STEAM Barcelona reaches out to more than 25 educational centres this academic year
STEAM Barcelona is a project that aims to foster scientific and technological vocations among children and young people, and is addressed at the entire educational community: students, teachers, and families. 25 Barcelona educational centres are taking part this academic year, in two programmes: “Makers in the Classroom” and “STEAM Inspires”.Both primary and secondary schools take part in STEAM Barcelona. The project adopts a gender perspective and places special emphasis on students from the most socially and economically vulnerable neighbourhoods, which suffer from the most pronounced gender and digital gaps.
Two of its most notable programmes are Makers a les aules [Makers in the Classrooms] and Inspira STEAM [STEAM Inspires]. The former is aimed at state primary school teachers.
It involves training students and teachers together to jointly create maker educational projects based on STEAM in classrooms, with the objective that teachers will be able to develop their own educational projects in the future, incorporating the technologies they have used.
Inspira STEAM is a pioneering project that fosters a scientific-technological vocation in girls and young women, and is run by professional women from the world of research, science, and technology.
These professionals act as mentors, sharing their experience with the children, giving with guidance, challenging stereotypes, and placing great emphasis on the contributions women scientists have made throughout history and the current work women do involving modern technology.
Other STEAM Barcelona projects include#estasON [You are ON] and Families and ICT, which take place in public libraries and in the Ateneus Digital Fabrication Laboratories, respectively, and include activities for all the family.
More students, more teachers, more centres
Since 2017, STEAM Barcelona has reached out to over 11,000 primary and secondary school students in the city of Barcelona, along with over 1,200 prescribers, including teachers and families. There is a significant increase in the number of centres taking part this 2019-20 academic year.
STEAM Barcelona is a project promoted by Barcelona City Council in collaboration with the city’s Education Consortium, in which the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Pompeu Fabra University, the Nou Barris Technological Park, the ICUB, and the Digital Fabrication Laboratories take part, along with other academic or research centres and institutions.
