First Phase (M1-M12): Preliminary Development of the iMuSciCA workbench

The first phase runs from M1 to M12 of the project and will focus on two strands running in parallel; the first will deal with the pedagogical approach, the analysis of learners’ needs and the development of the first set of lesson plans, while the second will address the technical specifications resulting from the user needs analysis, the development of the necessary adaptations of the core enabling technologies and their first integration in the iMuSciCA workbench. The first version of the iMuSciCA’s prototypes will be used in pilot testing by students, with the focus being on their usability and the interaction with the technology. Similarly, the first version of educational scenarios and lesson plans will be validated by teachers and educators. Along the course of the first phase the following milestones will be reached: (i) MS1: Use case scenarios by learners’ resulting from the educational scenarios, (ii) MS2: Technical specifications of iMuSciCA workbench resulting from use case scenarios, (iii) MS3: First version of the iMuSciCA workbench prototypes, (iv) MS4: Validation of educational scenarios by teachers, and finally, (iv) MS5: Usability test and user-friendliness validation by students

Second Phase (M13-M24): Deployment of the iMuSciCA workbench in real settings

The second phase runs from M13 to M24, and will lead to the realization of a fully functional iMuSciCA workbench of prototypes ready to be tested in real settings in secondary schools for the implementation of specific STEAM lesson plans. This phase will draw on the conclusions of the first pilot testing by teachers and students. The results on the usability and user-friendliness tests will direct the development of the iMuSciCA prototypes with the aim to be ready for actual usage in real settings for executing lesson plans. In a similar fashion teachers and educators’ feedback will steer the development of the lesson plans addressing specific subject matter from the courses of physic, mathematics, geometry and music. During the second semester of the second phase, the iMuSciCA workbench will be tested in real setting with the involvement of teachers and students. Along the course of the second phase the following milestones will be reached: (i) MS6: Lesson plans using the iMuSciCA workbench prototypes, (ii) MS7: iMuSciCA workbench ready for use in real settings, and (iii) MS8: Educational value of iMuSciCA workbench resulting from pilot testing in real settings

Third Phase (M25-M30): Outreach of the iMuSciCA workbench to teacher communities and stakeholders

The third phase starts in M25 and runs until the end of the project in M30. It will be built upon the findings concerning the educational value of the iMuSciCA workbench in the pilot testing in real settings. Having the final version of the iMuSciCA workbench toolkits, we shall engage teacher communities and schools from a wider audience than those participated in the pilot testing with the aim to produce their own lesson plans and actually use the iMuSciCA workbench in STEAM learning activities. At this time of iMuSciCA workbench will have reached a level of maturity that allow active participation in relevant trade fairs, involvement of stakeholders, and implementation of targeted exploitation activities. At the end of this phase, the last milestone of the project will be reached, i.e. MS9: iMuSciCA workbench demonstrators for dissemination and exploitation.