PROJECT

A new international EU funded project to help girls choose Steam study disciplines.

S Team Schools Team Up is the new Project that involves some associations and schools in Italy Croatia and Spain to achieve gender equality between boys and girls in the study of Steam subjects starting from secondary school of first grade.

“S Team School Team up” project started last October thanks to a European Union funding through the Erasmus program, which involves 3 European partners. Assoform Romagna, training institution of Confindustria Romagna Italy; Women Space Extremadura (Spain), an association of over 100 professionals and managers operating in the Steam sector field and Ivan Cankar, primary school in Zagreb with pupils ranging from 7 to 14 years.

Main goal of the project is to let girls aware of the opportunities offered by Steam subjects and possible future professional sectors.

But what are Steam subjects?

S.T.E.A.M. is an acronym whose meaning is: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. Through an interdisciplinary learning method, developed since 2000 in the United States, these disciplines constitute a key set of skills that today are fundamental for understanding many mechanisms of social and working life. The gap in the choice of the path of study between boys and girls is unfortunately still very wide in all European countries.

Overview of the European situation

Every 1,000 young people in the EU area, only 21 are graduated in Steam subjects. In percentage terms this means a 14.9% female graduates compared to a 27.9% of male graduates.

A difference that varies from country to country. In Italy, e.g., the proportion of Steam graduated is 19.4% of male students, while female graduated are only around 13.3%, with more than 6 points of difference.

S-team’s answer

The working staff of the project “S-Team Schools Team Up” has thus presented its plan to encourage and better to involve girls – without excluding boys obviously – in these interesting and profitable paths of study, starting from secondary school of first grade and involving schools in all 3 countries. The project has won a call for tender for the Erasmus programme, obtaining funding for its implementation.

Guidelines and manuals of best practices for teachers and students will be created thanks to a new approach to the dissemination of these subjects obtaining a better and greater involvement of girls in these paths of study.

The project also includes hackathon within the national schools and a final Hackathon, that will take place in Rimini next September, where the 3 best groups of students from Spain, Italy and Croatia will compete in a final competition to realize the most innovative project within Steam disciplines.