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VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM VIEWFROMTHE CLASSROOM


more than a third say that they lack the


knowledge and confidence to give STEMcareers advice to their children.


What do you dowith your students to engage themin STEM?


oject-based learning and introducing tangible concepts and examples into the classroom are really successful ways to engage students in STEM, especially those who are maybe more reluctant to engage initially.


What do you do with your students to engage them in STEM? Proj


Activities such as competitions have proven really successful in bringing STEMto life in our lessons, and we have found that learning through application has led to our students gaining a much deeper understanding of topics and willingness to learn and take part in activities.


For example, three of our Year 9 students


recently took part in The Bright Ideas Challenge, a cross-curricular schools’ competition run by Shell. With teams of students imagining innovative solutions that could one day power our future cities, it’s incredibly relevant to our wider curriculum and our students’ interests. This year’s Bright Ideas Challenge asked students to use their STEMknowledge and problem-solving skills to imagine innovative solutions for making future cities clean, efficient, vibrant places to live, work and play – tapping into our lesson plans and working on a basis that channels elements of the whole curriculum. We’ve taken part in the Challenge before, having been regional winners over the past few years, but this year we were national winners! Our focus on interactive STEMwas really valuable in helping the students come up with their winning idea - capturing the hydropower of household taps and storing the energy for use in powering anything from personal de vices to cars, promoting energy efficiency along the way. Because of our students’ win, we received £5,000 for the school which we will use to invest in STEMequipment. This is so brilliant for us – it will allow us to expand the possibilities of our teaching and learning and allow us to provide further opportunities for innovative and creativ e input .


,


Why are activitities like competitions so effective?fective?


re effe


Taking part in competitions does seem to give a huge boost to so many of our students, not just in terms of learning but also in building core skills such as working together, thinking on your feet and coping under pressure.


We also noticed huge improvements in


problem-solving and critical thinking skills from participation in competitions and active events. We’ve found that this type of learning creates a proper sense of excitement for our students. Having a dynamic space in which to come up with ideas without judgement, learn first-hand what will work and what won’t, and engaging i n product development are all brilliant experiences for our students to have. They are all experiences they would likely have in many of their chosen career paths – whether STEMor not, so are hugely valuable and widely applicable.


It’s also great to see when real passion and enthusiasm have been sparked in our students,


October 2 910 2019 wwweducation-toda y.co.uk www. io


and it’s great to real without having that


challenge, it can be harder to ly challenge them too –


have that push to think big about all of the possibilities open to them .


What skills do students gain? What skills do students gain?


Our students have learnt such a wide range of skills – complementing those that they learn in the classroom, but also expanding and refining them so that they are applicable to real world scenarios as well.


Some skills that we were pleasantly surprised to see integrated included those related to


leadership. Our students learnt how to delegate tasks, complementing strengths with weaknesses to ensure strong teams and build resilience through trial and error.


We saw our students gain so much confidence through competitions as well – having to present ideas to an audience appears daunting at first – as I’m sure it does for a lot of adults! Through a lot of practise and excelled, and I think


for a lot of students it can hard work they absolutely


be the first time they realise they can do


something they have often told themselves that lls with huge amounts o f


They also gain ski they can’t.


transferrable value too – not always the most exciting, but vital for anyone looking to go into the creative industries. Time management, conflict resolution and compromise are key, and we have been incredibly proud of how our students have learnt these skills as they go, and have taken challeng


.co.uk 71 es in their stride.


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