Connecting Girls to STEM

"<< Background >>We applied for this project because of our common interest to the role of women in STEM which has increased significantly in recent years, but it is still not at the desired level. All the schools involved in this project and the Netherland NGO are very focused on the use of Stem. But we realized it is necessary to develop the most critical competences to increase the interest and participation of girls in STEM in our Institutions and society. We have addressed the project increasing the needs of female students, (Female students want to increase their skills and interest in STEM and scientific learning but they need help and to be confident). There is also the needs of teachers / school professionals (they want to develop new learning-teaching methods that make use of digital technologies and their integration into STEM practices) and the needs of partner organizations' (developing the digital competence of education professionals and strengthening their role in the use of digital technologies for more effective learning, updating and innovating educational practices).<< Objectives >>The overall aim was to increase interest in the STEM approach to encourage more female students to make effective career choices in the STEM field, and to contribute to reducing skill gaps in STEM from an early age, resulting in better scientific learning outcomes. Our institute/organizatione already focused on Stem activities but we wanted to spread the idea that more female students can be included successfully in this fields. The objectives are: to ensure the transfer of experiences between LTTA and 24 education professionals; developing 1 handbook; developing the key skills of 15 female students with 1 LTT activity.<< Implementation >>We had 4 activities. * ""STEM Applications in different Interdisciplinary Learning Models"" LTT activity for 12 teachers / education professionals,* ""Effective use of digital technologies in STEM Applications"" LTT activity for 12 teachers / education professionals,* A ""Handbook"" development activity of STEM Applications in various Learning Models,* ""Key Competencies and Skills for STEM"" LTT activity for 15 female students.<< Results >>The concrete outputs/results of our project were the following: thanks to this project, our female students have improved their STEM skills but also have gained awareness for their career choices. Their cross-skills for perfection in STEM has developed and thus their success in scientific learning and their success in jobs which require digital skills has increased. Besides the knowledge and skill capacity of teachers and other school staff has increased in modern interdisciplinary learning models and has increased interest and participation in the STEM approach.As a concrete output of the project; a handbook containing STEM activities designed in different learning models was developed, 24 teachers/educational professionals whose capacity was increased in different learning models and the use of digital technologies in the STEM field, 12 female students whose key competencies and skills were increased."