Workshops held within the Full STEAM Ahead project

02. 12. 2022. / Project

In October and November 2022., two workshops for teachers were held within the project “Full STEAM Ahead - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics in the II. Primary school Varaždin". The topics of the workshops were "STEAM and modern teaching methods" and "E-learning systems".

The first workshop, "STEAM and modern teaching methods", was held on October 19 and 21, 2022, in the premises of the II. Primary school Varaždin. The workshop was conducted by Asst. Prof. Goran Hajdin, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb (FOI). The workshop focused on modern pedagogical approaches with an emphasis on the application of project, team, research and problem-oriented teaching and peer learning in the context of the STEAM concept. Through the workshop, teachers have brought together educational expectations from cross-curricular topics, subject outcomes, and modern teaching methods in scaled and holistically focused educational goals.

The second workshop, "E-learning systems", was held on 15 and 29 November 2022, in the premises of the II. Primary school Varaždin and at FOI. The workshop was held by Assoc. Prof. Igor Balaban, Ph.D. and Miran Zlatović, Ph.D. from FOI. Participants of this workshop learned about the basic characteristics of e-learning and got an introduction to the possibilities of the Moodle e-learning system, which is available to teachers through CARNET services. Through this example, teachers were able to see ways in which they could edit and organize their content, according to the age of students and other subjects they teach. The emphasis was placed on teaching educational material organization, programmed learning, and monitoring the work of users / students.

The Full STEAM Ahead project is funded by the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism. The total budget is 3.344.621,39 HRK and 567.887,19 HRK is FOI’s stake. The project coordinator is II. Primary school Varaždin, in partnership with FOI (partner 1) and NT Gruppen AS from the Kingdom of Norway (partner 2).

The main objective of the project is to establish II. Primary school Varaždin as a leader in STEAM education in the north-west of Croatia, with additional objectives to develop an innovative approach for teaching students with disabilities based on gamification, artificial intelligence and augmented reality and creating a newly equipped multifunctional STEAM space within the II. Primary school Varaždin.

The duration of the project is 21 months, from July 1, 2022, till March 30, 2024.