- Mass and volume measurement - Area measurement - Buoyancy STEAM APPROACH As commented by the teachers during the focus group, STEAM approach is much discussed in Finland and cross disciplinary in the Finnish curriculum is challenging. The Finnish teachers interviewed both in the questionnaire and in the focus group complain, as is also the case in other countries, of an excessive workload to be met in order to complete the programme. The idea of alternative methodologies appeals to the teachers who believe that, supporting teaching materials can be very useful, if they give basic information of subjects in hand (thermodynamics, electrochemistry, organic chemistry etc.), and easy to use; as commented by a teacher during the focus group “Teachers have no time for orientation or extra reading, so the materials should be ready-to-use". Even if the teachers did not express a real judgement towards the STEAM approach, and especially if they believe it can be implemented online, there are many inputs and suggestions coming from Finland. First, for Finnish professors, the prerequisite for the adoption of this methodology is collaborative work between professors; it is necessary to plan the work together. We can deduce this from the teachers' answers regarding possible collaboration with art teachers: 63% expressed interest in collaborating with their colleagues. However, it is interesting to note that when asked about the usefulness of this collaboration, 45% expressed a positive rating, but the remainder seemed to be fairly divided in their assessment. According to them, one good practice is to have a virtual wall of fame for example: at the end of a course (a club, a camp) the participants send a picture of what they have done, and the teacher/guide spots some of them for discussion. This does not work for normal classes, since there is no time for all these discussions, and the results of the pupils might not be very exciting (a calculation task, a calculation of physics etc.) Another solution is to offer teaching materials for diverging the teaching: if some of the pupils need much guidance, others may get bored if they haven’t got anything extra to do. Those extra materials (5-15 minutes duration), with self-guidance solutions (like answers for the questions to check if you got it right), can be more challenging and deeper. New ways to issues (like using art as a starting point) are welcome there, since those pupils using this kind of extra material are capable of more challenging thinking. 29
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