International STEM Education Conference – Teacher Professional Development Matters

The “International STEM Education Conference – Teacher Professional Development Matters” took place from June 13-14, 2019 in Istanbul at the Ayvansaray University, Turkey. It was organized by the Hacettepe University and the Turkish Ministry of National Education as the last multiplier event for the STEM PD Net project and included three events:

(1) International STEM Education Conference

(2) International STEM Teacher Conference

(3) STEM Expo

The aims of the conference were: (a) to promote the outcomes of the project to policy makers, directors of PD centers and PD providers across Europe, (b) to discuss and share (in)effective PD models, (c) to provide opportunities to tackle the emerging issues in Europe.

© International STEM Education Conference, Teachers participants: Havva Geylan, Ülkü Kale Karaaslan, Ayşin Kahramantekin

© International STEM Education Conference, 3DROBOLAB Team at STEM Expo: Reyhan Öz Yıldız, Ömer Demirkıran, Hüseyin Yıldız, Uğur Akdin

During the two-day conference, a colorful programme in English and Turkish offered the attendees the opportunity to participate in oral presentations, workshops, STEM Shows and the STEM Expo where 20 companies/institutions demonstrated their products. More than 250 participants from 22 different countries attended the conference. Among them: policy makers, directors of PD centres, managers of Ministry of National Education from different countries and cities, head teachers, representatives from science centres, PD providers and trainers from Science & Art Centres and other institutions.

The conference created an avenue to disseminate the intellectual outputs from the STEM PD Net project and presented best practices of Professional Development and STEM education within Europe and beyond with participants from Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Jordan and Russian Federation. Engaging discussions between the consortium members and attendees led to a lively exchange for future collaboration and guidance. The conference also created a platform for sharing other EU-funded projects:

(1) Maxim Bondarev (Russian Federation) and Ainur Zhumadillayeva (Kazakhstan) presented their EU-funded project “Integrated approach to STEM teacher training (STEM)”. (2) Enrique Martín Santolay (European Schoolnet) presented the project entitled “STEM School Label”.

© International STEM Education Conference, Impressions from STEM Expo

The STEM PD Net members of T³ Europe, Bulgarian Academy of Science and the Turkish Ministry of National Education, Science & Art Centers received the “Best of STEM Education Award” in the category of “Professional Development”. The award is given to the institution who has created effective PD ecosystem on national and/or international level.

The project STEM PD Net has received co-funding by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.