About EASTEM project

Recent EASTEM project activities

Feedback on the Midterm Report from the EU Commission

EASTEM project has received the feedback on the midterm report from the EU Commission. The EU Commission has especially appreciated the efforts of the partners working in the project to spread Teaching of Teachers’ methodologies more broadly in partner countries so as to give more attention to inter-institutional mutual learning. The EU Commission has recommended the project to implement more targeted dissemination activities in partner countries and to ensure the sustainability of project results through internal and external funding sources. The EASTEM project was given the grade “GOOD” (between 74 and 60 pts out of 100). This means that “the project progresses in accordance with its original work programme and timetable but some improvements could be made; the report gives clear information on all or nearly all of the evidence needed.”

Fifth APSCE International Conference on Computational Thinking and STEM Education in Singapore

Following the EU Commission recommendations the EASTEM project partners are giving more attention to dissemination activities of project results. Miriam Tardell, the coordinator of EASTEM project, together with a group of partners working in EASTEM project, Anders Berglund, Valentina Dagiene, Mats Daniels, Vladimiras Dolgopolovas, Siegfried Rouvrais. have participated in the Fifth APSCE International Conference on Computational Thinking and STEM Education in Singapore ( https://cte-stem2021.nie.edu.sg).
They have presented the EASTEM project aimed at Euro-Asia collaboration of universities from Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam for Enhancing STEM Education.

Anders Berglund in his presentation has stressed the positive things, underlying assumptions and lessons that partner universities of the project have learnt

Upcoming conferences of interest for EASTEM

Upcoming conferences mentioned below provide opportunities for further sharing and dissemination of the experiences and lessons learnt in EASTEM. Please feel free to contact EASTEM colleagues to co-author papers or ask for their advice on submitting a paper.

iSTEM-Ed 10-12 November, 2021 (Pattaya, Thailand)
Deadline for papers: 5 June
http://istem-ed.com/istem-ed2021/

SEA-STEM Intl conference 23-25 November, 2021 (PSU, Hat Yai, Thailand)
Deadline for papers: 30 June
https://stem.psu.ac.th/

You can stay up to date with interesting upcoming conferences and the deadlines to submit abstracts/papers by regularly checking in with this list. Please do not hesitate to add to this list any upcoming conferences at your institution or other conferences that could be relevant for EASTEM.

 

Work Packages

The EASTEM project tasks are divided into three work packages: Work Package 2, 3, and 4. 

Work Package 2 (WP 2) is led by Uppsala University, Sweden. It focused on the development of Train the Trainers (ToT) courses for university lecturers in order to develop their student-centered competences, so as to give them the tools to use student-centred learning approaches in their university teaching. These teaching approaches are later spread to more lecturers in a cascade format. Lecturers, who have participated in the ToT courses, will learn to use this approach in university STEM education, will share experiences with university colleagues, strengthening the partnership with the local academic community, and will use, what they have learnt, in their own regular teaching of university students. .  

In the first phase, four lecturers per Asian partner institution participate in a student-centered competency development course and then hold a pilot course, where students solve chosen problems from the local industry and community in international teams across all partner institutions. In the second phase, lecturers, who are trained in the first phase, will conduct staff development sessions for other lecturers both inside and outside their institutions. 

Work Package 3 (WP 3) is led by Vilnius University, Lithuania, and is aimed at the Establishment of Centres for Excellence in STEM education in ten Asian partner universities. The centres will continue to conduct the ToT courses for university lecturers and will organise activities, engaging external stakeholders, for local schools (K-12) and businesses. This way, the STEM education centers should ensure the sustainability and increase the visibility of student-centered STEM activities. STEM education centres have the potential to function as hubs for discussions on STEM education in the local community.  

While building STEM education centres, the Vilnius University will support lecturers, deans and administrative staff at partner universities in Asia to establish, to train staff and to run STEM education centres, to ensure sustainability and increase the visibility of student-centered STEM activities. These centres will anchor STEM activities within the university structure and serve as a focal point for each university's STEM education initiatives. By involving students and external partners in centre activities, the STEM Centre will have the potential to expand and in the long run to develop into STEM Education and Research Centres in each city or region of the countries involved in the Project. 

Work Package 4 (WP 4) is led by IMT Atlantique, France. It is aimed at facilitating industry involvement and integrating competences into STEM education programmes. In order to meet the needs of the labour market, it is important that professional competencies and input from industry partners are integrated into curricula, study programmes and university strategies. EASTEM aims to secure the support from university leadership at partner institutions to ensure that lasting change takes place.  

Building good case practices from all partner institutions, IMT Atlantique will guide partners on how to integrate competency development for students into university education programmes and strategies by involving deans, vice-chancellors, and chancellors. This will increase the capacity of partner institutions to offer education that focuses on student needs and labour market requirements. With support at the strategic level of university management, STEM activities will be more sustainable and partner institutions will be better equipped to interact and collaborate with corporate partners in developing university STEM education. 

The EASTEM Project Consortium

The project consortium includes partner universities from 6 different countries. There are 3 universities from Europe (Sweden, Lithuania and France) and 10 Asian universities (3 from Vietnam, 4 from Indonesia and 3 from Thailand).  

The European project partners are mainly involved in project management. Their tasks are to act as a project coordinator and as work package leaders.  

The three partner universities from Europe are the following:  

• Uppsala University (UU), Sweden ( the Project coordinator and leader of WP 2); 
• Vilnius University (VU), Lithuania (the leader of WP 3); 

• IMT Atlantique (IMTA), France (the leader of WP 4). 

There are ten project partner universities from three Asian countries (4 from Indonesia, 3 from Thailand and 3 universities from Vietnam), which are involved in activities of the EASTEM project. The list of Asian partner universities is as follows:  

Indonesia 

Del Institute of Technology (DEL)  

Udayana University (UNUD)  

Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB)  

Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM)  

Thailand  

Chiang Mai University (CMU)  

Mahidol University (MU)  

Prince of Songkla University (PSU) 

Vietnam 

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE)  

Hue University of Science (HUS)  

Hung Yen University of Technology and Education (HYUTE)  

Associate Partners 

Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), Vietnam  

Vietnam Electronics Industries Association (VEIA), Vietnam