Secondary Education

The national program 'Building a School STEM Environment' aims to create new school centers - an integrated set of specially created and equipped learning spaces with a focus on the study and application of competencies in the field of natural sciences and mathematics in state and municipal schools in the country. Each school center will include the following elements:

• physical environment (improvement of the interior architecture and furnishing of existing spaces)
• technology (equipment)
• learning content,
• teaching methods
• management of the educational process.

The main objective of the programme is to create an integrated learning environment for a new generation in Bulgarian schools, which will encourage and support educational innovations in teaching and learning in the field of STEM, creativity and research. The investments will support the introduction of new teaching methods, raising the qualification of pedagogical specialists and creating new educational content in the direction of integrating the subject areas of STEM. The Program is in line with Bulgaria's Digital transformation Policy and National Science Strategy 2017-2030.

To achieve this, the programme is aimed at schools with (already) innovative practices and those with the potential to develop innovations in science, digital technology, engineering thinking and mathematics (STEM). The national program will create "models" in some Bulgarian schools for successfully investing in a comprehensive idea, including learning environment, technology, management, integrated content, qualifications and teaching methods. The 'Education of Bulgarians Abroad and School Network'-directorate is responsible for the implementation of the programmme.

As students and teachers continue to navigate the challenges presented by COVID 19, the collaborative platform Together 4 STEM, coordinated by CSR Europe, has launched STEM@Home: a digital learning platform with a rich collection of free, multi-lingual courses on STEM. The platform’s partners Amgen, IBM, and Johnson & Johnson, currently offer resources in English, French, Italian and Spanish, and cover age groups from 6 to early 20s.

The materials will support students and teachers with easily accessible world-class resources.  From “Elephant Toothpaste”, a course that helps explain chemical reactions to kids between the ages of 11 and 14 all the way through to  “Gene editing with CRISPR-Cas9”, or  “Cybersecurity Fundamentals”, teachers and students are one click away from building, developing and sharpening their STEM skills (see programme website for more information about the activities mentioned).

STEM@Home will continue to add new resources and expand beyond the pandemic to become a long-term reference point for digital education and effective remote learning.

During the Children’s University, young students can learn the basics of LEGO robot programming. They can build robots, observe and control their movements with the help of different sensors and motors. Participants hear a lot of interesting things about mathematics, which help them understand the simplicity and beauty of this difficult subject.

At these events, children will have the opportunity to learn more about VR and 3D printing as well. At some locations, the children will have the chance to design and print unique products.

At the Mini Tech Fairs the children have the opportunity to see the everyday life of a tech expert, they can experience the most up-to-date technologies and devices, and try what it is like to work at a tech company. Children can also meet tech volunteers at the events who speak about their everyday work, the advantages and challenges they have to face at their workplace. It can be a good opportunity for visitors to meet their future employers or get a suitable job or internship places.

Based on the increasing demand for competence within science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the Norwegian labor market, the ENT3R program was initiated by the Norwegian National Centre for Science Recruitment (NCR) in 2010. The project is coordinated by NCR in collaboration with local universities and university colleges offering STEM studies throughout Norway. The ENT3R STEM training is offered to junior high pupils and high school students.

Participating pupils attend after school activities, typically in the form of help with mathematics and science homework and occasional pupil night arrangements including inspirational lectures by invited guests, pitching of different studies and career opportunities, experiments, pizza serving, quizzes and competitions. The ENT3R sessions and activities are organized by designated project leaders and organized and held at the local campuses by STEM students working as mentors for the pupils. All students working for ENT3R are brought together regularly for courses and exchange of experience. New mentors are trained in basic pedagogics and STEM subject didactics and attend regular gatherings for exchange of experience.

The main objective of ENT3R is to encourage and inspire youths facing a career choice to consider and pursue and education and career within STEM. The “STEM training” activities in ENT3R aims to provide the pupils with:

• Increased motivation and sense of achievement
• A more positive attitude towards STEM subjects
• Increased career choice capability
• Increased STEM capital

The KPI`s used is a yearly survey among all pupils participating in ENT3R, giving valuable insight and measures of pupil motivation, effects on grades and considerations of future career choices, satisfaction with the mentors etc. Every year we also see our initiatives in context with trends in the universities and colleges admission services.  The ENT3R program is part of th e Norwegian Directorate for Education and Trainings STEM strategy called “close to STEM”.

Meet and Code invites local nonprofits across Europe to apply for micro-grants to organize events that foster interest in and access to digital skills among young Europeans. The aim of Meet and Code is to help build a world in which every young European has the digital skills required to shape their own future. It was co-created by SAP and Haus des Stiftens gGmbH in Munich, which coordinates the grant-giving process, along with the TechSoup Europe network partners. The initiative is aligned with the EU Code Week and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

THe Meet and Code Award presents and honors the most successful event ideas. The goal is to award the most creative and innovative event ideas used by nonprofits to get youngsters excited about coding. The five categories of the Meet and Code Award 2020 are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Winners of each category will receive 2000 euro prize money.

The following 35 countries are eligible for grants from the programme: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,

Coding becomes more and more important in our society. To help increase the level of knowledge on a wide scale Science on Stage focuses on the teachers. They first need to be familiar with coding before introducing their students to this topic.

With our teacher project 'Coding in STEM Education' 22 teachers from seven European countries develop concrete examples and practical advice not only about how to practice coding skills using Arduino, Raspberry Pi & Co. in computer sciences but also in subjects such as biology, chemistry, technology, mathematics, and physics - even if you are no IT expert.

The results were published in 2019 in form of a teaching brochure. The project is proudly supported by SAP.

Every two years, Science on Stage organises Europes biggest educational festival from and for STEM teachers. Each time hosted by a different country, the event brings together up to 450 STEM teachers from over 30 countries to share and exchange their ideas and concepts for a successful science education from primary to secondary school.

Every participant presents his or her good-practice teaching examples to their international colleagues at stands, in workshops and in on-stage-presentations. Following the principle 'from teachers for teachers' the festival supports the professional development of the educators. Furthermore the most innovative best-practice teaching concepts find their way to teacher trainings, brochures and teaching materials after the event.

Teachers are competitively selected to be part of their country’s delegation through rigorous application processes and national events.

The next European Science on Stage festival takes place will take place from 24-27 March 2022 in Prague, Czech Republic.

UNICOOS is an online digital platform for teaching several STEM subjects. The platform is an initiative David Calle - YouTube teacher of 2016 by Bitácoras and amongst Top 10 top finalist in the 2016 Global Teacher Prize.

UNICOOS currently has 300k registered users and more than 1M followers and subscribers on various social networks. It is a fully functional platform which responds to an average of 500 concurrent users daily, reaching an average volume of 4,500 visits per day. Through dynamic functionalities and gamification, users of the platform "self-monitor" and enhance the contributions of other users. 

From its beginning to the present day, UNICOOS has been focused on answering to the most frequent asked questions and needs of its users. The queries are mostly related to secondary & high school courses, to which most of the content is aimed.