After successfully achieving all five elements, settings are invited to take part in a validation conversation in order to achieve the full STEM Nation Award. You should upload your setting’s STEM action plan for review by our validators prior to booking your validation conversation.
Action plan
Using your Glow account on Google Drive: all Glow users have access to Google Drive and Google Forms. If you wish to use your Glow Google account to upload your STEM Nation Award action plan please ensure you are logged in to Glow before clicking the link above.
We are aware that practitioners in some local authorities may be unable to upload their action plan on the Google Form using a local authority network/device. This is due to local domain settings restricting file sharing for security purposes. You may wish to use an alternative Google account to submit evidence on behalf of your setting.
The action plan upload form contains important information regarding GDPR and photographic permissions and must be completed for all applications. If you experience any technical difficulties or require support to submit your evidence please email STEM@educationscotland.gov.scot.
After achieving all five elements of the STEM Nation Award you should review your STEM Action Plan. This may involve updating an existing plan or developing a new action plan as a result of the progress made during your involvement with the STEM Nation Award programme. Your action plan may cover the next academic session or span a longer time period to fit in with your setting’s improvement planning cycle.
Action plans can be submitted at any time. However, unlike the element evidence, feedback will not be provided until after the validation conversation has taken place.
Applicants should ensure that their action plan is submitted at least ten working days before the validation conversation. You may wish to use the STEM Nation action plan template below to support you with this process however there is no expectation that all applicants will use this tool. You may have an existing template that is used for a STEM working group or a STEM section on your school or setting improvement plan. We encourage applicants with existing STEM action plans to submit these rather than completing additional paperwork. We do, however, ask that your plan includes explicit details of how you intend to share your STEM practice with others. This may feature as part of the plan itself or as a supplementary document.
STEM Nation action plan for ELC settings and schools
STEM Nation action plan for CLD providers
Book a validation conversation
After achieving all five STEM Nation Award elements you will be sent a copy of your STEM Nation record which provides detailed feedback from our validators. You will also be invited to submit an action plan and arrange a date and time for a validation conversation.
The validation conversation will usually be hosted on Microsoft Teams and should take no more than 30 minutes. It will be facilitated by two of our validators and should be a relaxed conversation about your STEM journey to date and your future ambitions for STEM in your setting. You may wish to attend alone or invite one or two colleagues with STEM leadership responsibility to join you.
During the validation conversation you will be asked to consider three key questions:
- What impact is STEM having on the learners in your setting?
- What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome these?
- What excites you most about your setting’s future STEM plans?
Further information on the validation conversation can be found in the Guidance for validators document.
When you are ready to do so, please contact STEM@educationscotland.gov.scot to arrange your validation conversation.
Your regional STEM Education Officer will be happy to assist with any STEM Nation Award enquiries. Further support is available by contacting STEM@educationscotland.gov.scot and stating the name of your setting and the local authority in which you work.
