Expanding a classroom to an interactive learning ecosystem. A cookbook based on the ingredients: creativity, collaboration, space, and time serving two Grade 7 classes

Abstract

Take some secondary school students, leave the classroom, move around, add challenging tasks, let it ‘cook’, check consistency, and add hints if needed. Invite guests to taste what you ‘cooked’. This recipe serves two Grade 7 classes, four teachers, and forty-some relatives. This study is about a school project engaging students for two months in STEAM activities, namely, students planned the first settlements on Mars. The project involved various spaces: the classroom, the school, a virtual classroom, and a museum. We examined students’ involvement, motivation, the learning effect, and soft skills. We also studied the project’s impact on society, for instance, the involved families. The data were collected by using questionnaires based on the Likert scale, open-ended questions, focus groups and observations. We studied what factors make STEAM tasks motivating, the learning environments and the learning outcome. We found three key features: learning spaces, social settings, and meaningful tasks.