Festo’s Integrative STEM Education

Festo has launched Integrative STEM to support secondary schools in technical education and help to spark interest in technology also with the youngest. Integrative STEM means integrating state of the art technology training, based on hands-on activities and the use of digital tools, combined with innovative learning solutions fostering 21st century skills and providing a fruitful insight in modern technology-related jobs.

Offered Products & Courses:

Bionics:

The first step in a successful STEM class is to gain interest with the students. Festo can offer a perfect tool: Bionics! With Bionics4Education Festo offers turnkey projects which are perfectly suited for the first steps in a STEM class. The students can build their own bionic robot and simply remote control it. Once the interest is sparked, other topics and projects follow easily, e.g. programming the robot or improving it by means of CAD and 3D print. With the Bionics Kit (Fish, Elephant, Chameleon) and the Bionic Flower, learners starting at the age of 10 years gain a first insight into an interdisciplinary topic belonging to sustainability.

Offered Products and Courses:

• Bionics Kit Experimental Set
• Interactive Learning Poster for Bionics Kit
• Bionics meets digital twin
• Bionic Flower Experimental Set
• Bionics Lab
• Fin Ray Paper Kit

Coding:

Many of Festo’s STEM products come with Microcontrollers, enabling students to explore programming and networking with the interesting example of the bio-inspired robots. There are three choices how to interact
with the controller:

• Remote control with a standard smart device via WiFi (default).
• Programming the controller with Open Roberta (a graphical programming surface for beginners).
• Programming with C++ (Arduino compatible) e.g. on GitHub. 

Offered Products and Courses:

• Open Roberta Lab-Coding
• Maker activities (DIY)

Electronics:

Electrics and Electronics has changed our world completely. We are surrounded by electricity, may it be the lighting in our houses, electric drives which move everything or electronics to measure and process data. Every student needs to have a basic understanding of electricity, electrical power and how it is generated and used.

Offered Products and Courses:

• Paperlectrics

Manufacturing:

Innovative technologies are changing the manufacturing landscape so it’s important that students learn the foundation of advanced manufacturing through practical application that emphasizes innovation, problem-solving, and critical thinking using hands-on training systems. 3D printing is a big issue for young people worldwide. That’s why Festo wants to offer an opportunity for young people to deal with this topic in a creative and individual way. Experimenting with different materials should encourage the young people’s joy of experimentation.

Offered Products and Courses:

• 3D Printing

Mechanics:

Mechanical structures are the basis for everything: Buildings, machines and living creatures as well. To understand the basics of mechanics is therefore key to understanding machines and to realize your own projects. Pneumatics are an important part of technology and can be found in many applications, namely in factories, but everywhere where things have to be moved, pneumatics are used. In this course, students learn how engineers design pneumatical circuits with respect to given constraints.

Offered Products and Courses:

• Pneumatic Starter

Mechatronics:

Integrating the fields of mechanical, electronics, and computer science, students explore an innovative problem-based approach to learning mechatronics using hands-on trainers and systems. The purpose of the STEM Exploring Mechatronics course is to provide learners the opportunity to explore automation technology and the mechatronic systems essential for efficient manufacturing. Students will be challenged to design an automated system by taking on the role of a mechatronics engineer. They must adhere to the specifications and constraints given and explore the interaction between mechanics, electrical engineering, electronics, and computer engineering disciplines to develop task-handling systems that help speed up time-consuming processes or processes that are unsafe for a human to perform.

Offered Products and Courses:

• MecLab
• Explore Mechatronics

21st Century & Soft Skills:

In the future, next to technical skills, the so-called 21st century skills will be of major importance. Skills like creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking will be key. Thanks to its 360° approach, STEM Education can significantly contribute to fostering these 21st century skills. Integrative STEM Education is about intentionally combining math and science concepts with technology and engineering skills to solve problems. Students who engage in integrative STEM projects in order to solve authentic problems develop communication and collaboration skills, as well as sustained interest in STEM disciplines and increased competency levels.

Offered Products and Courses:

• Teamwork