Why did you do what you did in terms of your context, policy and literature?

I chose to go down this line of enquiry as over the past 3 years I have driven forward Digital Learning forward within my setting, I have witnessed the benefits of this first hand with students across the school and the confidence that it has given them as individuals.  It was through this role that I started to develop an interest within STEM, which then led me to start reading into it more.

Naturally, through learning experiences we (the children and I) began to delve deeper into engineering and technology -learning how things worked and why they work. This then brought in more of a STEM spin on learning rather than a focus on Digital Learning

STEM currently has a huge focus placed upon it within Scottish Education primarily due to the gap in employment rates within STEM careers. In 2017, the Scottish Government published its STEM Education and Training Strategy which aims to enable the delivery of excellent STEM learning across Scotland, provide better connections between education and employers.

Literature suggests that somewhere along the STEM Pipeline, the leak.  There is ample research to show the various reasons as to why there is a gap within STEM employment and one of the main reasons is due to stereotypes within the field which in turn can cause a gender gap.

One of the ways in which we can rid stereotypes in regards to STEM is by giving learners experiences of STEM learning from an early age, open to both genders, sharing with the children different role models who have STEM Careers.