European Conference ”STEAM – Innovative Didactic Approaches”, 2020
The School no. 10 is the coordinator of an Erasmus+ project, funded by the European Commission, which brings together, in a learning partnership, six European schools. These are Agrupamento de Escolas Boa Água, from Sesimbra, Portugal, Gymnasio Iolkou from Volos, Greece, SU Konstantin Konstantinov from Sliven, Bulgaria, Juodsiliu Silo gimnazija from Vilnius, Lithuania and Ostra Gymnasium, which is the second institution from Romania, alongside the mentioned Suceava school.
The project is entitled "STEAM by STEAM", i.e. " Strategies for Teaching, Education And learning Motivation by STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) approach", using the mentioned concept.
The project was granted by the European Commission with 188,280 euro, a grant distributed among the partner schools, in order to implement it, for a period of two years. It aims to increase students' motivation to learn and improve their school results in partner institutions, using STEAM as a way to develop essential skills, including: pro-active attitude, problem-solving skills, creativity, multitasking, initiative, ability to anticipate, teamwork, empathy, by sharing experiences and best practices.
Its objectives are: developing teachers' skills to plan and carry out lessons in a STEAM perspective, through a training course on this topic; application of the STEAM concept by teachers, in lessons designed by themselves and partners; creating a framework for developing essential skills for students, using STEAM as a modality, through lessons taught in schools by teachers from partner schools; creating a collection of professional development materials for teachers (lesson plans, games), using STEAM, uploaded to an online platform. The project is focused on two very important and topical concepts. One of them targets students' essential life skills, including problem solving, creativity, multitasking, initiative, anticipation, teamwork, empathy, learning, and learning. The other is creating opportunities to improve or develop these skills, and this is the STEAM concept, which involves students and teachers in a collaborative process of teaching and learning.
Among the planned activities, in addition to the project meeting held at the beginning of January in Quinta do Conde, Portugal, there is also a training course in the Suceava coordinating school, for 4 teachers from each partner school, which took place during the 25 -February 29.
During the five days of training activities, the 24 participants learned interactive methods of motivating students' learning, conducted workshops and participated in lessons designed in the STEAM manner. These lessons, one in physics and one in mathematics, held by Mrs. Violeta Irimescu, respectively Mrs.. Ancuța Puiu, demonstrated the high professionalism of the teaching staff from Secondary School no. 10 Suceava, which, as known, is a school where the quality of the educational act is abundantly seen in the students' results in competitions, school Olympics, but especially in the national evaluation.
The fifth day of this course materialized in the European Conference entitled "STEAM - Innovative teaching approaches", which brought together a number of 76 teaching staff from Suceava, but also from other counties of the country, including Iași and Bacău. Masterfully orchestrated by a group of passionate teachers, led by the deputy headmistress, Mrs. Rodica Zimbru, coordinated by the school headmaster, Mr. Dumitru Chiuariu, this conference was an example of elegance, professionalism and involvement. The event was attended by Mrs. Adriana Coțovanu and Beatrice Filipiuc, representatives of the County School Inspectorate, Mrs. Manuela David, director of the "George Tofan" Teachersț Training Center and two of the Methodists of this institution, Mrs. Anna Ștefură and Irina Biciuscă, but above all, the involvement of Mrs. Oana Albu, headmistress of Paradise International College in Iasi and Mrs. Doina Capșa, from the National Pedagogical College in Bacău. The two teachers from Iași and Bacău delighted the audience by organizing learning workshops, consisting of astrophysics experiences and personal development exercises.
The project is a bold initiative of School no. 10 Suceava, and its coordinator, Mrs. Rodica Zimbru, believes that it represents an opportunity to offer teaching staff and students examples of active, collaborative learning, according to established European models, aimed at increasing the value of the education offered by the Suceava institution.
