Once the lessons plan was developed in the second cycle of the project, the third cycle focused on its practical implementation in the classroom simultaneously in three countries: Turkey, Portugal, and Italy.
The goal of this pilot phase in the third cycle, was to further the engagement of the schools in cooperation and network creation for their own development. At the heart of this pilot was the holistic cooperation between the three schools in the implementation of the curriculum created in the project, with enabling activities to support the schools in their cooperation from the other project partners.
The main objectives in the implementation of lesson plans were:
- To examine the suitability of the plans for the target student group.
- To discover the troubles and difficulties that teachers may experience while implementing a lesson suitable for the STEAM approach.
- To be able to determine students’ opinions about the STEAM approach during and after the application process.
- To analyse the effect of the STEAM approach on students’ scientific creativity, design thinking skills and problem-solving confidence, specifically during the application process.
Various data were collected before, during and after the implementation in order to determine the levels of achievement of the goals described above. In general, all set targets have been achieved. In addition, during the application process, important findings were obtained regarding both lesson plans and teachers’ classroom guidance.
The most generally expected result before the application was the expectation of a positive impact on the scientific creativity, design thinking skills and problem-solving confidence of the students participating in the application. As a result of the application, it was determined that these skills and competencies increased in the majority of students, in line with expectations.
The following document reflects back on the work of the STEAMing Ahead project by presenting a detailed report of the pilot phase implementation, accompanied by a set of best practice guidelines appropriate for other teachers to think about their own implementation of STEAM in the classroom.
Download the guidelines here.
