In the seventh episode in our reboot of the TeachNet Podcast series, Dr Michael Hallissy is joined by Prof Dr Erdinç Cakıroğlu of the Middle East Technical University Ankara, Turkey to talk about an Erasmus+ project, EDUSIMSTEAM, that involves H2 Learning and METU and is coordinated by the Turkish Ministry of National Education. The full project title is, ‘Fostering STEAM Education in Schools’, and it focuses on providing schools with training materials, learning scenarios, an online simulation platform and policy guidelines for implementing integrated STEAM approaches in schools across Europe.
The project, which has its final conference next week in Santiago de Compostela, has developed a STEAM philosophy that underpins all the activities in the project and Prof Cakıroğlu unpacks this in conversation with Michael during the podcast. STEAM education should involve an integrated approach that provides students, of all ages, with opportunities to engage in solving real-life problems in collaboration with their classmates and their teachers. Ideally these learning scenarios should appeal to their natural curiosity. The project has developed a range of differentiated learning scenarios and an online platform, where teachers and learners can actively solve these problems in a fun and engaging way, while also developing key STEAM competences needed for today’s world. The podcast unpacks this STEAM philosophy by referencing the project outputs.
If you are interested in following the conference next week, you can access the live feed here.
For more on the EDUSIMSTEAM project see edusimsteam.eba.gov.tr and download a PDF version of the STEAM Learning Scenarios here.