"Despite nearly 30 years of efforts to engage girls in physical sciences and engineering, the gender gap continues in the scientificvocations. On the other hand, meanwhile the demand of graduates in those fields continues to grow, the scientific vocationamong the young students is increasingly low.Answering to that need, the main objective of this project is to raise and share good science education practices for genderbalance through an innovative Teacher Training programme. The programme has been tested and implemented in eightcountries and disseminated in a digital toolkit format(http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details/#project/8765239d-c6c1-4bcb-804a-a938f5b583cf).The reason why the consortium prefered to disseminate the website of the toolkit and not directly the toolkit pdf file is that thedeveloped toolkit has some web resources, that are included in the website:Final toolkit (English): https://stingeuproject.com/toolkit/Web resources for the toolkit (English): https://stingeuproject.com/toolkit-web-resources/It has a Basque version too:Final toolkit (Basque): https://sting2017.wordpress.com/tresna-sorta/Web resources for the toolkit: https://sting2017.wordpress.com/baliabideak/Eight organizations participated as partners in the project. Elhuyar foundation as coordinator (Spain), Experimentarium ScienceMuseum (Denmark), Hiša eksperimentov Science Museum (Slovenia), Nemo Science Museum (Netherlands), EuropeanUniversity Cyprus (Cyprus), Hacettepe University (Turkey), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway) and StMary's University College (United Kingdom). The consortium is formed by a science communication foundation, three sciencecentres and four universities.The project started with the development of the theoretical framework for the Teacher Training programme, and continued withthe design of the first version. When the first version of the Teacher Training programme was ready, the teacher trainers of thepartner organisations took part in an international training (Amsterdam, November 2015). The project continued with the trained professionals celebrating nine local workshops with STEM teachers, head teachers, directors and policy makers. After that, teachers fromeight countries tested the developed programme. The pilot finished with the preparation of the final version of the TeacherTraining programme (""Final Toolkit"").STING shared the Teacher Training programme toolkit via workshops, conferences and face-to-face meetings with policymakers, teacher trainers and other stakeholders. Besides, it is accessible to anyone interested though the digital toolkit version(https://stingeuproject.com). The project made a next step based in the outputs of several European project outputs, creatingshared knowledge, reflected in a modular toolkit that was tested and implemented locally and disseminated globally. In long-termthe aims of the outputs of the project are to improve practices and new policies, being a resource for other European initiativesrelated with gender issues in STEM education."

“Tinkering: Contemporary Education for the Innovators of tomorrow” emerged from the need for citizens able to respond to the contemporary global challenges by being competent in science and technology, self-confident and critical thinkers, socially-engaged, with innovative and entrepreneurial attitude. It responded to these needs through a learner-centred approach aiming at education in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and at the development of the 21st century skills. The specific learner-centred approach is Tinkering adopted in a series of activities and tools and disseminated at European level.‘Tinkering’ is the term used to define an innovative pedagogy that reflects the current trends in education and the Maker culture. It promotes individuals’ active engagement with science- and making-oriented activities as ways to relate with, and understand of, the surrounding world. It promotes skills that can be used in different contexts and become useful for a lifetime. Tinkering, as both pedagogy and activities, was initially developed by the Exploratorium of San Francisco, and today is gaining ground internationally.The objectives of the project were to:¥enrich skills with specific reference to STEM¥develop the 21st century (transversal) skills: creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship¥promote a learner-centred pedagogical approach¥improve the attractivity of, attainment in, and lifelong relationship with, science and technology for adults and students¥implement the innovative pedagogy of Tinkering in school and out-of-school contexts at European level and create a Europe-wide community of practice of institutions¥encourage cooperation and exchange of expertise and practice between formal and informal learning institutions and professionals.The main activities developed by the project were:¥Design of new Tinkering activities for adult learners and for schools¥Definition of a methodological framework for Tinkering as a founding element of the work¥Developemnt of pedagogical materials focusing on the methodology of Tinkering and on professional development, aiming to help pactitioners adopt Tinkering in their practice ¥Organization of training for adult and school educators, aimed at creating the conditions for the implementation of the pedagogy and the activities¥Organisation of multiplier events for the wide implementation of the activities¥Dissemination at local, national and European level¥Management and monitoring of cooperation and operations.The project was carried out through cooperation between formal and informal learning institutions and addressed adult and school learners as well as adult and school educators. Partners worked on the different activities on the basis of a plan consisting of phases of development, pilot testing, evaluation and fine-tuning in order to come up with outputs that are both sustainable and transferable. Results¥New Tinkering activities for adult learners and schools designed, fully described and available online¥Sustainable and transferable pedagogical materials focusing on the methodological framework for Tinkering and on guidelines for professional development of educators adopting Tinkering available online¥Training events for adult and school educators, including a training workshop by the Exploratorium¥Multiplier events for the wide implementation of the activities¥Website containing all resources, which remains active after the end of the project¥A European community of practice working with this pedagogy.The project reached 27.213 individuals through the multiplier events and about 450 professionals with the training and also achieved:¥Enriched educational practice in school and out-of-school environments¥Improvement of the facilitation role for educators involved in STEM-oriented experience in formal and informal education¥Increasing consideration of the innovative pedagogy of Tinkering at policy level for curriculum and lifelong education¥Better understanding of the conditions fostering the involvement and motivation of early school leavers¥A reinforcement of skills relating to the job market¥The sensibilization of directly-interested target groups and stakeholders at local, national and European level.The structure of the project encouraged the creation of networks with institutions and individuals at local level, who benefited by the activities and resources. These participated to the events and programmes but their involvement goes beyond the specific participation. They were able to understand the potential of Tinkering in different contexts, therefore we saw an increasing interest to find out more about how Tinkering can be adopted in a range of contexts. At European level, there is a concrete interest of several science museums to be trained in Tinkering in order to adopt the approach and activities in their practice.

“Tinkering EU: Building Science Capital for ALL” uses the innovative pedagogy of ‘Tinkering’ in activities and resources aiming to develop the 21st century skills and the Science Capital of disadvantaged youth and contribute to the development of inclusive science learning in schools.Tinkering is an innovative pedagogy pioneered by the Exploratorium of San Francisco. It supports the construction of knowledge through building personally meaningful artifacts. It designs opportunities for people to “think with their hands” to construct meaning and understanding and develop skills useful for a lifetime. Research shows that Tinkering holds key benefits for learning, especially for those who say “they are not good at science”, or young people with educational or integration difficulties. Science Capital draws from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and encapsulates the various influences that a young person’s life experiences can have on their science identity and participation in science-related activities, that is, the repertoire of knowledge, attitudes, actions, relations with science. Science Capital offers a different way to look at science learning and is a powerful tool to develop active citizenship, employability and social inclusion. The project emerges from: - the demands of contemporary societal challenges for citizens equipped with 21st century skills and competences, therefore the urging need for approaches and resources capable of building the knowledge and skills necessary to stand up to these demands.- the increasing need to foster learners from vulnerable groups and disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, thus the need for action towards social inclusion and equity that fights xenophobia and economic disparity. - the increasing importance of science as a tool for active citizenship.- the difficulty of schools, despite the efforts, to build a positive relationship between youth and science, especially those from disadvantaged communities. The project takes into account that science museums and schools together can play a key role in the development of 21st C. skills, Science Capital and social justice fostering science literacy amongst all individuals. In the project, museum and education institutions cooperated with the aim to:- develop young people's 21st C. skills and Science Capital.- improve school practice through an innovative pedagogy (Tinkering) and a new science education approach (Science Capital).- encourage exchange of expertise and practice between formal and informal learning institutions. - create a Europe-wide community of practice. Tinkering EU addressed teachers of primary and junior high schools and students of 8 to 14 years. It reached 195 teachers and 3450 students for a total of 3645 participants through:- the development of a methodology on the role of Tinkering for Science Capital.- the design of Tinkering activities.- training workshops for teachers and museum staff building knowledge and skills in Tinkering and Science Capital.- the organization of multiplier events for schools, some of them participating for the first time to similar initiatives. - an evaluation and self-reflection process for participating teachers.- dissemination actions at local, national and European level.Resultsa) Tinkering activities experienced by 3450 students, tested by 16 teacher ambassadors and evaluated by 179 more teachers.b) A methodological framework on using Tinkering to develop the Science Capital of young people.c) Training events for teachers and museum staff.d) Multiplier events for the wide implementation of the activities across disadvantaged schools.e) Evaluation tools that can be used to foster a self-reflection approach to teaching and learning.f) A website with resources and activities available to everybody and a dissemination reaching about 1000 more formal and about 500 informal education professionals, both inside and outside the consortium.The results from teachers’ evaluation of the Tinkering experience of the students indicated that impact was in terms of an experience highly beneficial for students developing broad-ranging skills and knowledge in STEM, and of support to students with lower science capital because of the way Tinkering deeply values their existing skills, interests and talents, provides multiple pathways for success and boosts motivation and confidence. The project also impacted on teachers supporting them to reflect on their practice as a way to see how they could utilise more learner-centred pedagogies into teaching and how to initiate different ways to approach science teaching. Long-term benefits regard the work of educational institutions towards social inclusion and Science Capital. The use of innovative and concrete resources and methodologies helped enrich practice and strengthen their mission towards a society founded on scientific citizenship, equity and democracy.