Lab4STEAM — a low-barrier grassroots initiative for Polish schools

Poland is currently one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. However, market analyses show significant engineer and IT specialist shortages due in part to insufficient education, and the 2023 OECD report on Polish economy identifies digitalization and the development of ICT skills as essential for continued growth. In this context, the implementation of the interdisciplinary methodology of STEAM in public education becomes a key priority. In this paper, we present a background on the current state of STEAM education in Poland, discuss the role that grassroots and industry-led programs can play in secondary STEAM education, and outline a pilot-study collaboration with a secondary school, which aims to bring real programming languages into the Mathematics and Science classrooms without requiring teachers to develop advanced coding skills.