<< Objectives >>This project result will undoubtedly lead to a better understanding of how to teach and to learn the different topics related to IoT. In addition, it will be possible to take advantage of the experience of various partners to improve the development strategy of new materials on IoT-related topics. Moreover, indirectly, these results will certainly provide an interesting opportunity to attract students or other stakeholders to discover and learn these emergent topics<< Implementation >>All activities in the project will be focused to achieve the final goal, so all planed packages will be finished. We will make guidelines for IoT Fablab development, then we will develop learning materials, make CPD courses for teachers, and at the end we will create a final toolkit.<< Results >>Besides the conveying of knowledge to partner teachers, FabLab operators and students, will get an open access EduFabLab toolkit which will include validated learning materials, pedagogical guidelines and tools aimed mainly for European schools, but also for other stakeholders (Schools, FabLabs, etc.) to use the results for further training purposes.

Context and background for the projectThis project addresses the needs to develop and take on new approaches to teaching and learning and to use new technologies to support and facilitate this. In particular, the project deals with wellknown issues related to science teaching and learning and furthermore with teaching towards the 21st-century skills in schools. The science subjects pose problems or obstacles for a large number of students in European schools. School science subjects are considered “hard” and require high levels of abstraction. As a result, there has been a decline in young Europeans’ interest in the science subjects both during their education and as career opportunities. Inquiry-oriented approaches are recommended to make the learning of science more like the practice of science. This project addresses the above concerns by contributing to developing and implementing innovative science education in order to enhance the quality of science teaching/learning and student attitudes and motivation. The basic rationale of this project is that science education can be strengthened through the use of Argumented Reality (AR) (Shirazi & Behzadan 2013), because AR makes possible active, collaborative learning as well as interaction with and visualization of central science knowledge. Furthermore, it is believed that the technology has matured sufficiently to introduce it into school contexts and involve teachers in designing and producing AR-materials.The objectives of AR-Sci is to:A) Contribute to developing and implementing innovative science education in order to enhance the quality of science teaching and learningB) Strengthen students' motivation for and attitude towards science educationC) Develop a student-centered approach to science education, facilitating inquiry-based teaching, collaboration and active learning.D) Strengthen technology-enhanced teaching and learning in ways that make sense to students and teachersThe project aims to produce materials to facilitate student learning and engagement and also build models for how teachers can use the technology and involve their studentsAR-sci has the overall objective of furthering innovative teaching and learning with augmented reality-technologies. AR-sci aims at describing a supplementary, new and innovative approach through a design guideline for science teachers and others interested in the field. Number and profile of participating organisationsThe consortium consists of 6 partners from higher education, IT and education, and the school sector respectively.VIA University College is Denmark’s largest provider of teacher education with close ties to university research environments nationally and internationally. Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Hioa, is the largest state university college in Norway. Hioa has renowned competences in digital literacy and ICT-suported learning.Jisc, Manchester University, UK, is a not-for-profit organisation for digital services and solutions for the UK higher, further education and skills sector.Galicia Supercomputing Centre (CESGA), Spain, is a public non-profit technological centre, offering advanced IT-services to the scientific community in Galicia.Skolen I Midten (SIM), lower secondary school, Denmark.CPI O Cruce, K-12 school, Spain.The main activities in the project are:1.Developing and testing an innovative approach to science teaching2.Designing and producing a series of AR-based teaching materials3.Testing and evaluating the materials and teaching approach together with teachers and students in schools (in a series of pilots)4.Sharing ideas, models, experiences, materials etc. with teachers, lecturers and researchers in webinars, workshops, conference presentations, and scientific articles5.Describing and sharing the pedagogical model, the teaching and learning materials, a guide for science teachers in a free online resourceResults and impact attainedAR-sci has developed a student-centered approach facilitating an inquiry-oriented teaching, collaboration and active learning, and a visualization of the often hidden processes that are central to understanding science. Based on evaluation of the pilots in schools we found that students considered the use of AR activities to be motivating, to give clarification on complex concepts, and to bring further attention to STEM topics. In terms of developing a studenter centred teaching approach, 76 % of the students stated that they had learnt from their fellows, and 60 % stated that they had noticed a different role from their teacher. At the end of the 3rd round of pilots, 75 % of the students involved stated that their interest in STEM subjects had increased.Through collaboration with schools, teachers, students, teacher educators, researchers and developers of educational technology, the project has communicated its results and raised awareness of the potential of AR in education.

There is an evidence of skills shortage in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields across EU, that raises concerns and serious implications in the future concerning the recruitment difficulties that already are being felt over the recent years. The general perception in young students is that STEM related occupations are boring, hardworking and therefore unattractive for young people, with a persisting under-representation of women. The aim of the project “Boats4Schools: An Educational Challenge“ was to develop a ludic and educational methodology that can get young students attention to the importance of STEAM educational opportunities as a possible pathway for a future career. The methodology developed in the project was oriented as a youth challenge for young students (12-17 years old), that can be replicabled anywhere in the world. The methodology is based on a challenge where student´s (working in teams) will have to build a small Boat (miniature) under a set of rules like powered by a sustainable energy source or building the boat from a specific material, and, by doing that they will have to get in contact with several technologies like 3D design, Additive Manufacturing, Cloud Manufacturing, Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) tools, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools, High-performance computing (HPC), Math, Physics, Innovative thinking, creativity and so many other skills. At the same time that students are building their Boat and preparing the Boat for the Challenge they are learning relevant contents related to STEM+A (Art/Creativity), with the help of a tutor (teacher) that will guide them towards the creation of the best Boat that will compete in the Challenges (Regional School Challenges, National and International Challenges). Further to the STEM+A (meaning STEAM) related contents, each team of students will be asked to work other competencies like marketing their boats and get sponsors, working leadership and presentation in front of a jury, self-employment and entrepreneur techniques among other transversal skills. This empowerment as a team will be an important asset to promote social inclusion among youngsters. The methodology that the project created is based on an extracurricular activity following a contemporary educational approach - learn by doing - with the power to stimulate pupils attention and given them the opportunity to promote the self-learning , active participation and independent (self) development in educational fields that are not often easy to engage the students. During project lifetime, partners created the methodology, and supporting materials for Boats4Schools, working in tasks like: - Benchmarking with other similar initiatives, around the world and collect the best practices; - Defining the educational approach and resources in parallel with the objectives and rules for future Boats4Schools Challenges; - Promoted several trial contests (pilot approach) in Portugal, Spain and Italy; - The project results were disseminated at national and European level trying to spread the project methodology to be adopted in other schools and countries. With the Boat4Schools project, the partners intend to share a friendly way to engage young students to be more positive about STEAM career paths and encourage them to choose STEAM studies.

The FF4EuroHPC proposal addresses the need for outreach to, and support of, Europe’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in order that they can profit from the innovation advantages offered by advanced High Performance Computing (HPC) technologies and services. FF4EuroHPC takes core team members from the highly successful Fortissimo and Fortissimo-2 projects (hereinafter simply Fortissimo projects) which executed 92 business experiments. They will use the lessons learned and best practices developed in those projects to create a portfolio of business-oriented “application experiments” that allow agile SMEs to investigate and solve business challenges and develop innovative business opportunities. The application experiment framework ensures that they receive the necessary, appropriate support to enter into the HPC ecosystem. FF4EuroHPC will lower the barriers for the participating SMEs to commence HPC-related innovation in their existing or newly identified markets either by using HPC systems for their business needs or by providing new HPC-based services. The outcome will be improved design and development processes, better products and services, and improved competitiveness in the global marketplace. Fundamentally, FF4EuroHPC is focussed on the creation of economic growth and jobs for the European Union.

Whilst youth unemployment in general has increased in Europe, there is a group of young people who are dis-proportionally threatened by exclusion from the labour market and society - youngsters between 15 and 25 years who have survived childhood cancer and are trying to find their way back to life, work and education. Research has shown, that increased risks of unemployment were observed within all cancer diagnoses. More than two-thirds of childhood cancer survivors experience late effects. Childhood Cancer Survivors also have higher risk factors for poor educational attainment, less than optimal employment status, and interpersonal relationship issues. Create your Future has established a career counselling programme for Childhood Cancer Survivors that does not only address the educational and labour market perspective but also integrates psychosocial and medical factors in order to look at the individual as a whole. This Career Counselling was individually tailored to each Childhood Cancer Survivor in order to take into account their special needs, stresses and straints. For this purpose, close cooperation between health staff and adult educators was an important element of the Career Counselling Programme in order to assure best possible support for Childhood Cancer Survivors. Within Create your Future around 50 adult educators/trainers/counselors in the 4 partner countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Greece and Spain were trained to be able to perform Career Counselling for Childhood Cancer Survivors and 60 Childhood Cancer Survivors did participate in the Career Counselling during the project duration.The main objectives of Create your Future were:• to raise awareness about the individual needs of childhood cancer survivors and sensitize the general public as well as the economy about these needs and the importance as well as benefits of integrating Childhood Cancer Survivors in the labour market• to foster employability of Childhood Cancer Survivors by developing career perspectives with them in individual counselling sessions by also addressing psycho-social factors• to enhance the development of key competences of Childhood Cancer Survivors by providing them individual assessment and learning offers• to foster equity and inclusion in education by creating pathways to education and training allowing participation of the disadvantaged group of cancer patients• to contribute to the professionalization of adult educators by providing tailor-made in-service training which enables them to work as trainer and coach of the beneficiaries• to bring about lasting change by embedding the learning and counselling offers in a comprehensive system which includes quality assurance and sustainabilityThe impact of the project contributed to fostering employment and integration of childhood cancer survivors into society, education and the labour market by supporting them with a comprehensive Career Counselling Programme. At the local, regional and national level Create your Future played an important role to increasing professional qualification of adult educators in Austria, Bulgaria, Spain and Greece. The achieved impact on a national or European level was also enhanced by identifying opportunities to transfer Create your Future to 12 other European countries ( described in the Create Your Future goes Europe report), and by addressing the problematic and individual challenges which Childhood Cancer Survivor are facing after treatment to concrete stakeholders in the partner countries.The long term benefits of Create your Future will be to contributing to changing living conditions of Childhood Cancer Survivors through individual career counselling and reducing the number of unemployment rates among Childhood Cancer Survivors. Another long term benefit for Childhood Cancer Survivors will be to foster equity and their inclusion in education by creating pathways to education allowing participation of the disadvantaged group of Childhood Cancer Survivors. The long term impact of Create your Future on the economy is to contribute to reduce the hesitation of HR managers and general managers to employ Childhood Cancer Survivors. Furthermore adult educators will benefit from the professionalization by providing tailor-made in-service career counselling which enables them to work with Childhood Cancer Survivors.