Robots for STEM: building, teaching and learning

STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) are continuously growing, but the number of technical workers does not accompany thatgrowth. As the 21st century has brought new challenges, students should be prepared for increasingly complex life and work environments that willprivilege proficiency in Learning and Innovation Skills that include Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communicationand Collaboration [Framework for 21st Century Learning, 2017]. Also, the need to continuously explore new pedagogical practices in teaching andlearning creates an opportunity to shape new contents by balancing a stable and tested curriculum with new tools that stimulate creativity, allowingstudents to understand better the world they live in.This project will develop a low-cost mobile robotic kit aimed at children and adolescents from 10 to 13 years of age, designed to work as aninterdisciplinary teaching tool that can be applied directly to a curriculum, promoting students' technical skills and allowing them develop new skills likeComputational Thinking and Problem Solving, driven by the motivation created by a Robotics Competition.The methodology will consist of developing a collaborative training plan for the teachers involved in the project. Then a training course will also be madebased on the plan developed by all partners and will be put into practice with these teachers. During the training process, it is intended that interventionsin an educational context may be the object of collaborative reflections that respond to the project objectives. Then, teachers will apply what they havelearned with their students, analyse their pedagogical practices, reflect and share with the partners.During the course planning and execution, the partners will create teaching and learning toolkits explaining the new robotic kit and with activities andpedagogical practices with innovative educational scenarios for teachers and students. The partnership will also have a book that reports the teachers'experiences and students' perceptions on their pedagogical practices during the process.The importance of transnationality is mainly related to the richness that the diversity of pedagogical practices already existing in each of the countriesinvolved can bring to all partners in this project. It is also believed that experiencing this new teaching methodology in such differentiated places willcreate per se a unique set of challenges and opportunities in each context that can be so enriched by the group that the application of the model becomesmore effective in all contexts. The personal, cultural and linguistic richness that will be brought to all actors directly or indirectly involved is also evident, providing a highly enriching personal and academic growth/development.