Students as Digital Storytellers: a STEAM approach to Space Exploration (DiSTARS)

Enviado por lazoudis el Mar, 06/04/2021 - 19:46

General Info


Students as Digital Storytellers: a STEAM approach to Space Exploration (DiSTARS)
Abstracto

The DiSTARS approach aims to test a synchronized integration of Art and STEM in the primary curriculum, simulating the ways in which subjects naturally connect in the real world. Combining scientific inquiry with artistic expression (e.g. visual and performing arts), storytelling, and by using a digital storytelling platform along with AR and VR technology, this educational practice captures the imagination of young students and provides them with one of their early opportunities for digital creative expression. In spite of the strong interest in science by male students, research has indicated that the “The possibility of life outside Earth” seems to be equally interesting for girls and boys.

Students who are involved in DiSTARS work collaboratively in groups to express their visions for the future of Space Exploration. Each group of students creates a digital story in the form of an e-book (in a 2D or 3D environment) showing how they imagine a visit to any planet or moon in our solar system, the trip, the arrival, the buildings on the planet, the life of humans there. The platform allows for the creations of the students (paintings, models, dioramas and constructions, 3D objects and landscapes, animations, science videos and science theatre plays) to be captured according to their scenarios and be integrated in storylines.

The practice focuses on the age range 10 to 12 years old. It is the specific time that in most of the curricula in European Countries (and in the world) the Arts lessons of the curriculum are downgraded from other subjects, including STEM.


STEAM2021 Conference
Off
Idioma
English
Disciplina STEAM
Ciencias
Tecnología
Ingenieria
Letras
Matemáticas
Science Area/Topic
Astronomy
Chemistry
Earth Sciences
Physics
Physic laborathory
Technology Area/Topic
ICT
Informatics
Educational Robotics
Engineering Area/Topic
Civil engineering
Mechanical engineering
Art Area/Topic
Geography
Physical education
Digital artefacts
Mathematics Area/Topic
Presentation of Maths and physic Graphs
Licencia
CC BY-NC-SA

Audience and Educational Framework


Audiencia
Persona educadora
Aprendiz
Gerente / formulador de políticas
Famílias, bibliotecario/a
Competencia de la audiencia
Principiante
Rango de edad
10-14
Marco educativo / formativo
Escuela primaria / primaria
Secundaria / secundaria
Profesoras
no formal

Educational Details


Materia educativa
Natural Sciences & Technology (e.g. Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Informatics)
Descripción de la práctica

STEAM provides an avenue for formally teaching the inter-relationships of how subjects relate in real-life. This educational approach can be enjoyably and meaningfully delivered in more engaging and deeply embedding ways within the already well-established realm of education. DiSTARS is about engaging students in a multi- and interdisciplinary learning context that values the artistic activities, while breaking down barriers that have traditionally existed between different classes and subjects. In principle it is based on the natural ways that people learn and are interested in things.

In the framework of DiSTARS educational approach, students present their own visions (in the form of digital multi-path stories) for the future of space exploration. They explore major scientific challenges and technological problems through the act of creation rather than the consumption of content. These students’ stories and the accompanying pedagogic principles (such as IBSE, Problem Solving, Collaborative Learning) are the core of this practice. Students are supported during the development of these stories via the inquiry and creative learning approaches (e.g. hands-on classroom activities) in order to generate innovative practice and creativity in STEM related activities. This is strongly encouraged in the way the DiSTARS pedagogic principles are ultimately employed in order to help learners and adult professionals imagine new ideas in STEM education; to shift from “what is” to new possibilities of “what might be”.

Digital storytelling can be used by educators to support students’ learning by encouraging them to organize and express their ideas and knowledge in an individual and meaningful way while developing digital skills and key competencies. Such approach, adopted by DiSTARS, helps students develop traditional communication skills, fosters collaboration, and strengthens emergent literacy practices. Students develop enhanced communication skills by learning to organize their ideas, ask questions, present their work, express opinions, and construct narratives as they interact with colleagues and a storytelling platform in the creation of digital stories.

Additonally, the proposed DiSTARS innovative teaching strategies offer students high participation and enable them to generate highly imaginative possibilities and support deeper learning. In order for teachers to achieve deeper learning outcomes for their students, they must exchange the “instructor” role for that of the coach of learning. DiSTARS represents this new vision for teaching, and outlines strategies for how teachers’ roles and conditions can support and enable deeper learning for students. Teachers can successfully achieve deeper learning with students when they “personalize learning experiences, apply real-world knowledge to learning, and use technology in a way that enhances and empowers student learning”. This includes students’ learning-to-learn competences.

A vast array of digital tools, integrated to a storytelling platform,  support students during the process of creating their digital stories: they are able to enrich their stories with visualizations, 3D artifacts, models, dioramas and paintings, videos and animations, audio, theatrical performances. The growing accessibility of enabling learning technologies is giving rise to a whole new level of comfort with producing media and prototypes. Honing such skills in students can lead to deeply engaging learning experiences in which students will become the authorities on subjects through investigation, storytelling, and production. A recent report on Girls in STEM (Accenture 2017) clearly shows that young girls need to be exposed to STEM subjects (especially computer science) at a much earlier age than today’s students or else there is a risk of them being lost in the transition between primary and secondary education. Focusing on students – and girls in particular – below the age of 12, increases the chances of preventing this gap from appearing. DiSTARS, targets this age group and recommends replacing the competitive-type classroom environment by a more girls friendly instructional approach in which enough time and conditions are given to think, inquire, and understand thoroughly. This could be accomplished by sharing ideas, arguing, asking questions and analyzing data in small groups of students who work in collaborative manner.


Duración
40 horas
Dificultad
Medio
Uso educativo
Project-based activity in groups of 4 to 7.

Resultados del aprendizaje

a) To develop a pedagogical framework for integrating arts into STEM activities. Creativity is supported and blended within project-based and inquiry science education approaches. This framework guides the teachers during the storytelling interventions towards better realizing their emerging role as coaches of learning

b) To extensively use the DiSTARS advanced storytelling platform and its innovative VR & AR interfaces to support students in the creation of their digital stories. Encourage student collaboration and enhance their problem-solving skills.

c) To create a series of STEAM hands-on activities that expand students' knowledge on space exploration and offer students high participation, while supporting deeper learning and showing how scientific work can be used to explore “real science” with “story telling as a catalyst".

d) To implement DiSARS to real settings in Germany, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria and Portugal linked to the analytical program and the formal education schools' learning outcomes

e) To provide assessment tools that go beyond addressing students’ intellectual ability looking into competences such as collaborative problem-solving, communication etc. that become indicators of deeper learning


Orientación / Enfoque
Adquirir nuevos conocimientos
Desarrollar nuevas habilidades
Modo de entrega
Mezclado

Hardware/Software/Andere Quellen

DiSTARS advanced storytelling platform with innovative VR & AR interfaces allows for the creations of the students to be captured according to their scenarios and be integrated into storylines. These storylines presented on various interfaces (e-book, 3D rocket development and 3D colony building) at end screens like PCs, VR headsets and AR able mobile phones. While the current platform supports only Mars Colonization, in DiSTARS final version will be upgraded to be able to host more planets. The architecture of the authoring tools (e-book, 3D rocket development and 3D colony building) allows for the students to be able to integrate into their stories their own planets. This is possible by supporting the new format of 3D objects, GL Transmission Format(glTF), released to the public in October 2015 that is a royalty-free specification for the efficient transmission and loading of 3D scenes and models by applications. The platform development is based on Unity game engine. Unity is multi-platform so the game will be available for iOS, Android, common browsers (through the WeBGL technology) as well as VR and AR.


Implementation

(where and how the practice was implemented)


País que se implementó
Grecia
Organización que se aplicó a
Ellinogermaniki Agogi (4 years), Mandoulides School (1 year), 1st Elementary school of Volos (1 year), 1st Elementary school of Almyros (1 year), 1st Elementary school of Rethymnon (1 year)

Evaluación y lecciones aprendidas

This educational practice was implemented in 6 countries: Greece, France, Portugal, Germany, Finland and Japan with more than 3000 students.

Evaluation was performed with:

a) Pre- and Post- questionnaires targeting three different types: Knowledge, Collaboration and Fascination of science.

b) Development and implementation of a conversational agent to monitor /assess students collaboration skills.

Overall, a significant increase in science knowledge was found in the implementation of this educational practice. The increase of Greek, Finnish and French students’ science knowledge was similar to the overall mean difference. Only Portuguese students’ science knowledge did not increase. These findings confirm the effectiveness of this practices' intervention.

Furthermore, regarding collaborative problem-solving, the more competent students were the higher fascination for science they showed in the post-test. There was, however, no moderator effect of collaborative problem-solving on the relationship of fascination for science before or after the completion of the intervention.


Educational material/resources (file/URL) accompanying the practice


Material / recursos educativos
DiSTARS Platform User Manual & AR User Manual

License
CC BY-NC-SA
Educational Resource Type
handout
Language

Inglés


DiSTARS Tool-kit educational material

License
CC BY-NC-SA
Language

Inglés

More comments about this Resource

Tool-kit (available online) with:

a) Booklets (pdf) with info and activities on space

b) Flyer with class experiments related to space science

c) Storytelling workshop booklet

d) Video on using tinkercad for designing 3D objects for VR worlds

e) Various resources (books, movies, websites) for exploring space


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