Girls Go Circular

Empowering girls to redress the STEM gender gap with an online learning programme that gives them the skills to thrive.

Giving girls the STEM skills to succeed

Girls Go Circular is an EU-funded project that is challenging the gender gap in STEM professions by equipping schoolgirls aged 14 to 19 with digital and entrepreneurial skills, and knowledge of the circular economy.

Coordinated by EIT RawMaterials, with learning content created by seven EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities, the programme plans to reach 40,000 girls in southern and eastern Europe by the end of 2027. This is in support of the European Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan to encourage women’s participation in STEM. 

To meet those targets, the programme needed a learning management system to deliver learning to pupils across the EU. The platform had to:

• Provide simple delivery of the programme to schools in different countries
• Assign learning to each of the young people enrolled on the programme
• Be easily understood by pupils in multiple languages

Straightforward education on the circular economy

Given the scale of the project and the level of customisation required, Moodle Workplace was the obvious choice of learning platform for Girls Go Circular.

This had the bonus of supporting the project’s delivery method. Modules are being delivered to pupils in their schools. The widespread familiarity of Moodle within the education sector makes it easy for teachers and school administrators to support delivery and extend the programme’s reach.

We extended Moodle Workplace’s core functionality with an eye-catching, user-friendly design and new features that provide an engaging blend of activities and resources for young learners. 

There are 10 initial modules covering various aspects of the circular economy, including climate change, robotics, and e-waste. Each module introduces learners to women role models within STEM, as well as a wide range of digital skills.

The platform uses challenge-based exercises to help pupils to identify business opportunities, take initiative and work in teams. This teamwork element is enhanced by group activities that encourage problem-solving skills, analytical thinking and creativity.

Five additional modules will be added before the end of the year, on topics such as Artificial Intelligence, and climate-neutral hospitals of the future. We will support the delivery of these new modules by creating learning pathways that automatically assign content to pupils as they progress through the programme. When learners successfully complete a module, they are rewarded with certificates.

The use of Moodle’s language packs means these modules can be easily delivered to pupils across Europe in their native language. The programme is already being delivered in Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Polish and eight other languages.

Preparing 13,500 girls for STEM careers

Girls Go Circular has reached more than 13,500 girls in Hungary, Lithuania, Romania and other EU countries to date. More than 700 schools are already actively involved in the programme.

The site achieved more than 30,000 registered users in its first three months after launching and had three million page views and 58,000 return logins in one month alone.

This instant impact was recognised when Girls Go Circular won Tech For Good Project of the Year at the Digital DNA Awards 2022. The longer-term impact will be measured as students who have participated in Girls Go Circular filter into STEM roles, close the gender gap and drive change in these industries.

“Working with Synergy Learning has been a very good experience. They’ve been an excellent technical partner for all of the design, system management and hosting support we’ve needed. We are getting very good feedback on the site from our users.”

Solene Moutier | Education Project Specialist

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