Translated from: https://paideia-news.com/organomena-synola/2022/07/11/ergo-ota-syndyazontas-tin-epistimi-me-tin-texni/
The need for schools to adapt to the new reality of online teaching imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and to overcome issues that arose during this period, such as social distance and lack of motivation, led to the creation of a project, which aims at cognitive and social student development through a combination of art and science.
The OTA project is implemented by six European organizations, in Slovenia, Finland, Cyprus and Italy, who collaborate to develop an innovative methodology and material that will encourage the learning of STEAM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics), using digital tools.
In a first stage, an in-depth analysis of national curricula was carried out and the experiences of primary and secondary teachers on the needs and challenges of online teaching and the STEAM approach were collected.
The data obtained from this analysis confirm the issue of social distance, time management, lack of motivation and appropriate ready-to-use materials during online and in-person science teaching.
The OTA project seeks to develop innovative tools and materials that will enable the use of art in science, as more than just an illustrative example. Art can be used as a tool to enhance students’ creativity, curiosity and motivation to learn.
Based on the above, at this stage the project team is working on the development of simple and easy-to-use activities, which will combine science and art, will be based on the basic stages of each lesson plan (initiation, investigation, consolidation of knowledge) and they can be used in both online and in-person learning environments. The material will be available free of charge on a special platform on the project website.
For more information about the project, you can visit the website https://ota-project.eu/ or the project’s Facebook page, or contact the project manager Michaela Protopapas (projects@innovade.eu).