ECCE LUDUS is a project that has been developed with the intent of supporting the professional growth of secondary school teachers and educators in the field of STEAM and STEM. It does this by offering international training in digital, innovative STEAM and edutainment methods. Moreover, in order to turn the ECCE LUDUS methodology into actions, educators are also provided with STEAM-oriented edutainment resources.
STEAM education is an educational approach that combines science, technology, engineering, arts and maths as devices to explore and comprehend the world around you. Rather than studying these subjects independently, they are combined to help students ask questions, discuss and think critically about problems. They are encouraged to connect the different subjects and come up with innovative solutions, making learning more hands-on and captivating.
Edutainment involves using entertainment methods (e.g. gaming, apps, movies and TV Shows) to teach educational content. It was a term that was firstly introduced in the technology sector to describe CD ROM programs that are used to teach while including entertainment.¹ The purpose of edutainment tools is to make the learning experience more interactive and enjoyable. It’s especially important in the STEAM field, as it encompasses foundational subjects for solving real-life problems.
An example of an edutainment tool that’s popular among students is Minecraft Education. It has been used in formal education across many countries to teach several subjects, such as Mathematics, Science and Coding. Another example of a learning-focused entertainment resource that can be used in non-formal education is the Portuguese brand Science4You that develops STEAM thematic toys that are sold in more than 45 countries worldwide. In this article, I am going to showcase how these two examples of edutainment and STEAM tools – Minecraft Education and Science4You – are used in education.
The first example we are going to cover is the game “Minecraft: Education”. This game has been used in many classrooms to teach different subjects. The block-based mechanics and the sandbox environment present in the game make it easy to teach mathematical concepts, such as area and perimeter, ratios, patterns and coordinates. Minecraft Education’s website includes training courses for Educators on how to craft a game-based learning classroom, as well as a Minecraft Teacher Academy that are both free to join. Besides that, the website includes free Mathematic lesson plans. It also includes free ideas for projects and tasks designed to evaluate students in a more dynamic way. The incorporation of this game into traditional classrooms has had a positive impact on student’s understanding of mathematical concepts.² Because the game is very immersive and interactive, students develop their strategic thinking and problem solving skills.¹ Integrating Minecraft Education into the classroom has also been shown to boost student’s enthusiasm for the subject.²
The second example of how edutainment and STEAM can be used in education is the Portuguese toy brand Science4you. This brand creates scientific and educational toys, inspired by the STEAM methodology. They offer toys aimed at children aged 3 to 5, 6 to 8, 9 to 13, and 14 years and older. The purpose of the toys is to teach children skills in these 5 areas while playing and having fun. The toys are intended to be used in a non-formal educational environment, such as during recreational activities or science clubs. With each toy comes an instructional manual, that is also an educational tool as it illustrates in a clear way the concepts that the toy aims to address. It also includes proposals of fun science experiments to be conducted. All Science4You toys have the Brain Activator seal, which means that they have been shown to develop vocabulary, creativity, concentration, memory, learning, reasoning, manual and social skills in children.
These are examples of two case studies on how edutainment can be used in both formal and non-formal education contexts. On one hand, Minecraft Education emphasizes structured lessons that can be integrated into the curriculum in formal educational settings. Additionally, it also has the advantage that its lessons promote collaboration, digital literacy and problem solving within the formal classroom setting. On the other end, we have Science4You that creates hands-on fun learning experiences for children in non-formal settings. These activities foster children’s curiosity and encourage them to ask questions and explore the world around them independently. Moreover, it’s easy to incorporate Science4You games and toys into varied informal learning settings such as home learning, after-school clubs and museums. Taken together, both tools showcase how the combination of edutainment and STEAM can be a versatile and powerful approach to increase students’ motivation, deepen their understanding of both scientific and artistic subjects, and support the development of essential soft skills.
Source:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/edutainment-stem-how-entertainment-revolutionizing-khalid-a-khan/
https://www.science4youtoys.com/https://web.archive.org/web/20170817204405/
http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/993/1/Published_Version.pdf
