Today our world is changing in an ever growing pace, driven by modern technology and digitalization. Everybody will need at least a basic STEM education to live, work and participate in our society in the future – this is what we call technological literacy.
Technological literacy means to prepare the students to be able to live in a world which is shaped by technology and which is changing faster and faster because of the evolving technology. It is about understanding how technology is being used, developed and produced, what is the impact on us and yes, also about sparking curiosity about technology and considering a career in this field.
Schools today are expected to provide so much more than that when it comes to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). They shall teach their students about sustainability, foster digital skills and make use of digital tools in the education process. They should provide job orientation and – last but not least – teach the students the so called 21st century skills. These are:
These are huge challenges for schools today. Festo Didactic has made it our mission to support schools in this difficult task.
Integrative STEM means integrating state of the art technology training, based on hands on activities and the use of digital tools, combined with innovative learning solutions fostering 21st century skills and providing a fruitful insight in modern technology-related jobs.
Festo Didactic has more than 50 years of experience with technical education, mainly in the field of manufacturing, mechatronics and automation technology. Therefore, and because these topics are of high relevance today, we put a focus on these technologies also for our Integrative STEM approach.
Bionics is a fascinating topic for all students around the world, with Festo having more than 30 years of experience with it. Thus, Bionics4Education plays a major role in our Integrative STEM approach, inspiring the students and teaching them how nature has solved manifolds of problems within the last 4 billion years.
All our learning solutions put a special focus on hands on experiences and are supported by digital courses on our learning platform Festo LX. The courses form a modular systems where each course is independent, but can be used also as part of a larger learning path.
Finally we do not forget the influence of an adequate design of the classroom. Done properly, it can serve as an additional teacher. It can allow and support different social learning forms, thus making the livfe of teachers and students easier and more inspiring!
To cope with our global challenges we need well trained youth to boost a sustainable economy and society to built the future. This is why STEM education is vital at an early age and through livelong learning: it’s about being ready for job orientation, university, vocational education, job opportunities, and life.
STEM means Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. STEM encompasses educational activities from secondary education and thus from pre-school to university as well as in out-of-school places of learning. Recently, the letter of “A” has been added for the creative fields of art; STEM has thus become STEAM. This is intended to bring fantasy and artistic creativity back into focus for students.
Creative work requires basic knowledge and skills. Therefore, Festo Didactic supports the learning process by state-of-the-art software tools, like simulation, Virtual and Augmented Reality.
To realize creative technical ideas, you have to be able to design and produce them. Therefore, an important role plays the topic of design and prototyping. Some of our 3D CAD data are available free of charge.
Digital, cloud-based tools such as Onshape, Open Roberta Lab, GitHub, etc. enable the collaboration virtual teams in real time. This makes it possible for project work in schools or at out-of-classroom activities. This is also intended to further expand the young people's maker-mind set and to promote the joy of experimenting.
At the same time, the foundation is laid for using digital tools at school. There, students already learn the necessary skills for their future working lives. Ultimately, this leads to lifelong learning, as technologies, job profiles and digital tools are constantly changing and therefore permanent education and training will be necessary.
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