2021-12-15

STEAM People Project

WiTEC Sweden has together with Asociacion Moviendote Spain, Virtual Campus
Portugal, Robootika Estonia, Thessaloniki University Greece and Istanbul City created a 2 year-long project resulting in a WEBAPP.
The goal is to help adult learners develop STEAM competences and values through the resolution of problems and challenges in daily life. WiTEC Sweden has chosen to focus on 12 activities to improve the environment and to promote a sustainable lifestyle.

The WEBAPP offers 60 concrete activities in daily life that learners can develop based on pedagogical approaches. Activities are built around the STEAM thematic areas and linked to daily life situations and environments, challenging adult learners to implement certain activities. Learners have the possibility to realize the challenges individually or as a team, as well as online or offline.

The project aim is to spread the model of STEAM education in adult education practices in Europe and to promote a culture of scientific thinking for decision-making, problem solving, analysis, innovative and creative, critical thinking in adult learners. The aim has also been to prepare adult learners for lifelong and autonomous learning, developing critical thinking and promoting equity as well as social cohesion and active citizenship. Furthermore to promote the professional development of adult trainers for the integration of STEAM models in their training.

Ewa Mathiasson Renström  
ewa.witecsweden@yahoo.com
WiTEC SWEDEN i STEAMpeople Project

2021-12-15

STEAM People helps adults with skills to improve the environment and promote sustainable lifestyle

WiTEC Sweden has together with Asociacion Moviendote Spain, Virtual Campus Portugal, Robootika Estonia, Thessaloniki University Greece and Istanbul City created a 2-year project that has resulted in a WEBAPP.
The goal is to help adult students develop STEAM competencies and values ​​by solving problems and challenges in everyday life. WiTEC Sweden has chosen to focus on 12 activities to improve the environment and promote a sustainable lifestyle. For example, how to calculate your carbon footprint, how to reduce plastic, how to make your own cleaning products, etc.

The WEB APP offers 60 concrete activities in daily life that students can develop based on pedagogical approaches. The activities are structured around STEAM thematic areas and linked to daily life situations and environments, which challenges adult students to carry out certain activities. Students have the opportunity to realize the challenges individually or as a team, as well as online or offline.

The aim of the project is to spread the model of STEAM education in adult education methods in Europe and to promote a culture of scientific thinking for decision making, problem solving, analysis, innovative and creative, critical thinking in adult students. The aim has also been to prepare adult students for lifelong and independent learning, develop critical thinking and promote equality as well as social cohesion and active citizenship. In addition, to promote the professional development of adult educators for the integration of STEAM models in their education.

Ewa Mathiasson Renström  
ewa.witecsweden@yahoo.com
For WiTEC SWEDEN in the STEAMpeople project

2021-06-25

STEAM People - report spring 2021
On June 15th, a meeting was held over Skype to analyze the status of the validation process of the STEAM People platform, where all parties had to describe in which stage they are.
 
The GoI of Turkey organized an information day where they explained the potential uses of the STEAM People platform, what they can find and how they use it during the testing process. They must test the outputs for a period of 2 months. So far, 5 adult trainers and 15 adults have answered the evaluation forms. The report from Turkish users is under development.
 
UTH Greece also continued online marketing of the testing process, using Facebook messages and email information to potential users. They open for a period of 2 months for users to try the platform. They received feedback from 6 adult trainers and 20 adult students. They have completed the report.
 
VC Portugal promoted the testing process online, mainly through Facebook and LinkedIn. They also emailed organizations that work with adult education. So far they have received evaluations from 3 trainers and 15 adult students. Right now they are working on getting more responses to the evaluation forms, making calls and personally contacting interested people.
 
Robootika Estonia reports that the process in their country is quite complicated. Educators, even if they show interest, do not respond to the evaluation forms. So they will try to explore other possibilities and try to get feedback from adult students who in a wider sense can be testers for the platform.
 
Moviendote Spain is also testing. They promoted the activity online and contacted people through social media and on the organization's website. They created videos targeting adults and trainers to capture their attention for the platform. So far they have received three responses from trainers and six people are testing the platform at the moment. They will continue to remind the people who are testing so that the final report can be completed on time.
 
WiTEC went out via the newsletter, e-mail and phone calls continuously and finally received 50 expressions of interest, of which 29 registered on the platform. We received 16 students' feedback and 7 coaches' responses on how to improve production. Suggestions came in to attract further participation through an explanation or introduction to the platform, to add more images, the introduction of "stars" and of some kind of gamified reward to users.
All parties agreed on the difficulty of getting answers to the questionnaires.

Ewa Mathiasson Renström  
ewa.witecsweden@yahoo.com
For WiTEC SWEDEN in the STEAMpeople project

2021-02-26

The prototype for the Web app is ready - welcome to test and evaluate 60 everyday activities!

WiTEC has chosen to focus on health, environment and sustainability in the project. For example, how to make your own skin cream, build a compost bin, build a wild bee hotel, make your own cleaning products, try the Planetary Health Diet Day, plan your vegetable garden, plant a fruit tree, create art from trash, make a poster about how to save on plastic, etc.

The other countries  have contributed everything from how to make a mosquito trap to how to construct a robot arm.

There is a lot of fun in the app and now you are welcome to try it at home. As this is a prototype, we ask you to fill in an evaluation afterward, which only takes a few minutes. Get in touch with me and I'll send the link and the evaluation with a few explanatory words.

Ewa Mathiasson Renström  
ewa.witecsweden@yahoo.com
For WiTEC SWEDEN in the STEAMpeople project

NEW TWO-YEAR EU PROJECT FOR WiTEC SWEDEN

WiTEC SWEDEN, together with partners from five other European countries, will develop a WEB APP for adult students. The project had a kick-off meeting in Greece on 13-14 February 2020 and will last for two years. 
 
WEBAPP must offer concrete activities that students can develop. Built around a set of thematic areas and linked to situations and environments in daily life, WEBAPP will challenge the adult learners to carry out certain activities.

WEBAPP's gamified approach will help increase motivation and engagement and will also improve other key competencies (digital skills).

The main objectives of the project can be summarized as:

• To spread the model of STEAM education in adult education practice in Europe.
• To foster a culture of scientific thinking for decision-making, problem-solving, analysis, innovation and creative and critical thinking in adult learners.
• To improve the perception of adult students towards the STEAM areas, develop their mathematical competence, competence in scientific and technical culture, competence in processing information and digital competence, social and civic competences, competence in humanistic and artistic culture, competence in learning to learn , competence in communication in one's own language (and in other cases) and competence for autonomy and personal initiative. –
• To prepare adult learners for lifelong and autonomous learning, develop critical thinking and promote justice, social cohesion and active citizenship. 
• To promote the professional development of adult trainers for the integration of STEAM models in their educational programs and activities.

The project includes:
Moviento, Spain • Panepistimo Thessalia, Greece  •  NPO Robootika, Estonia • Virtual Campus LDA, Portugal  •  ISTANBUL VALILIGI, Turkey •  WiTEC SWEDEN, Sweden

For WiTEC SWEDEN, Ewa Mathiasson Renström is responsible for the project.