STEMachines Project

Context As highlighted by EU (2015), there is a a mismatch between STEM education supply and demand, and as highlighted by EC (2014) and EU (2015), a large majority of EU Member States are currently experiencing serious difficulties in recruitment of STEM skills. There is a process of growing disinterestedness of students towards STEM education, especially at secondary school level (Rohaan et al. 2010), a process whose causes can be traced back to different factors (EU, 2015):- Attitude of students towards science and technology have changed, becoming more pessimistic;- Shortages in STEM professions have not been accompanied by an increase in average wages levels, discouraging students to undertake STEM training, usually implying a consistent amount of years of study; - Persisting gender segregation across study fields, often starting from family environment and then spreading at secondary school and university level, still hinders girls’ and women’s later study and career opportunities;- The way in which STEM subjects are taught has a great influence on students' attitudes towards science, on their motivation to study and, consequently, on their achievements. With reference to the last point, Simple Machines (as any of various elementary mechanisms formerly considered as the elements of which all machines are composed and including the lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw) have been individuated as particularly suited to STEM education.Objectives/goalsProject aims to pursue the following: - To develop concepts and knowledge about Simple Machines, in terms of the learning about the composition and functioning of each device and its parts, and the identification of common uses for each of Simple Machines. Such task will be pursued throughout all activities included in the project; - To develop and practice engineering problem solving skills, by using the concepts of mechanical devices to produce creative solutions to Problems, as well as by carrying out and practicing the iterative engineering design process Research Simulate Prototype; - To enable students to individuate and fully understand the existing connections between physical devices, mathematics, and scientific principles; - To encourage students to self-reflect on their work, activities, and hence on their learning processes; - To develop knowledge about concepts and functioning of Simple Machines among teachers, with the aim to promote the adoption of a more integrated, practice- and empirical-oriented STEM teaching methodology, especially with reference to engineering, combining theory and practice. Expected resultsIn line with OECD PISA, 2006 context, learning outcomes that students will achieve will be framed in the following contexts: Science: - Explain phenomena scientifically; - Evaluate and design Scientific Enquiry; - Interpret data and Evidence Scientifically; Mathematics: - Change and relationship; - Space and Shape; - Quantity; - Uncertainty and data. Intellectual Outputs:1. The analysis of teachers and students’ needs in simple machines2. A methodological guide for teachers to design and deliver online3. Simple Machines Games Online Educational Resource.Learning/teaching/training activities abroad:• Summer camps with students: in Patras, hosted by UPAT, students developed simple machines, peer-learning and share results through videos.• Pilot testing of developed training material: Training activities with teacher in Korydallos..Direct target:• Students • in-service teacher training for teachers • SchoolsLong Term BenefitsDeveloped outputs are fully transferable and adaptable to other school grades and other EU countries, not directly involved in the project. This will be assured by www.stemap.eu platform, which is an only reference virtual place for teachers who would like to use simple machines for teaching STEM disciplines. Being free to use, schools and teachers are stimulated to use the developed tools in their teaching practices in order to make lessons more interactive and attractive to their students, considering also the recent challenges that Covid-19 has brought to teaching methods used so far.