Female technology students from Sweden, Italy, Spain and Austria have participated in the project.
5 December 2023
Project for more women in science education
Women are underrepresented in the scientific industry. Despite several efforts, women and girls often opt out of education and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – collectively known as STEM. For the past two years, Luleå University of Technology has been running a project to empower female STEM students and make STEM courses more attractive to women.
"We aim to reduce the gender gap in STEM education and also integrate art thinking into the traditional STEM curriculum. We often talk about STEAM, where A stands for Arts," says Nuru Jingili, Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Computer Science at Luleå University of Technology.
STEAM is also an educational approach that integrates the five subjects and employs an active and investigative method of learning.
"By complementing technical and scientific curricula with other key competencies, we hope to attract more female students who can, in turn, become future leaders and researchers," says Nuru Jingili.
Results from the project
The project has developed a VR game (virtual reality ) that combines STEM and art thinking to make learning engaging, interactive and fun. Female technology students from Sweden, Italy, Spain and Austria have participated in the process leading to the finished game. More information about the VR game.
External link, opens in new window.
Other results include:
- Skills Framework External link, opens in new window. that enables students to assess and enhance their art thinking capacity.
- Handbook External link, opens in new window. with educational methodology providing new perspectives for both teachers and students on how art thinking should be integrated into STEM.
- Certification system.
"These are important steps towards increasing the proportion of women in the scientific industry. Now, the equally important work continues to implement our new knowledge," says Solomon Oyelere, Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science
- Project name: WeSTEAM - Empowering Women in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) through "Art Thinking".
- Coordinator: Luleå University of Technology.
- Project partners: Changemaker Educations (Sweden), Ars Electronica (Austria), Espronceda (Spain), Sineglossa (Italy).
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