ARTIFEX
The ARTIFEX project is designed to bridge the gap between the (local) labour market and education by establishing a practical European framework for STEM education in innovative out-of-the-classroom learning environments such as Fablabs or Makerspaces.
ARTIFEX is an ERASMUS+ strategic partnership for school education that is designed to set up a practical European framework for STEM education in innovative out-of-the-classroom learning environments such as Fablabs or Makerspaces. A Fablab or Makerspace is a small-scale workplace where you can manufacture products using modern technologies such as 3D printers and laser cutters.
ARTIFEX aims to:
- Provide transparent and easily accessible information on contemporary competences required from engaged STEM workers in the current and future European labour market and society.
- Provide and disseminate new contents, tools and pedagogical approaches (access to new learning resources) in the context of FabLabs and encourage the transfer of these approaches to similar open community spaces (Maker Spaces, Hackerspaces, Techshops, etc.), specifically open access online professional development tool.
- Develop and disseminate a self-assessment tool structured around key areas of teachers’ and educators’ teaching for STEM competencies.
- Identify and promote examples of European good practices (transferability) which are embedded in national curricula.
Basic information
These are the fundamental questions addressed by ARTIFEX:
- Which competences are needed by teachers or educators to teach STEM in the context of open and high-tech community spaces like FabLabs, Maker Spaces or any other innovative learning environment?
- How can teachers and educators support student’s creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, communication and other 21st-century skills related to STEM competences?
- How can high-tech open community spaces contribute to linking formal, non-formal and informal learning?
- How can teachers and educators identify priorities for their own professional development in order to support students to learn STEM competences in the context of FabLabs?
- Which competences are required from STEM workers in the contemporary and future labour markets and how does that relate to the teaching of such competences in the context of FabLabs?
The ARTIFEX project develops resources to help teachers and educators to improve their own educational competences for improving the STEM literacy of their students. This will be done in a co-creation between teachers, FabLab educators, applied educational researchers, educational designers and teacher trainers.
The ultimate outcome of ARTIFEX is an interactive open e-learning platform. This digital platform will (interactively) integrate different intellectual outcomes. Ultimately, it will be a self-assessment or self-training tool for European schools, teacher trainers, FabLab educational employees or educational researchers which will offer them the means of creating a learning plan adapted to the specific needs of the school or/and the (innovative) learning environment.