In 2020, the School Service at Vesthimmerland Museum embarked on a new chapter with its participation in the first Erasmus+ project, STEAM Builders. At the time, we had no idea that this was just the beginning of a long and exciting collaboration across Europe. Five years later, it is clear that STEAM Builders was the starting point for a development journey that continued in the project TraCe – The Travelling Case of an Experimental Archaeologist. 

A project with the past as a compass 

TraCe was conceived at the end of STEAM Builders in 2022 and officially launched in December 2023. The project runs until December 2025 and is co-financed by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme with a budget of €250,000. 

The goal is ambitious and inspiring: to use experimental archaeology as an innovative, interdisciplinary method to connect past and present in teaching. By using past techniques in practice, a bridge is created between theory and experience; a form of learning where students gain insight, perspective, and joy in learning. 

A strong European community 

TraCe is based on a solid partnership among Heraklion Mediterranean University (Greece), Foley’s School (Cyprus), Citizen In Power (Cyprus), Aars School, and Vesthimmerlands Museum (Denmark), which also serves as the project coordinator. The Danish Agency for Education and Research is supervising the project, which is primarily based on collaboration and joint learning across national borders. 

From experiment to teaching 

Through workshops, teacher sessions and creative experiments, the project develops new materials for STEAM teaching. Among the results are: 

• An 80-page booklet on the benefits of integrating experimental archaeology into education 

• Four animated videos that bring historical techniques to life 

• 12 inspiring teaching courses where students can, among other things, build catapults, explore the Viking ring castles and create colours as in the Stone Age 

• 6 digital simulations in game format that bring the past to life in the classroom 

These materials are freely available to teachers and pupils across Europe, translated into the consortium’s native language. 

Collaboration at eye level 

Erasmus+ is not just about creating learning materials. It is about cultural encounters between people. In TraCe, the partners meet both online and in person, and an essential part of the project is the TransNational Meetings, the physical meetings that took place in Cyprus in early spring 2024 and, most recently, with Vesthimmerlands Museum hosting the meeting on 1-2 October 2025 at Østermarken in Aars. 

For several of the consortium’s participants, the projects mean not only professional development, but also new friendships, an understanding of other cultures and a renewed belief that collaboration creates change – both locally and globally. 

A finish that points to the future 

When TraCe ends in December 2025, the project will not only have teaching courses, videos, and games, but also set new standards for how the past can be brought into play in the future of learning in the STEAM area. 

For Vesthimmerland Museum and the School Service, this means that the door to Europe is now wide open – and that the experiences started in STEAM Builders continue to build bridges between museums, schools and students across the continent.