The Project

Objective and
target groups

The objectives of FullSteamAhead project are to support teachers to:

  • Equally promote STEM studies and careers to girls and boys students
  • Deconstruct the notion of STEM as a ‘masculine club’
  • Exploit the STEAM framework igniting critical thinking, problem-solving and the creative process in STEM teaching, rather than within conventional, isolated knowledge compartments

The target groups of the project are:

  • Secondary level schoolteachers (STEM and humanities)
  • Supporting teaching staff (supporting learning environment and parents’ involvement)
  • School principals/leaders (as teacher and school program evaluators/monitoring actors)
  • Secondary target groups are parents including parent-teacher-students associations, institutional bodies, and governing
  • Structures for secondary education at regional and national levels (including also VET), HEI-secondary education
  • Collaborating bodies

Actions

FullSteamAhead will develop educational material and teaching tools for teachers, available in an online learning space (platform) along with two main thematic parts:

  1. Stem in secondary education as a de-gendered teaching subject
  2. Stem as a de-gendered option for girls and boys in terms of personal and professional development

The material will be complemented by support materials, addressing how school teachers can encourage girls and school peer groups to act as facilitators towards interest in STEM, and how parents and significant others can promote a de-gendered approach to STEM.

Expected Results

FullSteamAhead will deliver:

  1. Methodological framework for the definition and development of training material for STEM teachers along the lines of two axes:
  • STEM in secondary education as a de-gendered teaching subject focusing on the concepts of creativity, imagination, critical thinking, artistic creation, design and ideation as de-gendered interest drivers and motivators towards STEM for students;
  • STEM as a de-gendered career option in terms of personal and professional development, equally valid for boys and girls, drawing from role models, storytelling, history and philosophy of science and technology, disrupting the gender bias by promoting science and technology as an achievement of human discourse.
  1. Online teacher-training modules for a de-gendered STEM teaching approach covering:
  • Thematic part 1: STEM as a de-gendered teaching subject
  • Thematic part 2: STEM as a de-gendered option for personal and professional development
  1. In addition, a separate section will cover the important aspect of teachers’, families’ and school peer groups’ role as facilitators and encourage girls towards interest in STEM, promoting a de-gendered approach to STEM.
  2. Handbook for teachers. Integrated STEM teaching approach guidelines (and testing courses with full testing report), serving as guide for teachers demonstrating the main axes of the methodological framework and path connecting the thematic parts, and technical aspects of the provision as available online (usability, adaptability, hands-on application and deployment).

Duration

1/11/2021 - 1/11/2023