STEM Person of the Week
Introducing STEM Person of the Week
Welcome to STEM Person of the Week – a STEM engagement activity that’s been shown to reduce children’s stereotypes of science and scientists by providing counter-stereotypical character attributes through a set of diverse STEM role models.
This resource aims to equip teachers with everything they need to effectively run this 5-week intervention in their school setting. The resource is simple to use and suitable for children in years 1 through 6. In fact, we recommend that you run STEM Person of the Week with your whole school; this way, children and teachers can share what they’re learning beyond the classroom and into the playground and staff room.
Here you’ll find:
- Links to the resources which you can download and print
- Aims, background and research
- Guidance for teachers who want to deliver in their school
Download the resources
We currently have 3 sets of STEM Person of the Week cards which you can download and use in school.
Each set includes:
- Printable postcards
- Printable posters
- PowerPoint Presentation of the resources
Click the images to download the zip files.
Set 1 STFC
Set 2 Northumbria University
Set 3 STFC
Aims, background and research
STEM Person of the Week (SPOTW) has been created by the NUSTEM Group at Northumbria University. We’re a group of STEM Outreach practitioners and researchers who are looking to increase diversity within STEM. We do this through evidence-informed practice, working with children and their key influencers (parents and teachers) from pre-school to post-16. SPOTW was created in partnership with one of our partner primary schools, who piloted the first iteration of the resource.
We know from our own research that, when asked to describe scientists, children use a limited and very stereotypical vocabulary. In our surveys, when asked to write 6 words to describe a scientist, over 40% of the total words used were some sort of stereotype: crazy hair, explosions, lab coats, genius, etc. The SPOTW resource is designed to counter this vocabulary through a more nuanced set of attributes that scientists themselves use to describe their characteristics.
After the pilot, we went back into the primary school to see whether the children’s narrow, stereotypical view of scientists had changed. We were surprised by just how effective the intervention had been. One year after the SPOTW project, children were using significantly fewer stereotypes and significantly more positive characteristics to describe scientists. Our hope is that in the long term, this resource will help children see that the characteristics you need to be a scientist match with characteristics that they see in themselves. This increased affinity with STEM characteristics may increase their likelihood of studying STEM subjects and go into STEM careers.
Guidance for Teachers
STEM Person of the Week is a set of five carefully chosen STEM role models that reflect diversity in the skills needed in the STEM workforce and the people who work in STEM. The intervention is 5 weeks long, and each week a new STEM worker is showcased to the children in classrooms and across the school. Each STEM person has 3 characteristics that they think are important for them to do their job. In each set of cards, the children are exposed to 15 of the 16 characteristics (see table), to provide a counter-stereotypical vocabulary which better reflects the realities of working in STEM.
No one child will claim to have all of these characteristics, but by introducing such a range we hope children will see that they share some of the most important skills that scientists need. You’ll also notice a very deliberate omission from the list: intelligence. One of the most common stereotypes that exist about scientists are that they have genius-like levels of intelligence. We understand that intelligence is important in science, but don’t want it to be a barrier to children who are interested but may not feel as though they are clever enough – not every one who works in STEM is an Einstein.
| Observant | Open-minded | Committed | Tenacious |
| Creative | Imaginative | Patient | Collaborative |
| Resilient | Communicator | Passionate | Organised |
| Curious | Self-motivated | Hard-working | Logical |
