WE STEAM

in Innovation, Projects

WE STEAM

Empowering women in STEM through Art Thinking

Funded by the European Union under ERASMUS+, WeSTEAM was intitiated by Luleå University of Technology, Changemaker Educations, Sineglossa, Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture and Ars Electronica. The project runs for 24 months until 01 of January 2024.

Despite the great efforts made by European policies and projects, and by policies and projects at the national and local level, it is estimated that the participation rate of women compared to men in information and communication technology does include a much lower rate.

The STEAM (Science – Technology – Engineering – Art – Math) approach may therefore be a key strategy to make STEM courses more attractive for women.

WeSTEAM aims at developing, testing and disseminating a methodology based on the STEAM approach to enhance the Art Thinking skills of female students engaged in STEM careers in order to:

  • Empower women STEM students for increasing their chances of employment in high-Level positions in the ICT labour market once they graduate
  • Increase the attractiveness of STEM courses for women.

The specific objectives of the WeSTEAM project are:

  • Design and disseminate a reference framework for assessing women STEM students’ Art Thinking capacity. This will allow students to gain awareness of the skills they need to enhance in order to complement their curricula according to a STEAM approach.
  • Design and disseminate a training methodology to be used by STEM teachers in their teaching activities or by students themselves to enhance, through a set of training tools, their Art Thinking capacity.
  • Design and disseminate a VR -based educational game for enhancing art thinking capacity in women STEM students in an interactive and attractive way.
  • Create a certification system, in line with national and EU qualification frameworks, for recognition and certification of Art Thinking skills. This will allow women STEM students to prove their skills and communicate them when applying for further learning or jobs across Europe.