The RAF are very keen to promote the STEM agenda and have a fantastic set of free resources that are available for school. The attached presentation gives a flavour of the activities
All activities and resources are free and are booked via the website.
The STEM day activities are for young people aged 9-14 . THere are a number of slots available for Scottish school STEM days, please register ( and do it quickly!) on the website
Powerpoint here : RAF Presentation
The Ultimate STEM Challenge is back again and bigger than ever before! Now open to pupils aged 9-14, this national competition invites young people to get creative and design a new piece of wearable tech that will improve lives in the future.
Wearable tech is all around us – from smartwatches to robotic prosthetics, the possibilities are endless and now we are looking for the next big thing!
There are some brilliant prizes up for grabs including, an all-expenses paid Hackathon day at BP’s Upstream Learning Centre, where students will discover more about the world of wearable tech and work with scientists, coders and designers to bring their own ideas to life! Plus, two lucky schools will also each win £750 to spend on STEM learning equipment or field trips.
It’s easy to take part, simply,
1. Download your ready-to-go packs including two lesson plans, homework activity and competition entry forms. (Click HERE for details , use CHROME Browser when entering School postcode)
2. Get your pupils to capture their wearable tech idea on the challenge entry form.
3. Send us your pupils’ entries before the closing date of 14 January 2020.
STEM Education and Training Strategy for Scotland has now been published
A STEM (Sciences Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics) Education and Training Strategy was launched in the Scottish Parliament last week by Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science. The strategy, together with a STEM Evidence Base Report, is now available to download from: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/10/1386/downloads
The strategy sets out the vision for STEM Education and Training for the next five years around the themes of Excellence, Equity, Inspiration and Connection. The ambitious actions for early learning and childcare, schools, colleges, universities and community learning and development (CLD) sectors have been developed through an extensive process of engagement and consultation.
Key commitments within the strategy include:
A central focus on the strategy is to enable everyone to develop STEM skills for learning, for life and for work. Also included are commitments to expand Foundation, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeship Programmes to enable many to pursue jobs and careers in STEM through these pathways. This strong focus on skills and careers will further enhance national efforts to Develop the Young Workforce (DYW) and embed employment and career management skills in the curriculum through the Career Education Standard.
Education Scotland would like to take this opportunity to thank the many practitioners, authority staff and partners who helped to shape this strategy by participating in on-line surveys or by taking part in consultation and engagement events. We are very much looking forward to working with key partners to realise the bold ambitions within the strategy and to improving outcomes for learners, of all ages, across Scotland through STEM.
We would be grateful for any help you can give in disseminating the strategy to your colleagues and networks. Please remember too to share your ideas, practice and approaches in relation to STEM through Twitter @EdscotSciences #ScotSTEM and through our national STEM Yammer Group: http://glo.li/2A7gCgr.
Technology Community
For super quick access to the National Technologies Community in Glow just add the tile to your launchpad
This will give you access to the latest information, fantastic resources, including the recently launched Computing Science Gender lesson plans from Early to Third Level
You may be aware that Government Ministers launched a consultation at the end of 2016 on a National STEM Education and Training Strategy for Scotland. The many responses received clearly articulated the importance of having a coherent strategy for career-long professional learning for practitioners in STEM subjects (Sciences, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics).
Education Scotland and Scottish Government are currently undertaking further engagement with key stakeholders to help shape the actions for career-long professional learning to appear in the final strategy to be published later this year.
We’re very keen that these considerations are guided by the views and experiences of practitioners across the country. We’d like to gather practitioners’ views about their professional learning needs and the most effective way for them to access professional learning.
I’d be grateful if you could complete the following online survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7YF22GR
We’re keen for this to be completed by practitioners at all levels in early learning and childcare, additional support needs, primary and secondary school settings.
The survey should only take a few minutes to complete but will be of enormous value helping us to support practitioners more effectively and to improve outcomes for learners in relation to STEM.
The survey will remain open until Thursday 22nd June.
This site has a great collection of free learning activities that teach Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around.
The activities introduce students to Computational Thinking through concepts such as binary numbers, algorithms and data compression, separated from the distractions and technical details of having to use computers. Importantly, no programming is required to engage with these ideas!
CS Unplugged is suitable for people of all ages, from primary school to senior phase learners. Unplugged has been used around the world for over twenty years, in classrooms, science centres, homes, and even for holiday events in a park!
The material is available free of charge, and is shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA licence, which makes it easy to copy, adapt and share it.
Remember to join us LIVE and face one of The Doctor’s greatest foes in our latest Live Lesson all about the BBC micro:bit, hosted by presenter and comedian Iain Stirling and Radio 1’s gaming expert Julia Hardy.
Aimed at 11-13 year olds, the lesson is devised around curriculum areas that cover computational thinking skills and features expert guests from Google, games company Ubisoft and the Department of Computer Games at the University of Teesside.
When: Tuesday, 28th March 2017
Time: 11am (approx. 50 mins)
Where: bbc.co.uk/livelessons (visit the website on the day to access the live stream)
Promoting gender balance in STEM? Download the new suite of resources and take part in a national competition
Do you want to learn computer programming in a fun and interactive way? If you have an iPad updated to iOS 10 then download the free app Playgrounds from the App Store, and some free books from the bookstore. Great fun and loads of challenging tasks
The fantastic double act of Dash and Dot have now arrived . Those schools that have attended the CS twilights over the last few weeks keep a look out for them arriving in the school mail.
We will continue to issue a Dash and Dot and a Beebot mat to each school that can attend CS twilights now and in term 4
Using School iPads Dash and Dot can be programmed via a number of free apps including Tickle, Wonder Workshop and Tynker. These robots are perfectly at home in Nursery / Early Years but because of the innovative design can be equally at home and challenging for older students to program.
If you haven’t already done so, then please check Aberdeenshire Events and book onto a CS Twilight in your Cluster
