Conference Proceedings
The International Conference “STEAM Approach in Science Education” was jointly organised by two Strategic Partnership projects funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ program: Creativity, Arts and Science in Primary Education (CASE – http://www.project-case.eu) and The Global Science Opera: Leverage students’ participation and engagement in science through art practices (GSO4SCHOOL – http://gso4school.eu/). The conference took place in December 1-3, 2020. These dates coincided with the end of the CASE project (having been extended due to Covid-19 limitations in 2020) and the beginning of the GSO4SCHOOL project’s second year, thus providing useful and inspiring synergies between these two projects, both of which are contextualized in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) education movement.
Originally planned as a traditional conference to which delegates and participants would be required to travel, the conference was planned and realized digitally due to the pandemic’s restrictions. We did not, however, approach this conference as a “second choice” or “alternative solution” event. Rather, we embraced the challenge of realizing a fully viable conference as an international meeting point for educators, scientists, artists, researchers and policy-makers during which cutting-edge perspectives on creativity in school education were be presented and further developed. Indeed, the conference was attended by more than 350 people from more than 40 countries. It was an exciting and enjoyable occasion for educators to gain valuable experience with specific Professional Development approaches to STEAM methodologies through hands-on experiences, lectures and intensive, interactive workshops: during the conference we experimented with participatory, improvisational collaboration so that spontaneous and interactive co-creation of knowledge could emerge.
Our vision for STEAM Approach in Science education is the development of the innovative and creative classroom of tomorrow, where science education will be taught using an interdisciplinary methodology via arts activities and at the same time the integration of other disciplines such as entrepreneurship and design thinking.
Such activity is risky, yet we perceive the results to have been beneficial. We invite you to explore these proceedings, and we look forward to learning about how you build upon these ideas in the future.
On behalf of the Conference Organising Committees,
Oddgeir Randa Heggland, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences – Norway
Menelaos Sotiriou, Science View – Greece
Oded Ben Horin, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences – Norway