusmakers.org Network, Colectic is in coordination with other groups of makers to share designs, availability of materials, advice and deliveries of the pieces they are building.

Our Romanian partner EOS – Educating for an Open Society Foundation, in early May 2020 launched the Cloud Career Accelerator project in partnership with Microsoft Romania, through Microsoft’s global philanthropic program.

In order to meet the challenges of the labour market, young jobseekers need to learn new skills, both in the area of technical skills (learning new technologies and programming languages), as well as in the area of soft skills (critical thinking, analysis or ethics).

Thus, EOS Foundation runs the Cloud Career Accelerator – a free pilot programme for accelerated learning and certification with up-to-date resources in the fields of cloud technologies, artificial intelligence and integrated digital services: Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics or Microsoft Power Platform.

In 2020, the Cloud Career Accelerator will offer specialized AI and cloud technology courses to approximately 500 young people who do not have access to such courses or opportunities for certification of acquired skills. In the context of the current situation generated by COVID-19, all training courses and their associated resources will be made available to the beneficiaries in a dedicated space, so that the participants have a pleasant user experience. In the first stage of the project, EOS Foundation will select five partner universities interested in developing specialized courses in Azure and artificial intelligence for students.

In full swing of the digital economy, the most popular jobs did not even exist 10 or even 5 years ago. Many experts argue that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud technologies are some of the most important topics when discussing careers in the IT sector. As technology continues to advance at an ever-accelerating pace, a lot of new jobs have been created. New jobs in IT include stand-alone machine programmers, cloud computing specialists, big data experts and artificial intelligence.

The Cloud Career Accelerator project has already been accepted by the European Commission as an important contribution to achieving the goals of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition strategy.