The objectives of the summer school are:

• To provide participants with knowledge for cultivating students’ spatial skills and organizing activities in and outside the classroom
• To raise awareness on the importance of enhancing spatial thinking, as well as on the benefits of environmental literacy of students in the shaping of the next generation of spatially and environmentally aware European citizens.
• To encourage new synergies between schools and academia for the development, implementation, and validation of hands-on activities.

Participating teachers will also be invited to be part of the GOSTEAM community to exchange and share ideas, experiences, concerns and educational resources with colleagues from all over Europe and beyond.

The GOSTEAM Summer School is designed so as to endorse teachers’ synergies in the field of fostering geospatial thinking.

During distinctive sessions presenting a variety of topics, participants will be encouraged to participate in the blending of geospatial activities with the STEAM element in an exceptional example of original interdisciplinarity applied. In the meantime, they will also become familiarized with useful ways, which will allow them to introduce such complex concepts in their class with confidence.

In this 6-day course, participants will be presented a detailed methodology for the design, implementation, and evaluation of educational hands-on STEAM activities for secondary education students, in the fields of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Cartography, and Environmental Science, which will be based on innovative approaches to STEAM, spatial thinking and environmental education, and their integrated cultivation within the curricula. Through mostly hands-on workshops, essential strategies for the development of an innovative learning approach towards effective combination of STEAM and spatial thinking will be introduced.

This website will act as a main hub of communication and for sharing and distributing preparatory material with the participants. Participants will have a common workspace for uploading and downloading educational materials.

Before coming to the summer school, participants will be asked to review some materials relative to the topic of the summer school and the methodologies that will be discussed.

As a follow-up to the training course, the participants will be asked to make use of the STEAM activities they worked on during the summer school and share their work.

In the meantime, participants in the GOSTEAM Summer School will become members of the wider GOSTEAM community and they will be interacting with teachers across Europe sharing the same interest. Moreover, they will stay updated with all the news in the field!

Programme (tentative)

Course fee

The course fee for all ESIA Summer Schools is 420€ (70€/per day) and fully within the funding opportunities of the Erasmus+ Programme.

The course fee covers:

• Expert lecturers for lectures, seminars and workshops
• All materials and equipment needed for the course
• Participation in the social programme & excursions (e.g. Sunset and dinner at Cape Sounio, excursion to the Acropolis and visit to the Acropolis Museum and dinner in downtown Athens, traditional night and farewell dinner, etc.)

Subsistence & accommodation

The Summer School will be held at Golden Coast Hotel & Bungalows, an A-class/ 4-star sea-side hotel which stretches on the golden, sandy beach of the Marathon Bay, near the historic location of Marathon, at the outskirts of Athens.

ESIA has made special arrangement with the hotel and are happy to offer to all participants a single or double room with all-inclusive services (i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks and free of charge services for outdoors sports and recreational activities).

The costs for subsistence are also within the ceilings of the Erasmus+ programme for KA1 mobility actions.

The Summer School will be held at Golden Coast Hotel & Bungalows, an A-class/ 4-star sea-side hotel which stretches on the golden, sandy beach of the Marathon Bay, near the historic location of Marathon, at the outskirts of Athens.

It is the area of Marathon, that has hosted since the times of myths when Theseus killed the terrible bull of Marathon, to the times of the Persian wars and the Battle of Marathon, further on to our days and the marathon race and Marathon Run, the emblematic symbol of man’s quest for freedom and the will to defend his most noble deeds which constitute the foundations of the Human civilization. The plethora of natural, historical sites and museums of the area reveal in all details this unique historical voyage.

Participants are expected to arrive through the Athens International Airport, approximately 25 km (15,53 miles) distance from the hotel.

Learn More

The Erasmus+ Programme supports the participation in professional development activities such as the ESIA Summer Schools.

This year, however, the Erasmus+ programme for the period of 2021-2027 has not been published yet. Therefore, no new applications can be currently prepared. As soon as the new programme is published (expected in April / May 2021), we will inform you and explain you how to apply in the coming years.

However, in case your school or organization has successfully applied for Erasmus+ funding in the past 2 years, you are able to use the existing funds to cover the costs for this year.