The STEAM Stars Project: Supporting gifted pupils using STEAM

Event details

Want to find out more about research into supporting teachers’ understanding and use of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education? This free conference event shares the outcomes of the STEAM Stars European Research project alongside best practices and insights from our international partners.

This event is of value to colleagues working in teaching, policy, and education settings, as well as parents, home educators, and anyone who works with young people.

Evidence suggests that highly gifted learners represent as much as 15% of the EU school-age population, although at present there is a marked scarcity of targeted teacher training in this area. As a result, most gifted students spend the majority of the time in regular classrooms without access to challenging work or teachers knowledgeable about the special learning needs of high-ability learners.

STEAM Stars is a European project funded with support from the European Commission, through the ERASMUS+ programme, which provides open source, freely available training to educators of gifted children. The learning materials are intended for use by teachers, parents, coaches, and others who work with children (formally or informally). The materials have been designed to help these people to recognise giftedness in children and to find the best ways to support gifted individuals, both in and out of the classroom.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education has been an increasing focus in schools and universities over the past two decades and is recognised as being essential to economic productivity and development, and social wellbeing. The integration of the arts into STEM to create STEAM education has enormous potential to provide challenging and motivating exercises to gifted students, who may be underserved by a traditional curriculum. Rather than spending less time on STEM subjects and more time on the arts, STEAM education applies creative thinking to STEM projects, sparking students’ imagination and creativity. Studies show that a quality STEAM education programme is engaging, motivating, student-centred, innovative, collaborative, and applies real-world applications; however, it can be challenging to integrate STEAM into existing teaching practice.

The STEAM Stars Conference is the final event of the project. We will share the project’s results, demonstrate the tools which have been created, and provide opportunities for learning and sharing of practices. We aim to build on this pilot project by facilitating connections and the development of networks among people working with children who have been, or may be, recognised as gifted.

Enquiries

steamstars@coventry.ac.uk

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