What’s New on the Website
This month we have added links to the following resources:
Programmable Devices: Mr Bit App; Make Code Course Guide
Science Skills: 2nd level Investigation Booklet; 3rd Level Investigation Booklet; 4th Level Investigation Booklet
Gender Balance: It’s Child’s Play
Space: Astrobiology Project
Funding: Outdoor Learning in Nature Fund
Craft, Design, Engineering & Graphics: Year of Engineering
Maths Week Scotland
We hope you are already aware that next week is Maths Week Scotland – what are you planning to celebrate maths in your classroom? If you haven’t decided yet then there are lots of ideas on the National Museums of Scotland website. The RAiSE Team are also running a fun maths challenge which incorporates Shape, Position and Movement with Computing Science. Using BeeBots for younger pupils and Scratch for middle and upper school, there’s something for all abilities. In addition we have developed three activities in collaboraion with DYW and local schools, that link to local businesses. Details of all these activities can be found in this week’s Engage so do take a look. And don’t forget to share your learning with us through the Yamme group.
Tackling Gender Imbalance
Along with colleagues from EYs, primary and secondary, the RAiSE Team have developed training on addressing gender imbalance which will be rolled out through twilights and CAT sessions. When you look at the statistics for the number of girls entering STEM careers it is really quite eye-opening – for example, only 7% of engineers are women. The preconceptions of what is or is not a man or a woman’s job start from birth in the way we treat girls and boys, and as teachers, we have a key role to play in encouraging pupils to believe they can be anything they want to be regardless of their gender. Perhaps you saw the recent BBC programme No More Boys and Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free? where Dr Javid Abdelmoneim examins gender stereotypes in a primary classroom. If not you can view clips here. The two episodes are no longer available on iPlayer, but you can find them here on You Tube. It’s interesting viewing!
You may also be interested in the Gender Friendly Nursery Evaluation Report 2018 from the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership. This outlines the impact of the North East Glasgow pilot of the Gender Friendly Nursery programme.
If you want to find out more about how you can address gender imbalance in your school or classroom, we have lots of resources on our Full STEM Ahead website and will also be running twilight courses to support you (these are listed in the CPD Directory).
Video Case Studies
We have recently added two more video case studies to our Full STEM Ahead O365 Video Channel. Dumfries High School share their STEAM project for S1 pupils, and Shawhead Primary share how they got started with pupil blogging. They are fairly short so do take a look at them. If you have something you would like to share then please contact Carol Moyes.
CPD Twilights
We will be offering an extensive range of STEM twilight CLPL sessions this year. These are now available to book on CPD Solutions and there is also a list of them available on our Yammer group (see the Info area to the right of the page). We run every session four times across the Authority so they should be available at a school near you. However we appreciate that not every school finishes at 3.00 pm and, even if your’s does, it can still be a bit of a rush to get to twilights for a 3.30 pm start. However, even if you think you might be late, please don’t let that put you off applying. We would rather you missed some of the start than missed the whole session. If you do anticipate being late, just let us know when to expect you.
Showcase Your Talents!
Due to Yammer being down at the end of term we weren’t able to show you this great learning shared by Gary Anderson at Penninghame Primary.
“P1 being introduced to google SketchUp. They loved it! Showed them the basics, how to draw shapes and how to make them 3D and off they went on their own exploring. They were so excited!”
“Computer animation! So engaged! Peer assessing and debugging with no prompting.”
“Primary 1 to 4 bridge construction coming along!”
Running an afterschool club, entered a competition or just have some excellent STEM curricular work? Then have it showcased in the Full STEM Ahead Round-Up.
We know that celebrating success across the region is key in raising attainment and showcasing good STEM practice. If you have a piece of work or activity you would like us to share with fellow learners and practitioners across Dumfries and Galloway, then send a photograph and short description (no more than 150 words) to gw08moyescarol@ea.dumgal.sch.uk and look out for yourself in next month’s issue!
If you do just one thing this month …
As you prepare for the year ahead we hope you will be planning to introduce some new aspect of STEM to your teaching or classroom. If you’ve subscribed to this blog, or are a member of our Yammer group, then you already know that they are a great source of support, inspiration and opportunities. But we know there are still many colleagues who may not be aware of their existence. You can help change that. Find one colleague who is not subscribed to the blog, or a member of the D&G Full STEM Ahead Yammer group, and encourage them to sign up. [And by encourage we mean take them to a computer and stand over them while they do it ;-)]
CPD Twilights
We will be offering an extensive range of STEM twilight CLPL sessions this year. These are availble to book on CPD Solutions and there is also a list of them available on our Yammer group (see the Info area to the right of the page).
Coming Soon
- 10-16 Sep 18 – Maths Week Scotland
- 14-17 Sep 18 – Great British Beach Clean
- 17-23 Sep 18 – National Coding Week (aimed at adults, but why not invite parents in and have your pupils teach them to code?!)
- 22 Sep – 7 Oct 18 – British Food Fortnight
- 23 Sep – 23 Oct 18 – Seed Gathering Season
- Oct 18 – What’s Under Your Feet
- 1-31 Oct 18 – Family Learning Festival
- 4-10 Oct 18 – World Space Week
- Nov 18 – Switch Off Fortnight
- 1 Nov 18 – Outdoor Classroom Day
- 5-9 Nov 18 – Tomorrow’s Engineers Week
- 12-18 Nov 18 – Talk Money Week
- 24 Nov – 2 Dec 18 – National Tree Week
- 3-9 Dec 18 – Computer Science Education Week (incorporating Hour of Code)
- 1 Jan – 21 Feb 19 – Big Schools Birdwatch
- 21-27 Jan 19 – Big Energy Saving Week
- 26-27 Jan 19 – Big Garden Birdwatch
- 5 Feb 19 – Safer Internet Day
- Mar 19 – Waste Week
- 8-17 Mar 19 – British Science Week
- 14 Mar 19 – Pi Day
- 18 Jun 19 – Great Science Share Day
“We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but there will always be science, engineering, and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics.”
Katherine Johnson
