Category Archives: STEM

Provide extended STEM activities for your Gifted, Able, Talented, and Enthusiastic students this summer

Some Heads of Science are able to provide provisions for their Gifted, Able, Talented, and Enthusiastic students, even when the core curriculum governs lesson time, by organising events outside school for students to take part in to enhance their knowledge of science.

Which is why we will be helping schools to run STEM activity days over the summer period.

Our STEM Summer Schools will give your Gifted, Able, Talented, and Enthusiastic students (across the year groups) the opportunity to participate in STEM-themed activities that simply cannot be delivered during the normal school day or curriculum.

If your school can provide the facilities for three to five days during the summer we will deliver an well-planned event and all the equipment required.

There will be a choice of two STEM Summer School Programmes:

Dead on Time – an activity in which students learn to use real-life forensic techniques such as DNA extraction, DNA electrophoresis, and DNA analysis to solve a mysterious death.

Target Mars – an activity in which students learn about Semi-Conductor Electronics, Robotic Construction, and Programming to build prototype vehicles, analyse Mars soil, and learn life-saving techniques needed to be able to colonise Mars.

Furthermore, our STEM Summer School can be delivered ‘cost-free’ to the school where parent contributions or pupil premium funds are used. A grant may also be available in your area.

For more information about our STEM Summer School Programmes, please visit: www.thinkersineducation.co.uk/stem-summer-schools/

Alternatively, please do call us on 01603 520866 or email us at events@thinkersineducation.co.uk.

Improve the uptake of STEM subjects at KS5 and beyond by implementing a comprehensive STEM programme

National STEM days/weeks/months are a highly effective way of igniting a passion for science, technology, engineering and maths. Yet it seems that this ignition may only be temporary as there hasn’t yet been a notable increase in the uptake of STEM at KS5.

Thus, students aren’t developing the specialist skills that are sought by so many UK employers in their bid to compete (and succeed) on an international level.

By implementing a comprehensive STEM programme, alongside your school’s involvement in national STEM days/weeks/months, your students will not only acquire a lasting passion for STEM, but also develop a skillset which is valued so highly by employers.

And so it is for this reason that Thinkers in Education are inviting schools to join their comprehensive STEM programme which will be fully funded by a grant for schools that have a low uptake of STEM courses at KS5.

Our all-in-one, externally funded, comprehensive STEM programme consists of:

  • A STEM activity day per year group per term for all your students
  • A STEM activity day per year group per term for your Gifted and Talented students
  • Teacher training sessions and resource kits for teachers in order to sustain the approach and improve provisions for the development of students’ STEM skills
  • Running ‘Family’ Saturdays in your school to include and educate the community about STEM
  • Providing after school STEM kits to sustain the approach and make a real impact.

We can arrange to help you with the grant application of up to £9000, but please do note that there are only a limited number of grants available so make sure to register your interest in our comprehensive STEM programme sooner rather than later.

For more information about our comprehensive STEM programme and to discuss how your school can get involved, please click here, call 01603 520866, or email us at events@thinkersineducation.co.uk.

Practical, hands on and a great way to introduce problem solving and management skills

Ideal for STEM and re-usable at only £39.95

So how do you give young people the opportunity to solve problems and develop creative thinking skills whilst they are still at school?

STEM resources have been developed to provide teachers with a way of giving students experience of solving problems and gaining confidence in how to respond to challenges. Good maths based problem solving exercises are hard to come by.

So in order that students might see how things can easily go wrong and how, by working together and sharing information they can go right, we’ve put together a business exercise called Safe Delivery which is designed to give students experience of solving a difficult maths based problem and to develop creative thinking skills.

The exercise is suitable for small teams of KS4 and 6th form students who will each act as managers in a business.  Each manager will have individual briefing notes which they must read carefully and then communicate to the rest of their team.

The Scenario – The MD has ordered a huge fire resistant storage cabinet for the business that will house a new ‘server’ on which information will be stored. It is Friday afternoon and the cabinet is being delivered Saturday morning. It must be installed in the General Office by Monday morning – an office floor plan of the building is provided.  A team meeting is called and the managers sit down to work out how this problem will be undertaken.

This resource contains: For the students:
A memo that sets out the task
5 detailed briefs for different managers in the business and one scribe
A floor plan of the office building showing all the obstacles that need to be overcome

For the teacher:
Clear teachers’ guidance notes that explain how to run the exercise
A snapshot crucial information chart
The written solution
The solution on a power point presentation

There are more details at…
http://c-l-e.co.uk/buy-teaching-resources-online/safe-delivery-exercise/

You can pay and download the exercise direct from our website using Paypal or you may wish to pay with a purchase order number. Simply e-mail your purchase order number to us and we will send the exercise to you along with the invoice for payment.  For more information e-mail Julie@c-l-e.co.uk

Why are an increasing number of teachers linking aspects of the curriculum to current affairs publicised in the news?

When we consider that young people of today, according to Demos – an independent think tank, are more politically and socially aware than previous cohorts, it makes sense for the curriculum to be linked to current affairs wherever possible to increase relevancy. Particularly for your G&T pupils.

For in doing this it is possible to inspire a passion among your pupils for a particular subject or topic area, resulting in higher levels of attainment in the said subject.

And with the recent return of NASA’s astronaut, Scott Kelly, from the longest US space mission on record together with Britain’s own pioneer, Tim Peake, currently aboard the International Space Station, now is a better time than any to enthuse your more able pupils with the science of space exploration and all that it entails.

Not to mention the collaboration between European and Russian Space Agencies to launch the ExoMars probe, set to monitor methane levels (which could indicate life) on Mars, blasting off on March 14th.  Right now, missions into space are in the spotlight in the media.  It is certainly an exciting time for any budding astronaut and a golden opportunity for teachers to make lessons about the ‘final frontier’ particularly relevant.

To support you in inspiring and enthusing your pupils with the science and technology involved in adventuring to space (using current affairs), Thinkers In Education has produced a workshop by which you can introduce 60 pupils a day to a deeper STEM experience.

Our Space Pioneers Workshop offers a ‘gamified’ learning experience and requires your pupils to work as a team in high pressure situations in order to fix failing electrics and ensure safe touchdown – before analysing the alien surface upon which they have landed.

The practical activities are designed to complement one another and can be readily adapted to the age, ability, and engagement levels of your pupils by changing the content, pace, guidance, activities, and overall difficulty level to suit.

Now is also a better time than any to book your more able pupils onto our Double Lesson Session Space Pioneers Workshop as we are offering schools a massive 30% discount in April and May (making it less than £9 per pupil).

Double Session Workshops last for two hours and will be delivered twice in a day (30 pupils per session).

Our extended five-hour workshop session, Target: Mars, is also available to primary schools and offers hands-on physics, chemistry, and biology activities which enthuse pupils to view science, engineering, teamwork, and problem-solving in a new light – as pioneers of the future.

You can find more information about the wide range of STEM workshops that we host in schools (including our Spectacular Saturday Workshops) by visiting the links above or www.thinkersineducation.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can call us on 01603 520866 or email us at events@thinkersineducation.co.uk to make a booking or enquire about any aspect of our work.