Romania Local Workshop Report

In the frame of the second intellectual output of the NGSS Erasmus+ project, Valahia University of Targoviste organized local workshops for teachers of preschool and primary school education aiming for a better understanding of STEAM education and its methods.There were four local workshops held online, via Google Meet and Google Classroom platforms, due to the pandemic situation, on 5^th , 12^th , 19^th November 2021 and 3^rd December 2022. 17 Romanian primary and pre-primary teachers took part in the local workshops where they gained knowledge about STEAM education and shared their experiences. The trainers were university professors from Education Sciences Department, Teacher Training Department and Science Department. Among the topics covered in local workshops agenda was: a short NGSS project presentation – purpose of the program, scope and proposed activities; brief summary of the relevant data from the National Report on the implementation of STEAM in Romania and partner countries; SEL activities and importance of integrating SEL into STEAM; aspects of science education based on the STEAM approach; methods used in the STEAM approach (IBL, PBL, Design Thinking, SCAMPER, etc.) and examples of activities for each method. During the third online workshop dr. Zuhal Ylmaz Dogan and other members of Uskudar MEM participated. As partner expert, ms. Zuhal presented the SCAMPER technique and fast fact highlights from Turkey National Report.