How a problem-solving approach to learning can inspire curiosity and creativity in every child, by Carol Rogerson
Have you ever wondered why we group science, technology, engineering and mathematics as STEM? What do these subjects have in common that sets them apart from others, and why does it matter?
Education researcher Tej Samani says there’s a reason they fit together: ‘They’re incredibly hands on. STEM is a gap bridger between imagination and application. It has this automatic way of building confidence and curiosity. A pupil can figure out for themselves that they can make something work, whether it’s a circuit, a robot or a bridge made from straws. It gives them a real sense of ownership and makes learning fun.’
STEM learning goes beyond memorising formulas and learning facts; it’s about understanding how concepts relate to the real world and how to solve real-life problems. Practical learning plays a crucial role. Activities that help pupils develop a love for STEM subjects include science experiments, coding clubs and robotics challenges. Encouraging children to step out of their comfort zones helps them to develop the critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills that are necessary in both school and everyday life.
In the coming years, the STEM sector is expected to become one of the largest employers in the world. The field covers a wide range of career opportunities, from climate change solutions to healthcare and telecommunications, over a vast array of projects for many different companies.
But STEM has an image problem. While its appeal lies in its practicality and relevance, many people believe it’s only for clever or technical pupils, or only for boys. According to Laura Norton, head of equality, diversity and inclusion at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET): ‘Views of who a scientist is and what an engineer is start very early.’ For example, when asked to draw a scientist, many children still draw a white man wearing a lab coat.
This challenge of perception is backed up by research findings: despite women representing half of the overall workforce in the UK, only 16.9% of the engineering and technology workforce consists of women. Race can be a barrier too, with only 14% of individuals working in engineering and technology coming from minority ethnic backgrounds. Furthermore, just 14% of people working in engineering and technology have a disability, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds account for less than a quarter of professional workers in engineering.
From the early years, children develop a sense of whether they belong in STEM and whether it fits with who they are. One way to begin to address the issue is to ask how much parents, caregivers and teachers understand about STEM. As Laura asks: ‘Who is an engineer? Is it someone who fixes your boiler, or does it include the diverse range of careers we know about?’
Created by the WISE (Women into Science and Engineering) Campaign, a free interactive outreach tool called ‘My Skills My Life’ aims to expand pupils’ understanding. Users answer a variety of quiz-style questions that offer insights such as identifying them as an analyst, a creative or an innovator. Based on their results, the platform connects girls with female role models so they can find out what these women do in their jobs, the companies they work for and what that company does.
The IET Futures Fund supports schools in increasing hands-on learning through its First Lego League and IET Faraday Challenge Days. The First Lego League programme, which spans primary and secondary school, introduces pupils to the fundamentals of STEM, allowing them to apply their skills in practical scenarios. IET Faraday Challenge Days are an annual STEM competition that offers young people aged 12 and 13 the chance to work together as engineers to tackle real-world challenges.
An early start
The right educational environment can play an important role in changing outcomes. According to Tej, right from the very start, in Reception class, ‘children should learn in an environment where STEM equals creativity’. This means building, using their hands and spending more time outside.
Later, teachers can introduce concepts and terms as tools for problem solving. For instance, pupils can tackle a real-world issue related to fractions and see how the concept applies. Primary school is perfect for this, because ‘everything is being taught in a way that feels whole and together’, Tej adds.
The transition years – 7, 8, and 9 – are another critical point, as pupils study subjects separately for the first time while schools struggle to ‘jigsaw puzzle all the parts together’. Tej suggests that these three years are an ideal time to involve organisations that offer real-world work using STEM skills. Pupils can benefit from work experience days, entrepreneur days and building challenges, which are hands-on and build an understanding of context. However, he acknowledges that doing it well takes both money and time, which is challenging given that the curriculum is ‘so packed that creative, exploratory work goes out the window. But what you don’t want’ he adds, ‘is to walk into a Year 11 class and ask: “What’s the purpose of science? What is maths? Why are you? What’s this for?” And have them just shrug.’
Equipping staff
St Margaret’s Junior School in Leamington Spa places a strong emphasis on STEM education, recognising that collaboration, innovation, teamwork and problem-solving skills are becoming increasingly important as technology develops and jobs evolve.
Assistant headteacher Ryan Collier stresses that the biggest hurdle today is funding. Limited financial resources impact staffing levels and make it increasingly difficult to offer enriching experiences for children. In addition, insufficient funding creates challenges in delivering quality STEM education for the growing number of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Staff confidence also plays a role, says Ryan. ‘Often, new teachers, or even experienced teachers, feel they don’t have the right skills. So STEM training and CPD [continuing professional development] are invaluable because they equip teachers with the confidence to do things like lead a club or manage practical activities. Overseeing pupils using things like saws, wire cutters and so on can be daunting. But you don’t want to wrap them up in cotton wool so much that, for example, they aren’t experiencing the challenges they would actually face as engineers.’
In recent years, St Margaret’s has participated in an Enthuse Partnership aimed at increasing interest and performance in STEM subjects while raising awareness of STEM careers. They have partnered with the Ogden Trust to improve physics education by developing teachers’ skills and resources. As part of these initiatives, they invested in training and materials, including Kapla, a construction kit made from wooden planks that can be stacked together to create structures.
‘We now run a Kapla Engineering Club, where children invent and experiment with different structures. They complete challenges such as building the tallest tower or creating a structure that can withstand a certain weight,’ says Ryan.
‘Every year, we also run our Rail Club, funded by the Primary Engineer Rail Project, which provides staff training, resources and materials. As part of the club, our school was also connected to Porterbrook, a company that leases rail stock and has a site nearby. The children are asked to construct electronic locomotives that undergo a series of tests. At the end of the project, they can go along to a joint celebration event with other schools. We pair up some of our older pupils with those from lower key stage 2 to give them the experience of working with new people, working as a team and supporting each other.’
Additionally, the school encourages parents to get involved and work with their children. ‘We often have mums and dads working in STEM careers who can look at the wiring or the placement of the wheels on the locomotives and help their children overcome some of the problems they are facing.’
‘The final club we run is the GraviTrax club,’ explains Ryan. GraviTrax is essentially a marble run kit, and at this club, children must work out how to move a marble from one spot on the board to another. A few years ago, the school was fortunate to obtain the GraviTrax kits through free funding.
To help address inclusion, St Margaret’s takes part in the initiative ‘If You Were An Engineer, What Would You Do?’, which is also run by Primary Engineer. This programme challenges children to find solutions to everyday engineering problems. Each pupil presents their suggestions in a letter to an engineer. Letters are judged, and the finalists attend an event at a local university. ‘One of our pupils was invited to have their idea made into a prototype – something that was exciting for the school but also for them and their family,’ says Ryan.
He goes on to explain that major businesses in the area often direct their funding to communities experiencing higher levels of deprivation. As a result, St Margaret’s often opts for national initiatives, and staff are always on the lookout for the best options. To help with transport, another significant expense, the school utilises a subsidised scheme called the Community Minibus, meaning they can organise visits to science and technology centres, and cover costs for events such as the Rail Club celebration.
Ryan emphasises the importance of inviting a diverse range of people into the school to help pupils see themselves in STEM roles. ‘We hear from women and people from diverse cultures who come here to share their experiences – talking about what they do now as well as how they got there. Our pupils love to hear what these speakers were interested in when they were young, what they were good at and what they weren’t good at. When they realise there are so many different avenues they can go down, they find that quite open and freeing.’
‘If you look at where the world is heading, the importance of STEM is obvious,’ says Tej. ‘Given how quickly things are changing, prioritising science, technology, engineering and maths in a practical way is no longer just an option. It’s survival.’
‘Our eco hub sparks conversations’
When we decided to install an outdoor classroom at our school, we were keen to use the opportunity to build something that would boost the children’s STEM learning in a really hands-on way.
We worked with The Hideout House Company to create an ‘eco hub’ with its own renewable energy system, which we could use to teach the children about sustainability and climate change. The design features a 150w wind turbine on a pole, a 200w solar panel on the roof, and a kinetic energy bike that the children can pedal to generate power.
Inside the building there’s a wall-mounted board with a digital data display that shows how much power is coming in from each energy source and how much energy is in the battery, and then the children can use that energy to power a CD player or a laptop.
It’s all very visual, so even our youngest learners who are only three can understand where the energy is coming from and see it going down on the battery as it’s being used.
The design really sparks the children’s imaginations and they’ve started having conversations about things like how the weather conditions are affecting the amount of energy being collected by the solar panels or the wind turbine on a particular day. They start thinking about what happens if we run out of energy, which is a powerful question, and it’s made them so much more aware of energy use.
For me, the most important thing is it’s made sustainability and renewable energy part of our normal, everyday conversations, rather than consigning those issues to a one-off lesson.
The build cost £22,000, and we created a friendship garden around the outdoor classroom which was a further £4,000. It was a very ambitious target, but the PTA, Friends of Coddington School, were amazing. It took them 18 months to raise the money through discos, raffles, ice cream sales, Christmas fairs and pre-loved uniform sales plus Newark and Sherwood District Council agreed to match-fund us through their community grant scheme, which brought in £9,000. A parent who works for Bupa also managed to get us a £2,000 grant through the Bupa Foundation.
The children have responded to the outdoor classroom really positively. All the pupils access it and enjoy going out there and learning. It’s a way of drip-feeding those messages about climate change and sustainability, no matter what subject they’re doing.
- Rebecca Major is headteacher at Coddington CofE Primary and Nursery School in Nottinghamshire (383 pupils)
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