The proposed project intends to develop an interdisciplinary study program to implement a new, internationally recognised educational model: STEAM (Science, technology, Education, Arts and Mathematics) in the disciplines of Informatics, Mathematics and Visual Arts for the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school. The curricular modules are based on practical social requirements of everyday life situations and are targeted towards the development of skills necessary for employment in the labour market. Research results show that spatial skills (mental modelling and manipulation with objects in space, representation of spatial relations etc.) are important abilities for various professions, and the period of their optimal development is between the age of 10 to 12 years. For this reason, we are planning to engage this target group.
Development of innovative tasks published in methodology journals and manuals of 1. Visual arts education (spatial perception and representation); 2. Informatics education (genres of scientific visualisation involving the construction of images in virtual space); and 3. Innovation in mathematics and geometry education are direct predecessors of the planned research. Innovation in the field of assessment methods in education is partially the result of a former successful international project, Four Situational Drawing Tasks for children aged 3-14, undertaken in 2015-2016. Results of this project include the description of the levels of spatial abilities of elementary school students and a test battery to measure their development.
These experiences we can directly apply in our project intending to develop interdisciplinary educational programs to develop spatial skills. Innovative educational methods derived from this art education project will be adapted, further developed and implemented for two new disciplines: Informatics and Mathematics. These can effectively support to learn, consolidate knowledge and skills in development of spatial creation and perception. We intent to develop subskills as spatial imagination, cognitive processes concerning shifts between two- and three-dimensional, traditional and digital spatial representations, and improve cognitive capacities of elementary school students. The central objective of the project is the improvement of practical skill set of young people and their successful integration and better enforcement in labour market.