Funded projects

September 2022 - August 2025

PI/s in Exeter: Associate Professor Kerry Chappell

Research partners: The Lisbon Council (Belgium), Ellinogermaniki Agogi (Greece), ECSITE (Belgium), TRACES (France), University of Malta, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Greece), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), ScienceView (Greece), Centre for Social Innovation (Austria), Engineering Ingegneria s.p.a (Italy), European School Heads Association (Netherlands)

Funding awarded: (total funding of £109146)

Sponsor(s): UKRI and Horizon 2020

Project webpage(s)

Roadmap STEAMer: developing a steam roadmap for science education in Horizon Europe

About the research

The overall aim of the project is to develop a STEAM roadmap for science education in Horizon Europe, i.e., a plan of action that will provide guidance to EU's key funding programme for research and innovation on how to encourage more interest in STEM through the use of artistic approaches, involving creative thinking and applied arts (the “A” in ‘STEAM’).

The consortium aims to provide Europe with this roadmap, through:

• Collaboration and co-creation with the stakeholder communities of science education, research, innovation, and creativity, through intensive exchange, dialogue and mutual learning among them which will produce better knowledge and shared understandings of the relevant opportunities, challenges and needs.
• A bottom-up approach emphasizing educational practice and practitioners’ agency rather than high-level conceptualizations of STEAM and generic top-down plans (in reality often just vague statements of intention) for its adoption in science education.
• A specific focus on ways to leverage the power of STEAM approaches, as manifested through exemplary cases and best practices, to enable a bridging of open science and open schooling which can catalyse an increased impact for science education as a crucial tool for addressing Europe’s current scientific and societal challenges.

The UoE team consists of Kerry Chappell, Lindsay Hetherington, and Harriet White, and Lucy Yeomans who bring expertise in arts, science education, outdoor learning and equity and participation, respectively. The team’s contribution to Roadmap STEAMer involves bringing these expertise to developing a conceptual framework for STEAM, designing a research methodology and supporting consortium partners with co-creation workshops.

The consortium of Roadmap STEAMer also includes partners from The Lisbon Council (Belgium), Ellinogermaniki Agogi (Greece), ECSITE (Belgium), TRACES (France), University of Malta, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Greece), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), ScienceView (Greece), Centre for Social Innovation (Austria), Engineering Ingegneria s.p.a (Italy), European School Heads Association (Netherlands).

University of Exeter are supported in Project STEAMer by UKRI grant number 10040523 and Horizon 2020.

Download infographic: Road steamer pdf

24 January 2022 - 1 December 2026

About the research

The Penryn Partnership is one of a national cohort of Creativity Collaboratives, a programme commissioned by Arts Council England. The Creativity Collaboratives are networks of schools that have been established to test innovative practices in teaching for creativity, and to share learning to facilitate system-wide change.

The Penryn Partnership is exploring how teaching for creativity across the curriculum prepares young people for their future in a changing workforce, working in partnership to establish a creative strategy and pedagogy to ensure students are best prepared for the modern workforce. The Partnership is based around Penryn College and includes a network of local primary schools and local industry partners as well as the University of Exeter. Together we will be researching, developing and testing a range of teaching and learning strategies leading to systemic changes in practice in teaching for creativity.

The UoE team is Kerry Chappell, Alex Thornton and Ursula Crickmay and we are working together with Sarah Childs, Creativity Collaboratives Penryn Partnership Lead, and with colleagues in schools including Penryn College and neighbouring primary schools.

Year 2 report and details of Creativity Collaboratives here.

1 January 2019 - 1 June 2021

Project webpage(s)

Dance, Health and Wellbeing: Debating and Moving Forward Methodologies

About the research

Evidence of the positive benefits of dance on developing physical aspects of health and fitness is now widely recognised. Building on this, this research sought to develop understanding of the under-researched aesthetic, artistic and creative contributions that Dance makes to Health and Wellbeing across the life course. In particular, it focused on what kinds of methodologies are appropriate for investigating these contributions, and how these methodologies can generate findings which extend how we understand the impact of the arts on health and wellbeing.

The research took a transdisciplinary approach, bringing together arts education and community research and practice, together with dance science and dance health practice. This was represented in the research team which included Kerry Chappell and Ursula Crickmay at UoE, working together with colleagues at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and Dance in Devon.

The research included a literature review of recent peer-reviewed research, practice-based literature and evaluations and also a series of focus group discussions with dance/health practitioners and participants in dance/health projects. Findings were shared through publication and a symposium at The Wellcome Collection London.

You can read the Systematic Literature Review here.

You can read the Focus Group Findings and Project Report hereFocus Group Findings and Project Report here.

You can find out more about the symposium here.

1 January 2019 - 1 December 2020

Project webpage(s)

Sci-Arts Creative Teaching Resource

About the research

The Sci-Arts Creative Teaching Resource is a set of teaching guides and planning tools which support transdisciplinary science and arts teaching, engage learners with science and helps them to develop their own scientific creativity.

The resource has grown from the EU-funded project CREATIONS (Grant Agreement No.66517; www.creations-project.eu) which developed arts-based creative approaches to science education across 11 countries. Project materials were created by researchers, teachers and other educators across the EU, based on a series of eight pedagogic features of creative science education which were identified by the CREATIONS team. During the current project the materials are being developed further for use in UK classrooms.

The UoE team is Kerry Chappell, Lindsay Hetherington and Ursula Crickmay, and we are working together with colleagues at the University of Birmingham, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Institute of Physics. During the project, we have worked with teachers in London and the South West to trial and further develop the resource, and it will be available online for schools from June 2020.

Project updates on twitter @sciartsedu.

1 November 2018 - 31 October 2021

About the research

OCEANS Connections is a Europe-wide project which is developing innovative digital tools that employ creative pedagogies to develop pupils' 'Ocean Literacy'. This is an aspect of scientific literacy which specifically addresses issues of climate change and the marine environment. It will use Augmented/Virtual Reality experiences developed with aquaria alongside innovative, creative approaches to teaching and learning developed with schools to help pupils gain skills in understanding the climate change and human impact on the environment in the context of the Ocean. In terms of impacts, pupils will gain both scientific understanding in terms of key content, and understanding of scientific processes and methods, as well as acquiring digital skills and 'soft' skills and competencies with respect to intercultural understanding and global citizenship. The UoE team is Lindsay Hetherington, Kerry Chappell, Justin Dillon and Andrew Dean.