May 29, 2020
by C. Gillespie
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Thank a Teacher

Education Scotland are supporting the Thank a Teacher campaign in Scotland to highlight the positive impact teaching staff have in our society.

Education Scotland are working in partnership with the Pearson National Teaching Awards – the organisation behind the awards – to celebrate the amazing work of our teachers in Scotland.

It is free to send a card with a personal message through the Thank a Teacher website and anyone can send a card; pupils, parents, grandparents or colleagues all have the opportunity to say thank you to a teacher, teaching assistant, headteacher or team.

Gayle Gorman, Education Scotland Chief Executive, said “Saying thank you could be for a number of reasons, from helping your child settle in, last year’s class teacher, helping you though a difficult time or for helping you when you were struggling. It is important that we take time to recognise the hard work of teachers across Scotland and I encourage people to get involved in this campaign to let teachers know just how much they are appreciated.”

Education Scotland is proud to be a partner in the #ThankATeacher campaign, allowing you to nominate a Scottish teacher to receive a special thank you card for making a real difference. Nominate at https://bit.ly/2shxPAj

May 29, 2020
by C. Gillespie
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Scotland Learns – Transition Resources

This week Education Scotland launched a range of materials with advice, guidance, signposting and practical resources to support children and young people through transitions during this unprecedented period.

In the context of COVID 19, all children and young people will experience transitions which were not expected such as extended time at home, returning to school after an extended period of learning at home and may have experienced other transitions such as, learning in a different school/centre, changes of address/placement, or, potentially, changes in family circumstances.

On Scotland Learns, we have published resources on transitions for practitioners covering:

Early Learning and Childcare
Primary
Secondary
Post-16
Health and Wellbeing
Additional Support Needs

On Parentzone Scotland, we have information specifically for parents and carers. It includes advice for children and young people at all stages.

May 27, 2020
by Janey Irving
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NEW – STEM Webinars in June 2020

With the ever-changing situation with COVID-19, it continues to be a challenging time for everyone but we at Education Scotland are doing our very best to ensure teachers, local authorities and learners are supported during this difficult time. Our team is working hard to support practitioners in helping them to ensure learning continues while schools are closed. Our National Improvement Hub now has a range of support to help practitioners develop opportunities for learning at home.

In June the STEM Education Officers are hosting a series of webinars for practitioners in early learning and childcare settings, primary schools, secondary schools and CLD settings to discuss a range of STEM-related themes. Please use the links below to register for the webinars via Eventbrite – spaces are limited. After you have registered for tickets you will receive an email from Eventbrite with a link to the webinar and joining instructions.

Tuesday 9th June at 3:30 – 4:30pm Sciences – Senior Phase – share and discuss approaches in sciences as we move from learning at home to a more blended model for session 2020/21.

Sign up for this webinar is now open: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/es-senior-phase-sciences-webinar-tickets-107535589844

Wednesday 10th June at 3:30-4:30pm: Primary Science Planning Resource is an introduction to this resource published in May 2020. Opportunity to share practice in early years and primary science with colleagues across Scotland.

Sign up for this webinar is now open: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/primary-science-planning-resource-tickets-107690178222

Thursday 11th June at 3:30-4:30: Outdoor Learning – Focus on STEM in the great outdoors.

Sign up for this webinar is now open: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/outdoor-learning-webinar-tickets-107672998838

Tuesday 16th June at 3:30-4:30pm: STEM sharing practice blether – Interested in STEM? Looking for ideas to deliver exciting and engaging learning opportunities? Join us for this webinar to hear about and share practice with colleagues from across Scotland. This session is suitable for practitioners from all sectors.

Sign up for this webinar is now open: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stem-sharing-practice-blether-tickets-107674035940

We look forward to connecting with you through these events; bring a cuppa and maybe a wee biscuit (or two…)

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at STEM@educationscotland.gov.scot

May 27, 2020
by Janey Irving
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NEW – Weekly Wednesday STEM Highlights

Every Wednesday we will publish a few highlights from across Scotland of interesting STEM practice or resources on the STEM Blog.

These will showcase cross sector, ELC, primary and secondary ideas we have seen on Twitter over the previous week.

If you would like to share something with us on Twitter use the #STEMNation or tag us using @STEMedscot

These are located in the STEM Resources tab as a PPT of highlights and a searchable archive on Excel.

Look out for weekly additions to our STEM Wakelets too: https://wakelet.com/@STEMES

May 25, 2020
by Janey Irving
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New – Inspire 20 with the OGTC

Starting on Wednesday 27th May; Inspire20 is a series of 20-minute online webinars presented by the OGTC (Oil & Gas Technology Centre) team.

They have been created for young people aged 16 – 24 who might be missing out on work experience and intern opportunities due to the coronavirus measures.

The aim is to help young people understand the energy transition and the range of career opportunities.

There are also masterclasses on metaskills, applying for jobs and interview skills.

People can find out more and register for the events they are interested in here:

https://www.theogtc.com/culture-of-innovation/stem/inspire20/

May 21, 2020
by I. Menzies
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Today is Outdoor Classroom Day 2020!

Outdoor Classroom Day is a global movement to inspire and celebrate outdoor play and learning, at home and at school. On Outdoor Classroom Day, practitioners usually organise a special day outdoors for their class. In response to the coronavirus crisis, the movement will look a bit different in 2020.

As the coronavirus crisis continues, children in Scotland, and around the world, have been spending more time indoors and in front of screens. There is concern about the impact this is having on children’s wellbeing. Connecting to nature can restore our sense of wellbeing.

Over the coming weeks, The Outdoor Classroom Community will be sharing ideas for connecting to nature through play that can be done from anywhere – like your garden, balcony or even your living room! This year there will be an emphasis on bringing Playful Nature to everyone.

Visit the Outdoor Classroom Day website for more information, ideas and resources: https://outdoorclassroomday.org.uk/

You may also be interested in Education Scotland’s brand new Outdoor Learning and Learning for Sustainability Wakelet which contains links to key resources and activities: https://wakelet.com/wake/dx8-511rFvLFU03clV9eh

And, if you’re looking for great ideas and activities that can be used to support science, STEM and digital literacy in the outdoors then check out our Citizen Science resource and PowerPoint: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/citizen-science-and-curriculum-for-excellence/

Citizen science is great for learners to use with their families in their gardens or during their daily exercise and a perfect way to engage with nature and build STEM skills at the same time.

Lastly, outdoor learning has a key role to play in Curriculum for Excellence and is likely to be used to support education recovery as learning resumes with appropriate social distancing measures in place. An Outdoor Learning across the Four Contexts PowerPoint file is now live and exemplifies approaches in East Ayrshire Council. The PowerPoint is available on this page: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/resources-to-support-the-refreshed-curriculum-for-excellence-narrative/

May 20, 2020
by Janey Irving
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Moving from the GLOW Sciences community to our new GLOW Sciences PLC

https://glowscotland.sharepoint.com/sites/sciencesplc

The former Sciences GLOW Community has moved to become part of Education Scotland’s National Professional Learning Communities: https://glowscotland.sharepoint.com/sites/nationalplcs

During this transition we have taken the opportunity to restructure and tidy the BGE – Early to Fourth Level and NQ Resources Folders which are now held within the Learning & Teaching Resources section.
Together these hold approximately 7000 individual resources uploaded by practitioners over a number of years and those developed by Education Scotland as we moved to the CfE National Qualifications.
We would like to thank all of you for your patience with this process (which is still ongoing) and also thank all those who have contributed and who continue to share resources on this platform.

Learning and Teaching resources:
As well as the aforementioned resources from the Sciences GLOW Community there is a link to the newly published Primary Science Planning Resource (created through the RAiSE programme) and a new collection of resources focussing on the Life Sciences Sector.

These were created by practitioners who attended the Education Scotland/SDS & DYW Life Sciences Sector Days in Dec 2019 and Feb 2020. They include professional learning resources, as well materials for use with pupils linking to careers and pathways and the science curriculum.

If you would like to work with us to support this process or contribute Learning and Teaching resources to the Sciences PLC please get in touch either directly with me janey.irving@educationscotland.gov.scot or with the STEM Team STEM@educationscotland.gov.scot using the e-mail header GLOW Sciences PLC.

We have also created sections for Professional Learning and Key Documents – these are just in the formative stages; if you have suggestions of materials to add to these sections please get in touch.

May 20, 2020
by Janey Irving
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BIOLOGY: STEM CLPL Online Training for teachers

University of Aberdeen has launched a new free CLPL online programme for Higher and Advanced Higher Biology.

https://on.abdn.ac.uk/courses/biology-online-stem-training-for-teachers/

This work has been supported through the Enhancing Professional Learning in STEM Grants Programme and the Scottish Government STEM Education and Training Strategy and is free to teachers in Scotland.

The course has been designed in consultation with practitioners and aims to enhance subject knowledge and skills; supporting pupils to apply new biology knowledge in real-world situations, and sparking their interest in project work and experiments.

A key aspect in the design of this course was to make it 100% online and therefore available to teachers across the country. This approach, in particular, has been designed to support those in more remote and rural areas of Scotland where practitioners may struggle to access professional learning opportunities.

The course is flexible as it can be started at any time and is self-paced.

The five topic areas that have been chosen and developed by current teachers and University of Aberdeen academics include:

• Proteins and Enzymes
• Molecular Biology
• Designing Experiments
• Higher and Advanced Higher Projects
• Statistics

May 19, 2020
by C. Gillespie
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New – STEM Ambassador “Offers” and Online support

The STEM Ambassadors programme has been around a long time and is a way for teachers to access enthusiastic scientists, engineers, tech gurus and STEM professionals. A new “Offers” feature is now available where STEM Ambassadors can advertise an offer to discuss a curriculum topic, a chat about careers or give a demo of a particular topic for example. Teachers can browse these on the STEM Ambassador database and contact Ambassadors that are of interest to them to take up their offer. There are over 50 offers currently available from across the UK, with many of them being online offers that can be delivered remotely to teachers (and young people in a safe setting). Removing the mileage figure in the “distance from” field lets you see all UK offers.

Teachers and groups can also place a request for online support from a STEM Ambassador on the STEM Learning database. To do this, select ‘add an activity’ as usual but tick the ‘online activity’ box and your request will be visible to 35,000 STEM Ambassadors across the UK instead of those local to you.

To access Offers and also request Ambassadors for online activities, register as a teacher at www.stem.org.uk and you can select these options from your dashboard. If you have any questions then contact your local STEM Ambassador Hub:

West of Scotland – Science Connects at stem-ambassadors@glasgow.ac.uk

North of Scotland – Aberdeen Science Centre at stemambassadors@asc.scot

East of Scotland – SSERC is now running this Hub, contact sae@sserc.scot

May 19, 2020
by C. Gillespie
0 comments

Online Science Planning Resource launched

An online resource, prepared by the Raising Aspirations in Science Education (RAiSE) programme, has been launched to support planning for meaningful and engaging primary science experiences.

The resource addresses each of the science curriculum organisers in the topics of planet Earth; forces, electricity & waves; biological systems; materials; and topical science. Individual planners for each experience and outcome have been produced and include a list of suggested activities and links, as well as further lesson ideas and inspiration.

RAiSE is a programme of The Wood Foundation, Education Scotland, Scottish Government and participating local authorities which enhances the delivery of STEM education in primary schools. The programme’s Primary Science Development Officers (PSDOs) worked collaboratively to develop the resource which was then quality assured by teachers.

Gayle Duffus, National Education Officer leading the RAiSE programme at Education Scotland, said:

“This resource is the result of a great deal of collaboration, innovation and development within the RAiSE network, as well as with a range of stakeholders.

“The publication of this informative, supportive online resource feels particularly timely given the current educational landscape. Its impact will continue to resonate once classes return.

“Engaging, exciting and motivating young children in the STEM subjects is vital as prepare a generation for their ongoing education and beyond. Empowering teachers with the inspiration, skills and networks to do so confidently will help us achieve that goal.”

This is a free resource which is publicly available and focusses on addressing a range of Experiences and Outcomes (E&Os). Each planner contains links to other curricular areas and contexts to support interdisciplinary learning. There are also instruction videos. This resource will continue to be developed.

Alan Armstrong, Strategic Director at Education Scotland, said:

“From Education Scotland, to local authorities and teachers, we all have responsibilities for helping Scotland’s children and young people to continue learning at home during school closures and as they open again. We are delighted to publish the online Science Planning Resource which provides support for teachers as they prepare for remote learning now and when schools return. The planners are designed for teachers to engage and inspire young people in STEM subjects, including through instructional videos and links to encourage interdisciplinary learning.”

RAiSE has been active in 14 local authority areas and is now being offered, on a rolling basis, to all local authorities in Scotland.

Access the resource here: https://wakelet.com/wake/xrDjTWEcxMR4iTopHNi36