STEAM2GO is an Erasmus+ KA201 – Strategic Partnership for school education project, funded by the EU. It aims to create mobile maker spaces as well as the methodology for integrating such technologies in the school curriculum.
The Maker Movement has emerged recently in education with the great promise to democratise access to opportunities for learning by making, for skills development and for fostering positive attitudes and openness to making for the future generations of citizens. Μaker Spaces have originated from the Maker Movement as places where young people have the opportunity to explore their own interests, learn to use tools and materials, both physical and virtual, and develop creative projects. According to constructionist models, students learn best when they are involved in making tangible objects. Makerspaces build on a holistic constructivist ideology to form a constructionist approach to education, and are the ideal environments to build maker mindset and practice the 21st century skills: creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and entrepreneurial thinking skills.
However, there is neither systematic introduction of the ‘making culture’ in school curricula in European school systems so far nor systematic teacher training on how to promote the making culture and the DIY spirit. In addition, often only privileged schools or specific groups of students have access to established makerspaces or opportunities for long-term engagement in making experiences.
STEAM2GO embraces the Maker Movement trend and aims at bringing Maker Movement to as many students as possible. STEAM2GO aims at eliminating geographical and socioeconomical obstacles by creating a mobile makerspace model (with low cost technologies) that can be wheeled from classroom to classroom (with the potential to move from one educational place to another as well).
Moreover, the STEAM2GO project encourages the transformation of the role of the teacher in a maker space which is completely different from that of the instructor in a traditional class. To address this challenge, we design and implement a training curriculum for teachers to enable them to establish and manage a maker space at school while transforming their role to that of a coach. The target groups include school teachers and educators active in STEAM subjects (from both formal and non-formal education settings) and secondary school students (age 13-18) who have not easy access to established makerspaces
The project methodology includes 5 core phases:
- Technical design
- Pedagogical design
- Teacher training
- Pilot studies with students (in Poland, Greece, Cyprus and Italy)
- Evaluation
The 5 phases are not strictly linear. As a matter of fact they are interlinked and inform one another. The methodology draws upon the principle of iterative design; the feedback gained by the participant school community is used for the refinement and improvement of the technical design, the educational resources and supporting materials.
The results include:
-A model for a mobile maker space that will be piloted in schools and non-formal education settings
-“How-to” guides and video for teachers/educators to enable them to replicate the mobile maker space
-Educational package including open educational resources for teachers and learners to be used within the mobile maker space
-A digital platform to connect researchers, teachers/educators, school students and non-formal learners, to support teachers and students in using the mobile maker space, to provide
a forum for discussions and opportunities for teachers and students to upload their own ideas and projects
-Teacher training workshops (throughout the project implementation period) that will engage 100 teachers/educators
-Learning activities in schools and non-formal educational settings targeting directly students 13-18 years old in 4 countries (Poland, Cyprus, Greece, Italy )
-Evaluation results from teacher training courses and learning activities with students that participate in the pilots
- Four multiplier events (one in each participating country)
Based on the premise that STEAM and maker education is important for students’ empowerment, we aim to set up learning situations whereby all learners have the opportunity to
engage. The long-term goal of the project is to promote maker education in schools, democratising access to STEAM education and innovation development for all the children,
especially those belonging to non-privileged social groups which in turn will be a bold step towards equity in education. We argue that young people aren’t just the future. They’re the
present, innovating and creatively solving problems in a range of fields. Students across the EU from every background should have the ability to build new products that could change
lives around the world and STEAM2GO learning intervention can fulfill this goal.