The municipality of Luster is situated at the end of the Sognefiord in Vestland county and has an area of 2706 km 2 which makes it the second largest municipality in the county. Luster has 5174 inhabitants (2020) and a total of nine primary and lower secondary schools, all schools are public.

Three schools from Luster participate in this STEAM-project: Hafslo barne-og ungdomsskule; a combined primary and lower secondary school with 219 pupils in the school year 2020/21, Gaupne skule; a primary school with 128 pupils and Luster ungdomsskule; a lower secondary school with 124 pupils. 

STEM or STEAM is not commonly used as educational terms in Norway and has little tradition as an own educational field. Neither is technology a subject of its own in the national curriculum. Besides being a core part of the compulsory subject Natural Science technology is a major part of the optional subject Technology and Design.

The new national Core Curriculum was introduced in August 2020. One of the main aims of the reformed Core Curriculum is to create space for more in-depth learning. Several subjects become more practical and exploratory and the focus on digital skills, programming and technology is strengthened. 

Even if STEAM does not have a long tradition in Norway and there is no national program for STEAM education, it is fair to say that the three participating schools all have previous experiences with STEAM related teaching, both as schools and as experiences of individual teachers.

Both the lower secondary schools in Luster, Hafslo barne- og ungdomsskule and Luster ungdomsskule, have participated in a national pilot program of offering programming as an elective subject for 8.-10th grade. Thus programming has been offered to lower secondary pupils in the municipality since 2016/17. Also both the lower secondary schools have a long tradition for entrepeneurship education in the form of a company programme in 9 th grade.

In the school year 2020/2021 all three schools in Luster involved in the STEAM-project will have a formal collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Science Education at Oslo University. The aim of the collaboration is to implement maker culture