STEM Blog

Welcome back to the new term! We wanted to pass on the good news that Paul Downie, Science Faculty Head at Hyndland Secondary School in Glasgow and currently the WestOS Coordinator, has been awarded the Royal Society of Biology Teacher of the Year Award at UK Level: School teacher of the year award for “the very best of biology teaching” (rsb.org.uk).

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Paul has created and produced the #HigherBiologyPodcast series which has been supported through Education Scotland STEM Grants. Throughout last year, Paul was involved in coordinating the lesson development (over 1200 lessons) for the West OS (Online School) to support remote learning and also was involved in developing the Sustainable Scotland Programme with e-Sgoil (over 12,000 learners participated in this).

In receiving the award Paul paid tribute to the hard work and team-effort of his whole department and also to the many excellent practitioners that he has worked with and learned from.

The award is very well deserved and is the first time a Scottish teacher has won this award. Congratulations Paul from the EdScot Team – really delighted your contribution has been recognised in this way. Paul is still on secondment with WestOS so we’re looking forward to further collaborations this coming year.

The Communities Stories Fund has opened for applications, as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022 (YS22).

The fund is directed at providing an opportunity for communities across Scotland to put on events that tell the stories that are unique or important to them.

With £300,000 available for awards of between £500 and £5,000, the fund will provide an opportunity for new, creative events, activities and programming. Applicants are invited to respond to any of the five, cross cutting Year of Stories 2022 programme strands:

1. Iconic Stories & Storytellers
2. New Stories
3. Scotland’s People and Places
4. Local Tales and Legends
5. Inspired by Nature.

The deadline for applications for this round of funding is 1st October 2021. A further round of funding will open on 24 January 2022.

Full details of the criteria and how to apply can be found here: https://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/funding/year-of-stories-2022-community-stories-fund/

Applications must be made through the Museums Galleries Scotland website, and applicants must first register online to create an account before making an application. If applicants have any questions in relation to their application they should get in touch with the MGS team by contacting grants@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk

The STEM Ambassadors in Scotland Hub have been working in partnership with Maths Week Scotland to create a selection of resources, opportunities and events to help teachers and learners engage with STEM Ambassadors to learn more about careers and to bring to life maths and numeracy. There are various ways schools can engage with activities from early/first level through to Higher Maths,

with an information session taking place on Wednesday 1 September

and free professional learning events that can be applied for – 2 SSERC Meet sessions on September 13^th and 16^th.

Find out all you need to know on the website: bit.ly/SAIS_MWS

Craft Scotland announce a brand new and FREE CLPL programme specifically aimed at supporting educators at secondary level. This is a mentoring initiative to help teachers develop creative ways of delivering craft and design in relation to STEM subjects. Successful schools will be awarded £100 towards materials and equipment.

Dates for you diary:

• Introductory online talk by designer Jeni Allison: Tuesday 7th September 2021, 5-7pm (bookings by Wednesday 1^st September at 5pm)
• Mentoring Applications Open: Wednesday 8th September 2021
• Deadline for Applications: Wednesday 29th September 2021

More information via the link below:

CLPL Teaching Contemporary Knitwear in relation to STEM

This challenge is a collaboration between Orkney International Science Festival and Orkney Renewable Energy Forum, to design, make from recycled materials and test a device that will capture wind energy for some defined purpose.

Entry is open to all ages as individuals or teams. Each entry should be accompanied by video footage, no longer than 2 minutes, showing your device in operation and including an audio description which includes the details listed in the Challenge Rules.

To submit your entry and access other resources, check the following link:
2021 Blyth Challenge

Closing date 18 October 2021

This year’s Orkney International Science Festival will be delivered online 2-8 September. All events will be directly accessible live through the Festival’s YouTube channel and will remain there for future access.

This year’s programme will appear by mid-July on the Festival’s website .

This year’s themes include the continuing Year of Coasts and Waters and action to tackle climate change. Topics include tidal power progress, offshore wind, hydrogen for planes and ferries, plans to row the Northwest Passage, the science of sailing ships and much more.

Astronomy and Space will also be to the fore, with a stargazing evening, a look at the role of microbes in space exploration, the possibility of extra terrestrial contact, and the latest news of research on gravitational waves. The 190th anniversary of the birth of James Clerk Maxwell will be marked, arguably one of the three greatest physicists of all time.

Biological topics include new genetics research into why Covid-19 affects some people more than others, new ideas on evolution and the origins of life, and living bees through the microscope.

Education Scotland is pleased to announce that £430,000 is being awarded to support professional learning in sciences, technologies, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This Scottish Government funding is being provided to support the recommendations of Scotland’s STEM Education and Training Strategy, the Making Maths Count Report and the actions outlined in Education Scotland’s thematic review, Multiplying Skills, Adding Value. Over £200,000 of the fund value is being allocated to support specific improvements in numeracy and mathematics.

This third round of funding will enable an estimated 11,000 practitioners from 740 establishments to access high-quality professional learning to further enhance teaching skills. Education Scotland’s Enhancing Professional Learning in STEM Grants Programme builds the confidence and skills of practitioners in a wide range of sectors including: early learning and childcare, primary, additional support needs, and secondary. School-based technical support staff and practitioners in community learning and development settings will also benefit.

There continues to be a very high level of interest in the STEM Grants Programme with over 190 applications being received this year. A total of 84 bids are being supported across Scotland in 2021/22 which offer a wide range of local, national and online professional learning opportunities including:

• Training for teachers in Cumbernauld Cluster in North Lanarkshire Council to help them teach STEM through outdoor and environmental approaches, including Learning for Sustainability (LfS).
• Support for Glasgow English as an Additional Language Service to upskill practitioners so learners who have English as an additional language, or who are asylum seekers or refugees, can develop STEM-related skills and be prepared for the world of work.
• An online programme of professional learning led by e-Sgoil in Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to build capacity for practitioners participating in a Gaelic Early Years STEM network.
• A programme led by the four local authorities in the South West Regional Improvement Collaborative to train community learning and development practitioners to inspire families by using fun and relevant contexts for learning mathematics.
• Support for learning and teaching in numeracy and mathematics in Angus Council, with resources made available digitally so many teachers can benefit.
• A professional learning programme led by the Scottish Technicians Advisory Council and SSERC which will benefit up to 1000 school-based technicians across Scotland.
• Support to allow primary and secondary science, maths and technical teachers in Fraserburgh cluster to engage in professional learning alongside college and university staff to better prepare learners, especially those most in need, for the STEM industry in the North-East.
• Training for community learning and development staff in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire to help them tackle gender bias in STEM learning and to lead inspiring STEM activity with minority ethnic groups including New Scots; those in recovery; people who have lived experience of disability and those supporting care experienced young people.
• A programme of professional learning in digital skills for teachers in Morgan Academy in Dundee and its associated primary schools to improve their understanding of emerging technologies.

This latest round of the Enhancing Professional Learning in STEM Grants Programme builds on two previous rounds of funding. Since the grants programme started in 2018, a total of just under £3.5 million has been awarded. Upskilling our teaching staff and practitioners is a key strategy to help Scotland become a leading STEM nation and to ensure our learners have the skills required to access a wide range of exciting and rewarding STEM jobs.

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

National Education Officer – RAiSE

The Wood Foundation and Education Scotland are seeking a National Education Officer to lead the development and delivery of its Raising Aspirations in Science Education (RAiSE) programme.

Education Scotland is delighted to pass on the news that the new National e-Learning Offer website is now live: National e-Learning Offer | Education Scotland. This has been developed through a partnership involving Education Scotland, e-Sgoil and ADES.

All the content that was previously hosted on Excel NeLO spreadsheets is now available through this new platform including West OS lessons, videos, calculations, assessment materials, Scholar, BBC Bitesize and e-Sgoil content and more. In all, there are 23,000 resources available with over 5000 of these being sciences resources.

Education Scotland has also worked in partnership with BBC, Napier University, IoP, Strathclyde University and SSERC to produce 149 practical NQ sciences videos and supporting assessment resources. Many of these are already available and we’re putting the finishing touches to the rest. Over the summer we’ll be doing more filming for the BGE phase. We are also planning future improvements and developments to NeLO over the course of this year.

Education Scotland’s STEM Team like to give a very special and personal thanks to all the teachers and partner organisations who supported this work by sharing their resources freely and by participating in the working groups and curation groups. Sciences and STEM teachers and networks have played an enormously important role in initiating and supporting this work throughout. Having the chance to work in partnership with you to support this work has been a real highlight for the team at Education Scotland, in what was otherwise a very challenging year.

We really hope this resource is of great use to you and your learners over the coming years. We’re looking forward to making further improvements to NeLO in the year ahead. Feedback, ideas, suggestions for the next stage of development are all welcome and should be emailed to: stem@educationscotland.gov.scot