Abstract:

The worldwide surveys show that European students often lack mathematical and key basic competences in science and technology. Even if Estonia and Finland, in the nearest past, were among the highest performers among OECD countries, the most recent PISA results (2018) have shown a drop in the Finnish averages in scientific skills. Concerning both Belgium and Italy within the mentioned classification, they are above or on OECD average.
In this context, the G.A. STEM (Enhancing STEM skills through arts and mini-games) project has been designed and co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus Plus Programme.
Starting from a needs analysis of the national contexts in the partner countries (Finland, Italy, Belgium and Estonia), some specific common national needs were identified: (i) emphasising the attractiveness and joy of students learning, (ii) improving social inclusion and gender equity in education, (iii) developing schools as learning communities by favouring more interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teaching and learning in European schools, (iv) reinforcing school and teachers networks to share resources and best practices.
Thus, the project’s aim was mainly to improve motivation in the scientific study through the use of “Art-works” as a supporter in student creativity development and an enhanced awareness of their applications in everyday life; the exploitation of the attractiveness of the art and technology (in terms of mini-games design and game assets) to improve social inclusion and gender equality; to support STEM skills (vertical and horizontal skills) useful for professional careers for both teachers and students improving the collaborative sense among teachers and schools through the exchanging of experience, best practices focusing on the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach; to increase the community sense and citizenship awareness through the discovery of European Cultural heritage constituted of (past and present) art-works produced in the partner project countries.
In this paper, the authors intend to describe the activities realised and the outputs reached during the experimentation phase of the G.A.STEM methodology and to describe the main results of the teachers’ training and study projects development realised by the secondary school students.

Keywords:

STEM and STEAM education, arts, mini-game concept design.