STEAM Education for Autistic Children

The primary goal of this project was to foster a deep interest and pursuit of excellence in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) fields, with an emphasis on supporting e...

The primary goal of this project was to foster a deep interest and pursuit of excellence in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) fields, with an emphasis on supporting educators in addressing the needs of children with learning challenges. By focusing on children with autism and other learning differences, the project aimed to create an inclusive educational environment where all students could thrive. The expected outcomes were multi-faceted: enhancing student performance in key foundational skills , stimulating a passion for STEAM subjects, bridging the learning gap between neurodiverse students and their typically developing peers as well as improving social interactions. Through innovative approaches and targeted interventions, the project sought to empower educators with the necessary tools and strategies to meet diverse learning needs, fostering equity in education and preparing students for future academic and career opportunities in STEAM disciplines. Ultimately, the initiative strived to inspire a generation of learners, regardless of their challenges, to succeed and excel in STEAM.

Initially, an extensive research was performed, in which we were able to identify both possible hardware that could be used in the pilots as well as methodologies that would be used in the development of the activities. After that, the partners agreed on the experimental setup and then began developing the teaching material to test with children in the spectrum while acquiring the hardware that was selected. After testing the material in pilot studies , we identified several issues in the way we developed the teaching material and this was extremely helpful in understanding how a child with ASD views a lesson and how they learn. This prompted us to develop new methodologies in creating teaching material that would be appropriate both for typically developing children but also for children with ASD. Using the newfound knowledge we began providing training sessions to educators so that we could teach them how to develop new educational material using methods that would benefits the entirety of the classroom including children with autism. Finally, the project disseminated all the information in it's website, social media and through an open conference where educators as well as parents were invited to attend.

The first concrete output generated by the project is a report that includes the latest developments related to STEM education and ASD. The report describes the state-of-the art of educational methodologies and issues related with the education of children with autism in the general education area. Based on the research done we acquired 2 robotics platforms, namely DWENGO and micro:bit, which were deemed appropriate for the development of STEAM-related activities for our target groups. Talking to stakeholders and running pilots with children with autism, we developed an educational toolkit that helps teachers develop their own lesson plans with a focus on inclusivity. These have been added to the LMS that we created for educators to view them and add their own to share. The third result of the project is the transfer of knowledge through the trainings provided both here in Cyprus and in Belgium. Educators were able to learn more about how to develop new learning material as well as ask questions on how to manage a STEAM classroom which includes children with autism. The final result was the dissemination of information to the general public through our website, social media and also through the final conference.