I’ve just received an email from TES advertising a book they are publishing titled: tes guide to STEM.I was hoping to see a summary of the best evidence based STEM practice. I haven’t read the book, so I might be 100% wrong here but the choice of topics covered strike me as odd – maybe old fashioned.
The first point – getting girls into stem – is huge. Getting all underrepresented groups into STEM is huge. The ASPIRES2 project is a 10 year longitudinal study into the career choices of young people. One key factor for young people choosing STEM careers is having a close relative in a STEM career. This is tricky to influence as a teacher. It may be that interviewing an actor does the job. Let’s see.
The second point – making STEM lessons more practical – seems obvious, but I question it. We all enjoy a good practical, just like we all enjoy colouring in or playing about on bongos. Enjoyment does not necessarily lead to expertise or career choice. I would like to see evidence showing the impact of practical work delivered well. If the TES has found it, I’m looking forward to reading it.
Point 3 – cross curricular links – I’m not against this, but I’d question the efficiency. It takes a lot of organising and compromise to link science to history, art, geography – and to what end? Developing and delivering subject specific CPD seems more likely to lead to improvements. I’ll read with interest.
I love the maker movement. Let’s see where this leads. My sister is involved, and she credits ‘the great egg race’ with her interest in engineering (although I think our grandfather was also a deciding factor).
Using your local UTC and local businesses as a resource… Again, why not? But it’s what goes on day-in day-out in the classroom that makes a difference, not an infrequent intervention delivered by another organisation. But perhaps this allows young people to see STEM as a viable career choice.
My real issue is this – where is the cognitive science? Where is the knowledge? If the tes thinks this is what science teachers want (and possibly they are right), I am miles out of the loop.
@benrogersedu
Reading for Learning 
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Is it what “teachers want” the issue. I may be light years from others’ reality but I have a problem with https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-level_Physics/Cosmology/Relativity pre-occupation. What would be useful for the students to learn (& at what age) ? As the Samsung S9 comes out & a small company in UK tries to compete with a phone that has a logo & rubber + something else I wonder where did we go wrong.
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