The current science, technology, engineering, art, math education (STEAM) approach emphasizes integration of abstract science and mathematical ideas for concrete solutions by art. The main aim was to find out how experience of learning mathematics differed between the contexts of school and an informal Math and Art Exhibition. The study participants ( = 256) were 12-13 years old from Finland. Several valid questionnaires and tests were applied (e.g., SRQ-A, RAVEN) in pre-and postdesign showing a good reliability. The results based on General Linear Modeling and Structural Equation Path Modeling underline the motivational effects. The experience of the effectiveness of hands-on learning at school and at the exhibition was not consistent across the subgroups. The lowest achieving group appreciated the exhibition alternative for math learning compared to learning math at school. The boys considered the exhibition to be more useful than the girls as it fostered their science and technology attitudes. However, for the girls, the attractiveness of the exhibition, the experienced situation motivation, was much more strongly connected to the attitudes on science and technology and the worthiness of mathematics. Interestingly, the pupils experienced that even this short informal learning intervention affected their science and technology attitudes and educational plans.

In this paper, we offer three examples from our research projects on both technological and pedagogical innovations to illustrate the impact of rapid technology changes on research. Members of our research team both developed and used technology applications in their research projects, utilizing design-based research (DBR). During the experiments, we encountered new challenges by the end of the research cycle due to updates in technologies. Although we had an idea of how to redesign the project for the next cycle based on the analyses of data, we noticed that we needed to not only redesign our approaches based on the research results but the changes in technologies were so rapid that materials and pedagogies needed to be altered as well. In our article, we propose an additional aspect to be considered in DBR while researching technology integration or innovative technologies. Moreover, the rapid change in technology raises further challenges to teachers’ professional development and the integration of those innovative technologies in classrooms. We anticipate our work to contribute to the development of technology resources and related pedagogies as well as the refinement of research methodologies in technology environments. Our contributions for the development of technology resources and refinement of research methods in technology-supported learning environments should, among other things, contribute to a less complex and at the same time more sustainable integration of pedagogical innovations into scientific and school practices.

This is not the first time the Mathematical Communities column has featured the Bridges Organization: the 2005 conference 1 , in the breathtaking Canadian Rocky Mountains at Banff, was described in these pages by Doris Schattschneider [Schattschneider, 2006], a regular Bridges participant and Escher-specialist. The 2005 conference saw the debut of Delicious Rivers, Ellen Maddow's play on the life of Robert Ammann, a postal worker who discovered a number of aperiodic tilings.2 Marjorie Senechal, The Mathematical Intelligencer's current editor-in-chief, served as Maddow's consultant. 3 A theatre premiér at a conference on mathematics? A production performed by mathematicians, moonlighting as actors? But this is Bridges.A quick look at the 2005 conference relays the "essence" of this scientific and artistic "happening" resembling a first-rate festival of the arts. True to its title, Renaissance Banff, the 2005 Bridges gave all members of its community, whether based in the sciences or the arts, the feeling that they had helped bring about a genuine rebirth. I use "community" in its most complete sense-including adults, children, artists, university professors, art lovers and local people-for the wealth of conference activities could only be accomplished through the participation of each and every individual present.In addition to formal conference lectures and the theatre performance, the program included an international mathematical art exhibit, a mathematical music night, and a mathart workshop series developed for teachers by teachers. Groups constructed enormous mathematical art installations and models. Following the musical performance by professional musicians, many mathematicians and artists grabbed an instrument and continued playing, just as anyone could lend a hand in constructing a colossal installation. As members of a collective undertaking, Bridges participants experienced the joy of creating a colorful and unique mathematical art community in which layperson and expert worked side-by-side, as equal partners.4 And, as a result of negotiations initiated in Banff, -016-9630-9 DOI 10.1007/s00283-016-9630-9 2 From its beginnings in 1998, Bridges has advocated for mathematics as a core component of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education. Years before the STEM acronym was even created [Christenson, 2011] and spread, Bridges had humanized it. The Bridges community has never had to expand its approach from STEM to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics): it has always included those aspects of the arts, design, creative thinking and artistic imagination so very necessary to, yet still so very lacking from many STEM projects today. From its inception Bridges has given the STEAM movement inspiration for a transdisciplinary and intercultural platform. Accepted manuscript for The Mathematical Intelligencer, ISSN: 0343-6993 (print version) ISSN: 1866-7414 (electronic version)The final publication is available at Springer via http://link.springer.com/article/1...

In this study, we develop mathematical educational practices for students to explore ancient buildings using GeoGebra, Augmented Reality and 3D printing. It is an interdisciplinary approach, intertwining history, culture, mathematics, and engineering. For example, the 3D modelling of Cheomseongdae in Korea and the Temple of Dendera in Egypt can enable students to practice a multimodal set of traditional and innovative learning approaches. Students might use their mathematical knowledge to reflect on architectural and cultural history in a modeling task.

A sample of 392 students (aged 12-13 years, M± SD: 12. 52% girls) completed a learning module integrating informal hands-on mathematics and arts activity (extending STEM to STEAM). Within a 140 minute workshop period participants worked with commercially available ‘4Dframe’ Math and STEAM learning toolkits to design and create original, personal and individual geometrical structures. Two science pedagogues acted as tutors supervising the process and intervened only when needed. A pre-/post-test design monitored individual creativity, relative autonomy, and career choice preference. Path analysis elaborated the role of creativity (measured with two subscales: act and flow), and it showed that post-act, post-flow as well as relative autonomy are valuable predictors of career choices. Similarly, pre-creativity scores were shown to significantly predict the related post-scores: act and flow. As a consequence, our STEAM module was shown to trigger both the creativity level and the career choice preferences. Conclusions for appropriate educational settings to foster STEAM environments are discussed.

To help meet an educational and societal requirement for all students to enjoy, have confidence and ability in creativity and technology, the “Kids Inspiring Kids in STEAM” (KIKS) EU project adopted an intensive Hothousing process challenging students in Finland, Spain, Hungary and the United Kingdom to engage in collaborative problem solving to develop solutions to: “How would you get your schoolmates to LOVE STEAM?” The project provided a process and technology toolkit for students, including those with special educational needs, to achieve their solutions.A completion rate of 90% suggested that all schools and students could cope with and enjoy the process and associated technology toolkit, which featured social media plus Micro:bit, Tracker and GeoGebra for data collection and modelling.We have extended the toolkit with simulation software and a graphical programming environment to produce realistic animations of objects in motion. Thus students will have a creativity and technology toolkit to experience the kinds of techniques and skills used by software engineers in the video, games and special effects industries. The toolkit will be on the GeoGebra platform which, in addition to mathematics, embraces STEAM and social media.

Teacher professional development programs, including mid- and long-term Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math (STEAM) courses, have recently moved from in person learning at university premises to an online environment. Whether it is a temporary change in learning methods caused by the COVID-19 restrictions or whether it will become a new normal is currently under discussion in many teacher training institutions around the world. The aim of this study was to design and implement time- and money-saving synchronous online teacher training format for conducting co-design courses for early childhood teachers in the theme of STEAM integrated learning activities. Based on Tallinn University’s curriculum of in-person training courses on the same topic, with the volume of 40 contact hours, we delivered the content in two different formats: in 11-months (as it used to be in pre-COVID period) and in 4-months, adapted to participants’ needs. We used a self-assessment survey, based on DigCompEdu framework, to assess the increase of digital competences in the two formats. The long-format course had 31 participants and the short-format course had 50 participants. The assessment was based on pre- and post-test and we used structured live video presentations to let participants retrospectively describe their learning experiences. Results indicate that the participants of both courses had improved their digital competences and achieved the learning outcomes set by course content. There was no significant difference in increase of digital competences or the way the course was perceived between participants of both courses. This brings us to the cautious consideration that it is possible to achieve desired outcomes of STEAM courses even in a shorter period when conducting them online compared to the in-person courses. There is a need for further research where results from participants of in-person and online teaching courses are compared.

The article contains the results of a research within the STIMEY (Science, Technology, Innovation, Mathematics, Engineering for the Young) project funded by the European Union’s Horizon-2020 research and innovation program (2016-2021). In the project, a hybrid learning environment (LE) was developed for both on-site and online learning suitable for the learning conditions in the COVID-19 era and beyond. The purpose of the research segment presented in this paper was to develop an instrument for assessment of the learner’s progress in creativity as one of the key targets of STIMEY. COVID-19 has shown that creativity is also needed to allow education systems the flexibility for unexpected changes and circumstantial challenges. The article presents a definition of Science and Technology Oriented Creativity (STOC) based on the existing theories in the field, a short outline of the STOC measurement method developed, procedures, evaluation algorithms and an overview of the experimental STOC testing results. The relevance of the method developed to its purpose and suggested tentative positive influences of the STIMEY LE on learners’ creativity are discussed. Argumentations of strengths, limitations, applications of STOC testing outside the STIMEY project and the key directions of further improvements of the method developed are provided.