<< Background >>High-quality early childhood education is an extraordinarily powerful way to promote continued success in school, in the workplace, and in society. The skills and attitudes children acquire in their early years have disproportionally large impacts relative to those acquired during their later school years. The unprecedented rate of change in the world around us creates profound uncertainty about the future. Creativity, openness, collaboration, resilience, cognitive elasticity as well as social and emotional competencies are becoming an essential toolkit for any child and STEM education is becoming vital in helping children better understand the world and relate to it. This has placed increasing responsibility and demand on pre-school teachers which are the main facilitators of inciting and nurturing diverse sets of skills in pre-school children. To deepen and diversify crucial skills, knowledge, and attitudes of pre-school teachers in Europe and beyond, Cell Biology and Art Class Omnibus (CACAO) project bring together biology and music researchers, artists, pre-school teachers, and experts in technology-assisted learning from five European countries to co-create unique pre-school learning program blending cell biology, music, dance, and visual art. There is a wealth of research in cognitive psychology and neurosciences that immersion in activities that combine multiple sensory skills such as singing, playing, clapping, and dancing makes a dramatic difference in cognitive development and success in education. However, there remains a concomitant lack of education and training for contemporary educators in the early childhood sector on how they might use music effectively as an educational tool. Moreover, the STEM training falls substantially short in the core education of pre-school teachers as well.<< Objectives >>To bridge this gap by developing and implementing a highly innovative and inclusive pedagogical concept blending music, visual art, and cell biology, we gathered ten partners from five European countries. The reach of our partnership will undoubtedly greatly enhance the dissemination, impact, and exploitation of the project results thus contributing to future joint initiatives on the European level leading to a lasting and profound change. The CACAO pedagogical program will be developed for five and six-year-old children and their teachers who will get certified professional education on using music as an educational tool to teach children biological concepts. The inherent inclusive nature of music and art through which the CACAO program teaches biological concepts will support the inclusion of preschool children with special educational needs in all educational activities. All activities are inherently inclusive and will focus on the fulfillment of the personal development plan of each child involved while respecting their educational needs. This novel and interdisciplinary educational approach would not be possible without the support of two additional target groups, parents whose children will be involved in such a program, and preschool headmasters who will recognize the value and the need for such a program. In our international partnership, we have experts in different disciplines as well as preschool institutions coming from different pedagogical traditions addressing the common goals of European preschool systems. These partners will develop a strong sense of shared interests helping to frame problems from a wider perspective.<< Implementation >>To achieve this, we will organize four trainings organized by the members of our partnership. In such an interdisciplinary group, comprised of scientists, academics, and practitioners it is necessary to complement each other’s, knowledge, skills, and experiences. The first training will cover design thinking in curriculum design, basic cell biology training, and training on how to use virtual collaborative ILDE 2 platform for co-creation of the project results. The second training will cover music as a learning and communication tool and embodied learning. The third training will cover engaging communication in front of the camera and the process of creating an online course, as well as the use on online learning tools for continuous professional development. The fourth training will be hands-on training to test newly developed activities in working with children.<< Results >>During the two years of the project implementation, we will collaboratively create five project results. The first and second project results are curriculum designed for blending biology and art (with emphasis on music) for pre-school children and curriculum designed for blending biology and art (with emphasis on music) for early childhood educators and a definition of CACAO certification. Then, we will CACAO online platform with the web repository of activities, songs, video, and sound material for the CACAO curriculum. The fourth project result will be CACAO certified online course for early childhood educators following CACAO curriculum design, allowing continuous professional development in STEAM for preschool educators. Finally, we will conduct an extensive scientific evaluation of the impact of CACAO program implementation and create Final Project Report. Project activities and results are designed to strengthen STEAM learning in the preschool setting, by developing an innovative educational program and creating complementary professional training for the preschool educators as well as the wealth of material for seamless implementation of the CACAO program.In summary, for the first time to our knowledge, the CACAO project will design and implement structured multidisciplinary curricula for pre-school educators and pre-school kids, complemented with free and comprehensive training and the omnibus of interdisciplinary activities where multifaceted effects of art will be harnessed to immerse both the pre-school teachers and the pre-school children in the world of cell biology to ignite the life-long love for both disciplines.

<< Background >>Secondary and post-secondary education of our future healthcare workers – nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, but also future doctors, pharmacists or dentists, plays a crucial role in preparing them to enter the workforce of fast evolving medicine. Traditionally patients have been mostly moving through the healthcare systems passively, without a significant proactive role. Participatory medicine suggests for patients to take a driving wheel and move toward working in collaboration with their doctors and nurses, connecting into the networks with each other at the society level, and start being responsible for their own health. This profound change in patients’ role has not been reflected in student classrooms, especially at secondary and post-secondary levels.DesignCARE project addresses the gap identified in the vocational schools in the field of participatory medicine and understanding what it implies. It is of the great importance to change the current status and develop training for future healthcare workers at the vocational school level, in disciplines that are essential to the successful development of participatory medicine. Developing communication skills and diversity competencies for both students and teachers of vocational medical schools through inclusion of learning objectives on knowledge, attitudes and skills needed for implementation of participatory medicine in everyday medical practice is one of the objectives of DesignCARE project. Europe is becoming more socially and culturally diverse as a result of the increasing migration, but the healthcare workers are largely unprepared.Diversity competence enhances the ability of healthcare workers and organizations to effectively deliver healthcare services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients.Training in cultural or diversity competences contributes, among other things, to improve understanding, interaction and communication between the healthcare professional and patient with different socio-economic background, age, sexuality, ethnicity, religion or gender. Therefore, diversity competency can be a means to promote equality in the healthcare systems ensuring that patients receive treatment in accordance with their needs.In the medical field, the evolving trends and changes carry many ethical concerns that need to be acknowledged by the kind of professionals who will be responsible for European healthcare in the future. Ethics and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles are of critical importance as a tool to guide the development of innovative methods or technologies for teaching participatory medicine. By embracing these principles, students and teachers strive to be responsible and engaging members of society.The novel curriculum and course created within the DesignCARE project will enable the vocational school medical students to engage in participatory medicine through developed communication skills and diversity competences, in line with ethical, responsible research and innovation principles.<< Objectives >>The main objective is to design, pilot, implement and evaluate DesignCARE curriculum and course for the students in secondary and post-secondary medical vocational schools that will help them to engage in participatory medicine through promotion of the development of communication skills and diversity competence, in line with ethical principles.Beside creating DesignCARE program, the goal of the project is also to train the teachers to be able to design the course that encourages skill development, research-based learning, creativity, and cooperation among peers and with their teachers.We will train the teachers to use inclusive, collaborative design thinking methods as an innovative educational strategy. Design thinking is a mindset and approach to learning, collaboration, and problem solving. In practice, the design process is a structured framework for identifying challenges, gathering information, generating potential solutions, refining ideas, and testing solutions.The students will profit by gaining increased capacity to learn in an online learning environment, which focuses on both knowledge and skill development.DesignCARE aims to promote the communication skills, diversity competence and ethical principles in both the students and their teachers which will help our future health workers to gain a deeper understanding of participatory medicine and efficiently engage with their patients.<< Implementation >>Activities in the project include staff and students training. Staff training will allow the participants to acquire competencies necessary for successful implementation of the project. These include: training in design thinking for curriculum design, in communication skills and diversity competences as well as in engaging communication on camera and design of successful online courses. Learners training for students in medical vocational schools include: DesignCARE Summer school for vocational students in medical professions, and testing of the implementation of the DesignCARE course.<< Results >>The project results are: (i) Curriculum for development of communication skills and diversity competence in participatory medicine, with the definition of certification, (ii) Online program/module on communication skills and diversity competence in participatory medicine for vocational medical schools; and (iii) Evaluation study of the implementation of the novel curriculum and online program/module for vocational medical schools with Set of recommendations for successful design and implementation of DesignCARE course.Creation of the course will have a direct impact on students through development of skills and gained knowledge in the field of participatory medicine. This knowledge will make them not only more understanding of their future patients and their roles, but also more competitive at the job market and better informed on the current societal needs. Other results include the promotion of internationalization of the partner institutions.DesignCARE online course will be created in such a way that can easily be transferred to other vocational school programs and medical programs at higher, undergraduate and graduate level. Our course can also be a precursor for developing teaching content aimed at already active healthcare professionals.