Welcome to the fortnightly STEM planner. Keep reading to find out more about exciting STEM developments across Scotland. Please feel free to share this planner with colleagues and school partners.

🌞 Also – best wishes from all in the STEM team for a relaxing and restful summer break 🌞

STEM Nation Award – Update

Congratulations to colleagues and learners at Braes High School, Falkirk Council, who successfully achieved the STEM Nation Award in March 2023.

Colleagues across the setting have worked collegiately to build on setting practice to ensure a more strategic approach to STEM.

• Impressive range of STEM partnerships and range of employability activities, including outreach, trips and information regarding apprenticeships, with clear benefits for learners.
• Broad range of Senior Phase Qualifications on offer, providing excellent opportunities for learners across all STEM areas including Skills for Work Courses, NPAs.
• Excellent to see the principles of the Forth Valley Diversity pilot being implemented. Onwards and Upwards programme, Braes Equalities Group and Braes Brains Peer Tutoring programme are excellent strategies to track, support learners and address issues.

Colleagues from the STEM Team visited Braes High School and are looking forward to releasing the video clips in the new school year.

For more information about the STEM Nation Award, review the online resources STEM awards – STEM Nation  and look out for the Drop In Sessions .

Grants & Funding

STEM Grants and Funding update

The Edina Trust Grants  is open to schools across Glasgow and South Ayrshire. The Edina Trust Science Grant Scheme (SGS) is a non-competitive grant scheme. Funding is set aside for every school and maintained nursery in eligible areas to get the full amount. Deadline to apply – 30th June 2023

The Royal Society of Chemistry has recently launched the Inclusion and Diversity Fund – socioeconomic inclusion special call. Up to £5,000 available for projects to improve socioeconomic inclusion & accessibility within the chemical sciences.

 

STEM Festivals

List of National Science Festivals (Updated June 2023)

The Royal Highland Show is taking place at Ingliston between 22 and 25 June 2023. School groups are welcome on the Thursday and Friday.

 

Technologies planning Resource

The RAiSE network has created a range of technology planners to support teachers develop and deliver a range of motivating and engaging learning experiences across the primary curriculum.

The resources cover a range of technology areas – digital literacy, food and textiles, technological developments in business and society, craft, design, engineering and graphics and computing science.

The resources provide advice, structures, and suggestions for learning experiences, skills development, and assessment. They are aligned with experiences and outcomes across the levels.

Also available is the Science Planning Resource which has been accessed on the Education Scotland STEM Nation online resource page over 2800 times.

Links have been made to technologies capital with real-life context, Developing the Young Workforce and home learning.

The resources have been quality assured by the Education Scotland Digital Team.

The planners are freely available here.

Fife STEM Futures Festival

Fife STEM Futures Festival is on now until 16 June. During this week, lots of STEM partners will deliver an array of STEM workshops in Fife schools. The virtual site includes further news, links, challenges and resources which learners, families, practitioners and partners can engage with to celebrate STEM in Fife.

https://bit.ly/stemfutures

 

 

 

 

 

Curiosity in Action

How can creative, participatory STEM activities support youth and community work to enhance young people’s confidence, resilience and wellbeing? 

APPLICATIONS FOR YOUTH GROUPS NOW OPEN HERE

Curiosity In Action is a two-year programme building an evidence-base, capacity and network in Scotland to explore the impact of STEM in youth work funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

This will include pairing 10 youth groups across Scotland with researchers involved in STFC research – including astronomy, space science and physics – in a collaborative action research process. Together they will trial activities, explore approaches to discover what work well and understand the impact this work has on young people. We’ll be looking for a diverse range of youth groups including youth workers who have not yet tried STEM activities as part of their activities as well as those who have and providing a small grant to support involvement.

This learning will shape a series of free training opportunities and resources developed for community learning and development practitioners, researchers and science educators. We will also be collectively working on publishing the findings from this work with the youth workers and researchers involved.

The programme is facilitated by Science Ceilidh in partnership with Youth Link Scotland, along with partners including The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh and researchers at the University of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

 

Economy, People & Skills Webinars

The Scottish Chambers Network and Skills Development Scotland are collaborating to deliver five regional Economy, People & Skills Webinars for members throughout June 2023.

Hosted by the Scottish Chambers, each one-hour Webinar will include a presentation from Scotland’s national skills agency, Skills Development Scotland, providing the latest national and local labour market insights and analysis followed by open forum discussion.

The most recent Scottish Chambers Quarterly Economic Indicator highlights how access to people and skills in a tight labour market is continuing to constrain growth and productivity. The webinars will provide you with the most up-to-date insights and give you an opportunity to discuss local challenges and tactics to alleviating these challenges with Scottish Chamber Network colleagues.

Sign up to attend the Glasgow & the West session (Glasgow, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Helensburgh & Lomond, Lanarkshire) on Tuesday 20th June 2023 or the Edinburgh/Forth Valley & the East session (Edinburgh, Forth Valley, Fife, Mid Lothian and East Lothian, West Lothian) on Thursday 22nd June 2023 for free today.

 

STEM Inspiration Programme

Edinburgh College School of Engineering are supporting school STEM activities designed to raise awareness and encourage participation in all areas of STEM learning. Practical projects and events facilitated by Edinburgh College include

• FREE STEM In a BOX Activities for P7 and S1

 

• FREE STEM Workshops for S2 and S3

 

• Host venue for FIRST LEGO LEAGUE CHALLENGE Tournament

 

• School visits to support Science/STEM week events

 

For more details click here.

 

 

Dates for your diary

Fife STEM Futures Festival   12 – 16 June

International Women in Engineering Day   23 June

Royal Highland Show Ingliston 22 – 25 June