STEAM Spaces São Paulo
Innovative learning spaces nurturing 21st century skills
As part of our commitment to driving STEM education in Latin America, Siemens Stiftung has collaborated with the Laboratório de Sistemas Integráveis Tecnológico (LSI-TEC) at the University of São Paulo (USP) to develop innovative learning spaces in São Paulo to encourage project and problem-based learning. The project aims to train Basic Education (elementary and high school) teachers in developing investigative projects together with the students by training them to set up cost-efficient learning spaces in schools. A special emphasis is placed on developing classroom solutions to respond to climate change in Brazil’s regional context.
Bridging the skills gap
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil and a major economic hub in Latin America, however, there’s a massive imbalance between the demands of Industry 4.0 and the absence of specialized skills professionals. In Brazil, 30.7% of students drop out of school or suffer delays in their educational process. At the same time, young people suffer unemployment as they cannot obtain the necessary qualifications to enter the workforce. To bridge this gap, Siemens Stiftung with its expert partners are bringing together engineering and basic education in user-centric, collaborative and interdisciplinary learning spaces. The objective is to prepare school students in the skills required for the industry, further education at Universities, Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleages.
Igniting “Maker Culture” among students
Today students face unprecedented challenges exacerbated by climate change and digitization. Our objective is to make their lessons more tangible by introducing the project and problem-based learning approach, where students are encouraged to develop context-based- solutions to address challenges around them. Since 2021, with our partners, we developed strategies to train educators who in turn instill a “Maker Culture” among students. This culminated in the successful launch of four STEAM Spaces in São Paulo – part of our STEM+ Territories in Brazil. These uniquely designed learning spaces cater to individual students’ and institutions’ needs and are based on a collaborative and low-cost approach. The objective is to inspire even more public schools to create such spaces and offer practical support in establishing and popularizing this culture.
Launch of the STEAM Spaces
Siemens Stiftung team with partners from LSI-TEC and Universidade de São Paulo at the launch of the first STEAM Spaces in São Paulo.
Watch this video for more information.
The STEAM Spaces offer:
- A free training program and equipped spaces for teachers to help them encourage their students to develop investigative projects applying
- Hands-on, contextualized learning using problem and project based learning (PPBL)
- Training for teachers and students in STEM methods and scientific inquiry
- Nurturing “maker culture” among teachers and students
- Community engagement through co-creation of local solutions
- Replicable model for wider public school adoption
The project is implemented in three phases:
In the first phase, Basic Education teachers were trained in developing investigative projects applying innovative methods. Teachers were encouraged to work with students with a specific problem through the project-based learning approach so that students get an opportunity to understand their textbooks through a hands-on approach.
Six open online modules were developed and hosted in Spanish on our online portal CREA and in Portuguese on APICE. An E-Book complements the course to guide participants to understand STEAM “Maker Culture” and how to implement a STEAM space in their school. Four public schools were selected and were financed to set up low-cost STEAM Spaces together with the school directors, teachers and students.
Incorporating climate change education in schools, especially through methodologies such as PPBL enables students to understand the causes and consequences of global warming and empowers them to act in their community. We are encouraging the development of investigative projects in STEAM Spaces to mitigate and adapt to climate change ‘glocally’.
Participant's impression
«The students who learn in the STEAM Spaces will certainly develop projects together with the teachers and will be trained to operate innovative equipment. They understand better the theory and concepts as they can put them into practice. It is not only the school, but also the students benefit a lot.»
Antonio Peralli, teacher and participant in the training program
Our partners
The project support the realization of the following Sustainable Development Goals:
Contact
To learn more about the project, get in touch with our colleagues:
Project Manager
Anna Vater
anna.vater@siemens-stiftung.org
Project Manager
Badin Borde
badin.borde@siemens-stiftung.org