SpaceTEAM.eu - Promoting STEM through Arts and Transnational Learning

SpaceTEAM.eu is an EU-funded (Erasmus+ KA2) project which aimed to promote transnational learning for teachers and students and excite people to work and study in STEM fields by bringing a new element into STEM.Heilig Hartinstituut (Belgium), IES Adolfo Suarez (Spain) and Suininlahti School (Finland) created a project-based STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths) course for secondary school students to examine space through a wide range of interdisciplinary activities through the means of building an actual spacecraft. During the course, student teams planned, designed and created an Arduino-based measurement device that was sent into the edge of the Stratosphere with the help of a high-altitude balloon. Students examined the benefits of space exploration and atmospheric research conducting an experiment of their own, together with some imposed experiments. As a back-up we added a commercial probe ‘STRATO3’ from Stratoflights.The course was structured to resemble a professional environment with teams working on the spacecraft and alternating project managers in charge of the big picture. The digital course syllabus examines space intersectionally ranging from physics, biology and maths to arts, history and languages. Students were encouraged to pursue their passions and learn how to work as functional members of a team, as in a professional working environment. The scientific data gathered during the near space missions would have been reinterpreted by the students to create data visualizations, infographics, photographs and mixed media art, that would be presented in a SpaceTEAM.eu fair. The fair was meant to be a collaborative international exhibition open to the wider community and it aimed at inspiring the public to be interested in STEM topics. Unfortunately, due to covid-19 pandemic we could not organize the Spaceteam fair. For the same reason student teams could not go to local elementary schools to give lessons about space and their project to younger children. Luckily, we invited lots of other students from our school, teachers, parents, press, children of elementary schools, … to attend the flight preparations and launches of the four stratospheric balloons in our school. To engage the online community and get them interested in STEM, we had a strong online presence using our website and social media.