DURATION & PARTNERS

DiSTARS is a three-year duration (2020-2023) KA2 Strategic Partnership in the field of school education, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. It involves one higher education institution from Germany (University of Bayreuth), one secondary education school from Greece (Ellinogermaniki Agogi), two technology companies from Greece and Bulgaria (Omega Tech and MOTIVIAN respectively), one non-governmental organization from Portugal (NUCLIO) and one research organization from Austria (Austrian Space Forum).

OBJECTIVES

DiSTARS’ main objectives are:

• to develop a pedagogical framework for integrating arts into STEM activities and guide the teachers during the storytelling interventions towards better realizing their emerging role as coaches of learning
• to extensively use the DiSTARS storytelling platform and its innovative VR & AR interfaces to support students in the creation of their digital stories.
• to create a series of STEAM hands-on activities that expand students’ knowledge on space exploration and to propose innovative teaching strategies will formulate a set of guidelines on how scientific work can be used to explore “real science” with “storytelling as a catalyst”
• to pilot DiSTARS in schools in Germany, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria and Portugal. The pilots will be coordinated from the project partner in each country.
• to provide assessment tools that go beyond addressing students’ intellectual ability looking into competences such as collaborative problem-solving, communication etc. that are considered indicators of deeper learning

TARGET GROUPS

The main DiSTARS target groups are school communities (including parents), researchers in STEM education and in ICT-based education and ebook developers and publishers. Following the implementation of the project activities, the dissemination targets will include educational policy makers as well as curriculum developers.