On 17-18 of January 2022, Dr. Anita Juškevičienė and Dr. Gabrielė Stupurienė from Vilnius university presented the STEAM-CT project and its activities at Ylakiai Gymnasium (Skuodas district, Lithuania). The students of the gymnasium actively tested (piloted) the activities of the project, and the teachers participated in practical trainings.
Students from grades 7-8 of took part in the Smart Greenhouse activities, during which they implemented the following projects with Arduino microcontrollers:
Project 1: Let's measure the temperature and humidity inside the greenhouse;
Project 2: Let's measure the light inside the greenhouse;
Project 3: Measure the gas concentration inside the greenhouse;
Project 4: Let's switch on the Bluetooth LED light inside the greenhouse via a mobile device (the mobile app is created via the App Inventor environment).
During the piloting of the project activities, the researchers observed the problems students encountered when constructing the microcontrollers, and clarified what changes should be made to the description of the activities in order to achieve the educational objectives.
The piloting of the activities was followed by a practical training for teachers on "Integrating the STE(A)M approach into educational processes". The possibilities of integrating the STEAM approach were discussed with the teachers and examples of activities developed and under development were examined in more detail.