CREA
STEM education portal in Latin America
CREA (Centro de Recursos Educativos Abiertos) is the Siemens Stiftung’s Spanish-language educational portal for STEM lessons. It offers teachers more than 1,900 free and open educational resources (OER) that have been specially developed for the Latin American context. The portal promotes the quality and accessibility of STEM education, supports cultural diversity and meets the specific needs of Latin American teachers and students.
The portal
Diversity in OER: context-specific STEM educational materials
According to the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report of 2023, 90% of all open online educational content is produced in the Global North, and 90% is only available in English. This is one of the reasons why Siemens Stiftung has been committed to a diverse range of Open Educational Resources for STEM lessons since 2018.
Wide range of materials
With CREA, we offer educational materials that are tailored to the diverse local contexts of Latin America. Together with educational experts and teachers from the region, we develop educational resources that reflect and promote the cultural diversity of the region and meet the needs of teachers.
Regional cooperations
The content is created together with renowned educational partners from the region such as the Pontifícia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, INNOVEC and the Office for Climate Education. The partners are part of the Red STEM Latinoamérica education network.
Open licenses
All materials are available under an open license and are suitable for all school types and educational levels. By providing free and open educational resources and teacher training, CREA contributes to the regional OER movement in Latin America and is also actively involved in OER capacity building by involving teachers in the development process of the materials.
Material examples
Creatón STEM+
Co-creative development of new educational materials
Open Educational Resources (OER) enable free access to knowledge, promote collaboration and simplify adaptation to different learning contexts. However, despite their potential, the use of OER often lags behind its possibilities – whether due to a lack of awareness or a lack of strategies for integrating them into lessons. (UNESCO 2019, 2024). This is where the pilot project Creatón STEM+ comes in, which was launched by Ceibal (Uruguay), the Centro de Investigación en Didáctica de las Ciencias y Educación STEM (CIDSTEM) of the Pontifícia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile) and the Siemens Stiftung.
Taking an active part
The objective of the project is to enable teachers in Latin America not only to use OER, but also to actively shape it themselves. The jointly developed materials not only enrich the practice of the participating teachers, but also serve as accessible and relevant tools for the educational community in Latin America. In 2024, 60 teachers from Mexico, Colombia, Perú, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay participated in such as a creative process.
The Creatones
- Collaborative creative marathons: “Creatones” enable co-creative OER development.
- Evaluation and piloting: Materials are evaluated by experts and piloted in the teacher’s network.
- Publication of OER: All materials are available on CREA under a free license.
Participants report
Creatón STEM+ is a model for cooperative learning and open education. The lessons learned from the pilot project are now being incorporated into the further development of an OER training program. The objective is to further strengthen the anchoring of open educational practices in Latin America.
Voices of participants
»The development process has shown that teachers and institutions can work together to promote innovative pedagogical approaches. Through the OER, we were able to identify our commonalities and strengths, but also identify challenges that we can tackle regionally. «
Ana Paula Cha, Teacher from Carmelo, Uruguay
»Participating in the OER creation process was an enriching experience. It has undoubtedly contributed to my professional development and the exchange with other Latin American teachers has been extremely enlightening. I am grateful for this opportunity.«
Rallén Meniconi, Teacher from Puerto Montt, Chile
Partners
More about our commitment to STEM education
STEM education for sustainable development
CREA is part of Siemens Stiftung’s commitment to education with a focus on digitality and climate.