STEAM education (Prague)

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art + Design and Math) is an educational framework that brings reality into the classroom by connecting different subjects together in a way that they will relate to both the real and business world and to each other. STEAM is the second step of STEM education, in which one incorporates the artistic and design- related skills and thinking processes to student-learning process. As such, STEAM education is posed to be gender inclusive and accessible for all levels of technical abilities. STEAM education provides an opportunity to formally teach in a fun environment showing the relationships between subjects and real-life, therefore increasing sense of motivation, self efficacy and problem solving skills. It aims to promote the learners’ motivation for learning and to educate people so as to help them become capable of solving multidisciplinary problems.
In addition, STEAM education is to play an important role when proposing solutions to overcome the well-researched and identified gender issues pronounced in many Western societies related to involve, motivate and retain girls and women in the fields of science, technology and math, including socio-cultural expectations, lack of female role models, relevancy of curricula, pedagogy and so forth. Furthermore, the inclusion of arts into the hard sciences curricula is intended to foster creativity and economic growth.

Purpose
The main purpose of the course is to help teachers understand the importance of STEAM education and improve their science school lessons and science project in kindergarten and in primary school and also in the first grades of secondary school. Participants will be familiarized with the impact they can have on children by learning science in a fun and innovative, yet educational manner. They will learn how to boost children imagination and natural gift of questioning, by implementing scientific way of thinking and science methodology in their work. Our goal is also to help children find ways to make STEAM education a fun pathway to children school life but also a precious tool in their educational street and life.

Objectives
✓ Learn why STEAM education is important for literacy matters.
✓ Discover the advantages of creating a fun learning environment in teaching Science.
✓ Explore how children and especially girls can benefit from the incorporation of the
Art in STEM education.
✓ Discover the importance of reality in STEAM Education.
✓ Learn how to teach children to develop scientific mind and attitude.
✓ Determine the skills of scientific enquiry processes.
✓ Learn the educational benefits of self-explanation.
✓ Discover creative low cost science experiments in class
✓ Discover the usefulness of Arduino in STEAM education
✓ Discover ways to integrate Art in STEAM education.
✓ Discover ways to involve the reality in STEAM education
✓ Motivating more girls in the field of science

Target Groups
Teachers: primary, secondary, vocational, adult, special needs; - Teacher trainers; -
Headteachers; Principals; Managers of schools

Methods & Tools
Lectures, brainstorming, exercises, discussions, teamwork, role-playing, study visits

Agenda
Day 1
✓ Introductory meeting, explanation of practical arrangements, presentation of timetable
✓ Information about course venue
✓ Ice-breaking activities
✓ Introduction in STEAM Education

Day 2
✓ Developing children’s ability to learn how to learn.
✓ Educational benefits of self-explanation and teaching of critical thinking.
✓ Teaching children to develop a scientific mind and attitude
✓ Teaching the skills of scientific enquiry processes.
✓ The importance of creative thinking.

Day 3
✓ Guided tour at the Natural History Museum of Crete-University of Crete. Informal and non-formal learning in the museum using Inquiry Based Learning. Science can be interesting, fascinating and easy after all.

Day 4
✓ The importance of school STEAM education (Lecture and brainstorming activities)
✓ How school children should be given opportunities to test and develop their ideas about the science world through practical problem-solving activities and open-ended investigations.
✓ Importance of STEAM education combined with playing
✓ The structure of STEAM lessons for children, imitating the real science workflow.
✓ How to organize low cost science experiments (for example DNA isolation from a banana, Elephant’s toothpaste and etc)
✓ Outdoors experiments

Day 5
✓ Software support and computer simulations on science experiments.
✓ Introduction to the Arduino software and C++ coding language
✓ Making projects with the help of your own Arduino set ( which our company will give to you)

Day 6
✓ How to establish a blended learning environment discovering that the scientific method can be applied to everyday life ( workshop)
✓ Combining STEAM education activities with the real world (workshop)
✓ Combining ART in STEM education (workshop)

Day 7
✓ Erasmus+ program: objectives, priorities, actions, forms, budget, tips for applicants
✓ Planning follow up activities, dissemination and exploitation of learning outcomes
✓ Course Evaluation
✓ Certifications
✓ Discussing possibilities for future cooperation among participants