Project overview

The project “Augmented Reality for STEM Education” (AR4STEM) was implemented in an international partnership between Social Innovation Centre (Project Coordinator, Latvia), SYNTHESIS Centre for Research and Education (Cyprus), GoInno Institute (Slovenia), Vilnius Joachim Lelevel Engineering Gymnasium (Lithuania), and Saulkrastu vidusskola (Latvia). The project was financed by the European Commission within Erasmus+ programme (project nr. 2020-1-LV01-KA226-SCH-094530).
The project contributes to the following priorities of KA226 (Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness) call:  innovative practices in a digital era (horizontal), increasing the levels of achievement and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and strengthening the profiles of the teaching professions.
The main objective of the AR4STEM project is to promote Augmented Reality (AR) for teachers as an innovative and efficient digital tool to transform the traditional STEM learning process into an interactive experience and promote gender equality in STEM.

Project activities

Project activities were divided into 3 main intellectual outputs and supportive project activities.

Intellectual Output 1 - Interactive educational STEM materials with AR features
The objective of IO1 was to create interactive Augmented Reality (AR) educational materials about STEM that will appear when scanning with the iSeeApp technology on each STEM lesson plan. Within IO1, 16 educational materials about STEM were developed and integrated into iSeeApp. These were depicted in 16 scan-card posters as media-rich (visual and video) content and complemented with 16 lesson plans. Partners representing each partner country were responsible for delivering content and video materials for  scan-card posters.

Intellectual Output 2 - Development of guidebook "How to use Augmented Reality in STEM education" for teachers
The main objective of IO2 was to raise an awareness of teachers about innovative technologies, namely AR. A guidebook for the teachers was designed and approbated within the project. It includes explanations on what AR is, how it can be employed in STEM educational processes, what are its technical possibilities and limitations, what are best practices and case studies. The material were translated into LV, LT and SI languages.

Intellectual Output 3 - Motivational program to promote engagement of girls in STEM
The objective of IO3 was to demonstrate role models of women who have careers in STEM (e.g. STEM female teachers, scientists, programmers etc.) to the young girls (13-16 years old), so they could observe firsthand what these careers are and what they can offer. It will contribute to increased motivation of girls to pursue STEM careers. IO3 envisages design of motivation programme with specially designed activities for schools that ignite girls’ interest in STEM. These include activities such as storytelling, exercises, role plays, simulations, female scientists’ participation as role models, etc. At least 3 female role models were attracted in each partner country.