On February 18th, Heron organised a multiplier event in Nicosia, Cyprus, for the project “DART4City: Empowering Arts and creativity for the cities of tomorrow” (Erasmus+ 2020-1-ES01-KA227-SCH-095545).
The event started with a brief greeting from mr Vasiloff, of the EU Representation Office in Cyprus, and proceeded with a brief presentation of the aims of the project, the project members, the main website (https://dart4city.eu), and the material developed. This was followed by a demonstration of the STEAM methodology of the project, along with two scenarios that were developed and implemented in Cyprus; the “Solar Robot”, created using the Forward variant of the methodology, and the “3D Printing” scenario using the Backward variant.
After a brief coffee break that allowed participating teachers to discuss the methodology, a round table discussion was held with expert educators, members of the academia, and policy makers, which stressed the benefits of pursuing more involvement in STEAM education for both formal and informal education. The discussion also focused on the gender gap that still is a barrier to more girls getting involved in STEAM-related fields.
A total of 62 persons participated in the Event, 46 of which were educators and policy makers.