Innovative STEM Practices Fostering the Digital Transformation of Agriculture: The STEM4Agri Paradigm

Recent advances in electronics industry resulted in numerous, amazing and cheap devices, while fluent documentation and efficient, user-friendly programming environments are available for them. Modern educational systems worldwide have exploited this dynamic by including in their didactic curricula practices reflecting this progress, under the STEM umbrella. Added to this, real-world problem solving techniques increase students' interest and prepare them for their future professional role. Such challenges and job opportunities intrinsically exist in agriculture, which is a critical sector for feeding the growing population on Earth, against natural source depletion and pandemics. In this context, this work explains how STEM - based techniques can be customized to form a characteristic bouquet of activities to better prepare students for their careers in a rapidly changing environment, resulting in an innovative skillset that makes agricultural practices more efficient and environmentally friendly. The suggested reinforcement of agricultural practices with high-end technologies would make them more successful. The paradigm being presented, with most of the focus on vocational education, has been developed and tested during the STEM4Agri Erasmus project. The positive feedback acquired from the participants, encourages the adoption of similar practices into the formal educational curricula.