NUSTEM’s vision is: A vibrant and sustainable STEM sector which meets the needs of learners and employers, reflecting the diversity of wider society. Every year at NUSTEM we spend time looking back at what we’ve accomplished in the previous academic year, in light of our vision statement. As part of that reflection, we write […]
Many years ago, when NUSTEM was still Think Physics, we developed an evaluation plan to look at the impact of the first three years. It was a lovely plan, which would use information from the National Pupil Database (NPD) and follow groups of young people as they took their A-levels and then their degrees. Sadly, […]
We know that children (and adults) often have a stereotypical view of scientists and people who work in STEM. Here at NUSTEM, we’ve created a simple resource which allows teachers to address these stereotypes with their students. STEM Person of the Week is a five week teacher-led activity. Each week the teacher ‘introduces’ a new […]
Many primary schools are exploring how they can encourage parents and carers to support their children’s learning. Research suggests that parental engagement is a strong indicator in children’s achievement. At NUSTEM we’ve developed ‘Engineering for Families’ to help with this. Engineering for Families is a six-week afterschool club which brings KS2 (7 -11) children and […]
Diverse teams produce more creative and innovative solutions to problems. Companies with diverse boards are more profitable. Products created by organisations which have limited diversity will be less useful. For example, Apple didn’t include a period tracker in its Health app for iPhone until 2015. Many STEM sectors in the UK do not represent the […]
Does your work involve science, technology, engineering or maths? If so, NUSTEM would like YOUR help! NUSTEM has developed a list of 16 attributes that are often shown by people who work in STEM. You could also call them employability skills. This list was developed in collaboration with teachers, STEM colleagues and other […]
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Hamish Johnston from the Physics World podcast about how we can encourage children to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). During the interview, Hamish asked me whether there was research evidence to show that children were making career choices as young as eight. Those […]
There are many, many organisations that want to increase diversity in STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths). To help coordinate efforts and maximise impact, Engineering UK have recently launched the Tomorrow’s Engineers Code. The Code is a framework for organisations to help them to improve the quality, exclusivity, targeting and reach of engineering and STEM […]
Our research at NUSTEM has shown that children have very gendered ideas about what jobs they want to do even before they leave primary school. We’ve been supporting primary school teachers to include careers-related learning into their teaching. Last year NUSTEM in collaboration with the NELEP (and funded by the Careers and Enterprise Company) developed […]
I’m a big fan of Christmas Round Robin letters. I really enjoy reading about what people have been doing over the past year, and sharing their celebrations and sometimes empathising with their difficulties. Even though I am friends on the socials with the people sending me letters, I like getting a short update all at […]
