The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions in school education globally. Teachers have been tested to their limits to keep offering their students high-quality distance learning activities. In particular, many schools were challenged to continue providing remotely accessible and engaging science learning experiences in collaboration with outreach programs offered by large research institutes, science centres and universities.

How then can science learning activities that require collaboration between schools, non-formal and informal science education providers be realised in the “new normal”? Are there ICT tools and practices that can enhance and sustain the science interest of young learners? And how can student projects, especially creativity-enhanced STEAM activities in the context of open schooling, come to life in the face of major disruptive events such as the current pandemic crisis?

We believe that the rapid shift to online teaching and learning due to COVID-19 presents schools with a unique opportunity to grasp the transformative potential of new digital technologies to enable engaging and resilient hybrid STEAM learning environments. But this is by no means a straightforward process.

In response to the educational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the Playing with Protons Goes Digital project envisages that every student deserves a digitally ready school that also has the capacity to act as an open innovation hub for the development of 21st century skills within an integrated learning ecosystem that capitalises on the strengths of both formal and informal science education experiences.

Playing with Protons Goes Digital builds on the concept of open schooling in science education by shifting attention to the importance of hybrid, cross-collaborative STEAM learning environments that extend beyond the “school walls” through meaningful connections and engagement with non-formal and informal science, technology and art education providers to promote student creativity and interest in science-related careers.

Bringing together an international consortium of partners with a proven track record and passion for bringing innovation into the classroom, the project aims at employing the use of augmented reality (AR) digital technologies, appropriately framed and scaffolded, to foster creativity-enhanced inquiry-based science teaching and learning.

Playing with Protons Goes Digital, coordinated by INFN, will approach this by building on successful STEAM initiatives in Italy, Greece, Spain, and the UK to empower the digital competences of primary and secondary school teachers by enriching their pedagogical practice with an open-schooling methodology and an integrated AR toolkit that will allow them to co-create and share digital STEAM resources inspired by big ideas in physics that speak to the new habits, interests and needs of Gen Z learners.

Our interdisciplinary approach to science teaching and learning places high emphasis on the cultivation of teacher digital leadership and resilience through the optimal use of ICT that not only responds effectively to the “new normal” but is also sensitive to the cultural and environmental contexts that affect teaching and learning in diverse settings. We, therefore, aim to offer schools, including those in remote and rural areas, the ability to: work with engaging STEAM activities; collaborate with large research institutes and informal science organisations; and access exciting open digital content delivered by teachers and educators remotely and uninterruptedly.

The Playing with Protons Goes Digital approach, methodology and tools will be piloted in 50 schools across four countries over the next two years. Based on research, expert opinion and rich feedback from participating teachers and educators, the project will then produce a concrete set of recommendations and guidelines, addressing innovative school leaders and teachers, educational policy makers and key external stakeholders, offering sustainable pathways towards more engaging, creative and open science classrooms.