STEM EXPO 2023 took place on April 16 in Ijevan, Tavush. 

The event was organized to summarize the 2022-23 academic year program of Stemar project-based learning in four schools of Tavush region: Ijevan school, Achajr secondary school, Dilijan N5 secondary school, and Getahovit secondary school. Students and STEM teachers from the four schools presented the results of Stemar projects, communicated in the STEM environment, and led impactful discussions with industry representatives. Based on the feedback we received from the schools, the event was an innovative and meaningful summary of project-based learning. The students learned not only to present their works in an exhibition format to an audience with different levels of educational attainment but also to construct revealing questions and conduct professional conversations with specialists in the field and with each other. According to an anonymous survey, 88% of the participating teachers believe that the project and participation in the EXPO contributed to the professional orientation of students in the field of STEM. The part of panel discussion was also exciting, in which such representatives of the field as:

CEO and co-Founder of AIP Tech Marina Aghayan,
Researcher at the A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory Artur Mkrtchyan,
CEO and the Founder of Armenian Bioinformatics Institute Lilit Nersisyan,
Founder and CEO of RealSchool Foundation Vahagn Poghosyan,
VP of Technology at Instigate Robotics CJSC Levon Hovhannisyan,
Director of YerevaNN Machine Learning research lab Hrant Khachatryan

participated. While conducting the discussion with the experts in the field of science and engineering, the students not only showed serious preparation but also targeted the topics of interest to the audience through multi-layered and open questions.

Interschool STEM Experience Exchange
The students participating in the Stemar project-based learning create the basis for interschool collaboration. In the fifth week of the project, the 10th graders from Ijevan Lyceum visited Getahovit secondary school to share their experience and support assembling the automated greenhouse.

The video is prepared by Vahan Sargsyan, a student of Ijevan Lyceum.

Learning through 3D Modeling in Achajur Secondary School
Every participant in STEM 3D modeling projects found their interests and the opportunities to use their strengths to benefit teamwork.

In the first week, the students got familiar with the curriculum, planned the work, and met the teachers and Armath mentor to discuss the planning.

Consequently, the students used Google Classroom to access the materials. 3D modeling was introduced, and the students received mini-project tasks to improve their 3D modeling and 3D printing skills. Along with obtaining theoretical knowledge, the students can activate their experiential memory by modeling STEM-related didactic objects and using them in their classes.

The post is written by Mane Balasyan, a student of Achajur secondary school.

Stemar Projects at School. A Day at a Glance
When you visit a school and observe the students working on Stemar projects, you receive a positive charge for the rest of the day. Active discussions of research questions, comparative analysis, engineering assembly, and collaborative learning process of students from different grades make the school education vivid and motivating

Getahovit Students Reflect on the Smart Greenhouse Project
When we first learned that our school was selected for the Smart Greenhouse project, we did not know about the process and the outcomes. However, at the introductory meeting with our teachers, we clearly understood the plan and the projects goal, which motivated us to work enthusiastically. We formed a team of 26 students from different grades. Once a week, we have a whole-team meeting to discuss the progress and planning at every level. The format of the meetings was hybrid since we had both face-to-face and online meetings. Our teachers guided us through the learning material. We also practiced using additional resources to answer the research questions reasonably. We also appreciate the support of our Armath mentor, who helped us understand the projects electronics and programming. (by 7-8th graders)

The first stage of the Smart Greenhouse project was about getting familiar with Stemar resources and the project description. Next, we learned about the technical resources, their characteristics, and their usage. Our physics teacher helped us understand the sensors working mechanism. We studied the germination and growth conditions of the provided seeds from the perspective of chemistry and biology. At the same time, our Armath mentor supported us with installing the required programming libraries and adding the code to ESP32. Last week we hosted students from Ijevan Lyceum, who shared their experience constructing the greenhouse. We plan to seed the plants this week and compare the theoretical knowledge of the growth conditions with the practical implementation. Therefore, we wish ourselves and our fellows in other schools good luck! (by 9-11th graders)