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Over the past two years, the Mimesis project has charted a significant course in the field of education, focusing on the development of STEAM learning through theatrical techniques. Adopting an innovative approach, Mimesis has endeavored to rethink teaching and learning methods, offering educators and learners tools and resources to encourage curiosity, creativity and cooperation, using new approaches focused on body movement, scenic and artistic expression and emotions. Today, we'd like to present the results of our two years of creation!
Chapter 1: Discovery
The question of using the performing arts to aid teaching has been at the heart of Mimesis' activities for the past two years. However, harnessing theatrical techniques specifically in the sciences was something new for the whole consortium. Some of us were specialized in theatrical practices, others focused on the scientific approach or creativity. From this diversity, we needed to bring together a unique approach. This led us to ask ourselves what was achievable, and succeeding in conveying scientific notions and concepts to students using mainly their bodies, voices, expressions and other means of communication was our real challenge, successfully met thanks to our complementary approaches.
During the first phase of our journey, our priority was to establish a constructive and creative dialogue. Through numerous exchanges, which began at our kick-off meeting in November 2023, we shared our individual skills in order to mutually enrich our approaches towards the creation of our first Mimesis activities, thanks to our complementary experiences and know-how:
Space Foundation brought the artistic heart of the project through its perfect knowledge of the world of theater, in order to approach scientific knowledge in a different and creative way.
La Fabulerie provided a creative space, with a playful approach at the heart of the program for children and teachers.
Last but not least, the L.A.B., with its creative approach to STEAM teaching and its knowledge and application of the scientific approach, anchored the proposed activities in the learning of science.
Chapter 2: Key moments
There were many decisive moments during the project. In addition to our meetings, which enabled us to exchange ideas in a friendly and productive atmosphere, the first phase of drafting activities was particularly important. Indeed, it was through these first ideas that Mimesis really took shape. This was the crucial moment when we clarified our respective visions and merged them, creating a patchwork of activities that formed the backbone of the project.
With these foundations in place, we were able to begin drafting our pedagogical proposals in greater depth. We therefore decided to push the theatrical approach further in our development phase, by structuring all our activities into "Acts", each one following the other to gain in depth and intensity as the teaching sequence unfolded.
In addition, to make sure we were moving in the right direction, we regularly called on teachers and their students to provide us with objective, constructive feedback on our productions. These meetings took place in a variety of formats: either directly in the classroom with the pupils, or by hosting the classes on the partners' premises. All in all, through our various workshops, we had the pleasure of working directly with 40 teachers and a total of 152 children! Many thanks to them for their involvement!
Chapter 3: Challenges and resilience
There is always a gap between what we imagine a project to be and what it actually is. At Mimesis, if challenges have arisen, needs for further study and rewrites, today we are proud to have delivered 8 teaching sequence proposals, structured in 28 acts, 12 framework sheets, 8 video tutorials, 7 activity combination proposals, and 1 theater script dedicated to the implementation of a Mimesis play. This would not have been possible without the mutual support of the project partners, who provided constructive feedback that enabled us to reshape the activities and exceed the initial objectives of 7 activities that we had set ourselves.
Chapter 4: Review
As the project draws to a close, it is time to reflect on what we have achieved. The project is a solid foundation on which we can build to continue our mission of making science accessible to as many people as possible. Individually, we will continue to work to disseminate art, culture and knowledge, enriched by this experience and ready to explore new avenues.
The efforts made can be reused in our respective fields, and the open-source nature of the project offers the possibility of further enriching them, both through our future actions and through the contribution of the community of teachers involved in Mimesis.
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