STEM as a root of the future

Aims

This project generally aims at increasing the interest of students in STEM, and redefining negative self-concepts of students towards STEM in order to work against school dropouts or bad performances in exams because of STEM subjects. The goal is to carry out webinars on topics which the participants have decided on according to overlaps in the STEM curricula of the participating schools and according to the needs of the students.

As the students are going to create webinars on STEM topics in transnational teams, they will acquire and develop methodical skills, e.g. cooperative and self-organised learning (SOLE), as well as ICT skills. They learn to use the webinar software AdobeConnect, the Learning Management System (LMS) “Moodle” and presentation techniques. By working in a transnational team, the students will develop their language and intercultural communication skills, their awareness of similarities and differences between the different school systems in the EU. They will acquire knowledge and skills in different STEM subjects.

The teachers will have similar advantages of the project. By applying this peer-to-peer approach they will develop their teaching skills with regard to encouraging cooperative and SOL environments as a mediator rather than playing the central role in the students’ learning process. Their ICT skills will also be broadened and new ideas of how to use ICT and LMS in the classroom. As the transnational teams of teachers and students have to use a foreign language as a means of communications, the teachers will also broaden their language and intercultural skills. In this context, one aim of this project is also to learn methods of bilingual classrooms respectively CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) methodology to ease the learning process for the students. While lessons in the schools’ official language focus mostly on delivering the knowledge and skills of the respective subject, bilingual or CLIL classrooms emphasise how to communicate the content of the respective subject through language. This creates a greater awareness for the topics and language learnt and facilitates deeper learning. Thus, this project aims at promoting a comprehensive approach to language teaching and learning. The project also creates awareness for social and gender equality as its goal is to foster girls in STEM classrooms as well as underperforming or disadvantaged students.

We compile a list of common STEM topics. The final selection of topics will serve as an internal STEM curriculum for the project. The Webinars are interactive online seminars presented by students for students. Students and teachers attend these Webinars live. But they will also be recorded, so students can watch them individually and teachers can use them in their STEM classes as tutorials. They will be accessible in the future on Moodle. The teachers will create a portfolio of teaching methods with regard to CLIL, ICT, SOLE and cooperative learning.

Activities

The activities always consist of a cycle of three phases that are repeated with varying contents four times over the project’s timespan of 24 months. In the first phase, the preparation for the second phase takes place at the participating schools. The transnational meetings, i.e. the second phase, are hosted by the participating schools in turns, i.e. four school host one meeting. During these meetings, the students learn to apply the different methods (cooperative learning, SOLE, Webinars over AdobeConnect, using Moodle as LMS), they comply a list of STEM topics that are the same in each participating school’s curriculum and select a fixed number (about 6-10) according to the needs

of the students at the participating schools. Then they work on these topics in transnational teams and carry out webinars on them. The third phase is a follow-up of the meeting. The students and teachers meet at their respective schools with the local participants and inform and teach them about the content of the meeting. Hence, the local participants know about the topics and can apply the skills learnt in the meetings.

The contents of the four cycles form the organisational and methodical basis for the project (list of topics, cooperative learning and SOLE, introduction to AdobeConnect, first webinars, plans for scheduling and advertising webinars during and in between the meetings, …). On the other hand, they focus on preparing and carrying out the webinars on STEM topics. Still, some aspects of the first meetings will be revised later to ensure high-quality results.

The teachers meet twice within the project’s timespan of 24 months: at the beginning of the first year and at the beginning of the second year of the project. Here they will share and develop the teaching methods and skills that are necessary for the project, i.e. ICT (AdobeConnect/Webinars, Moodle as LMS), bilingual/CLIL methodology, peer-to-peer/cooperative learning/SOLE.

Thus, the project’s objectives are met in these consecutive cycles. The students and teachers acquire and develop the different skills, methods, etc. and by cooperating and working self-organised on STEM topics, the students’ attitude towards STEM improves. With the preparation phase at home and the meetings, the students become acquainted with all participating school’s STEM curricula and become aware of the fact that it is not unusual that some students have less and some have more difficulties in STEM subjects. By working together on the topics during the meetings, they learnmore and from each other about STEM. At the same time, the new, exciting, friendly, and productive atmosphere during the meetings enhances their learning process. As the teachers support them in a student-centred environment as moderators or mediators and not as sole source of knowledge in a teacher-centred environment, students work on the topics at their own pace and thus experience lessfrustration.