Mind over matter

Background STEAM, as a means to truly shape the world in a positive way, is perfect as a medium, as it shapes young minds so that they can use their creativity and intellect to transform the matter into something that is useful, sustainable and adds value to the world. The MOM project identifies and leverages the opportunities inherent in STEAM educational activities that are designed to engage and inspire young people to follow STEM pathways through education and into both STEM and new emerging STEAM careers. We distinguish between these two in the following way: STEM encourages deep specialisation within a scientific discipline. STEAM educational activities integrate the Arts and creativity with a broad range of sciences in an interdisciplinary approach that draws knowledge from across a diverse range of expertise. This creative combination allows young people who might not immediately self-identify as a candidate for a STEM pathway to have a positive experience of STEM subjects in the context of something that more readily captures the imagination, and is project and goal-oriented than detail-focused. This can then lead to a growing interest in a STEM specialism or further work in a STEM-oriented career. Objectives Studies funded by the EC have highlighted major issues regarding the situation of STEM in European education systems: the low attractiveness of STEM studies and careers or the unmet labour-market needs in STEM-related sectors that are expected to grow in the future. According to the survey of European Schoolnet (The attractiveness of STEM subjects, 2019) 49% of the students (aged 11 to 16) indicate an interest in STEM. Around 80% of secondary schoolers think that STEM studies have a positive impact on people’s lives, but 65% believe they are difficult and require too much education. Young people value learning STEM subjects and their impact on the world; however, the perception of STEM studies as being too difficult can hinder their interest later on. Therefore, the objective of the Mind over matter project is to develop hands-on, inquiry-based approaches to education that will demystify science and scientific processes in order to increase young people’s confidence in approaching STEM education and careers, by developing and testing the methodology for STEM using STEAM approach and implementing promotional campaign showing off different STEM and STEAM careers. Implementation We developed a research framework and implemented best practice analysis that allowed us to analyse 60 examples of STEM and STEAM educational approaches upon which we defined elements relevant to bringing STEM closer to young people aged 13 to 18. According to the research results, we developed a card game based methodology that enables young people to research STEM using the STEAM approach. To investigate the effect of the methodology, we developed questionnaires for young people that enable us to define if a person is interested or not in STE(A)M and to measure if their interest was raised by the methodology. After development of the game methodology, it was tested on pilot groups in partner countries, and reshaped according to the insights from the pilot groups. The methodology was then piloted with 553 young people, in f2f and online environments. In order to support the developed methodology and organise a wider promotional campaign, 21 videos were recorded with STE(A)M professionals and promoted online and toward educational organisations. The project website is developed where all the materials and pilots implemented are available to the wider community with the aim of reaching sustainability of the innovative methodology. Achievements (1) 60 best practice examples of STEM and STEAM experiments and education are mapped on European and national levels. The methodologies are analysed in detail and the potential for improvement is explored. Methodology guidelines for the MOM card game are developed in accordance with the proven experience of partners, supplemented by desk research. These are presented together with a MOM card game to a group of external experts (youth workers and teachers, STEAM experts from the business sector, policymakers and youths enrolled in STEAM education at the university level) in 2 partner countries. (2) Youth research pre and post-questionnaires are created, the module for selecting young people interested and not so interested in STE(A)M is tested and agreed upon by partners and codes for questionnaires are agreed upon so the motivation of each young person can be tackled before and after the participation in different game types developed. (2) MOM card game with the methodology on how to run activities with young people is developed and revised. (3) The project website contains (a) a MOM card game, (b) a section for a detailed description of games played with examples of prototypes created by young people and resources developed.