1. Flip or blend your classroom

By introducing an online component to your STEM classes, you can more easily support individual students, and facilitate both independent and collaborative learning.

You can learn more about this from our interview with David Calle, who spoke with us about the flipped classroom, with a focus on Maths:

Here are some materials you can use:

• Khan Academy features thorough and engaging online classes for all STEM subjects. Your students will be guided to the lesson that best suits their level, learn at their own pace, and receive badges and refreshers.
• The iStage series by Science on Stage largely centres on the use of technology in the science classroom, with iStage: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Science Teaching and iStage 2: Smartphones in Science Teaching.
• The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings have created a collection of mini-lectures which can be used in the classroom – on Physics and Chemistry, for example.

2. Mind the gender gap

Even to this day, the famous draw-a-scientist test consistently produces sketches of men in white lab coats, with no women in sight. You can help make sure that both girls and boys feel at home in the science classroom by using resources like the following:

• STING (short for STEM Teacher Training Innovation for Gender Balance) is a toolkit that teacher trainers and teachers can use to raise gender awareness in STEM teaching.
• In the presentation Where are we now and how can we move?, Dr Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who is credited with the discovery of pulsars, reflects on the STEM gender gap.
• Hypatia – a project funded by EU Horizon 2020 – offers an activity toolkit for teachers, a list of national hubs led by science centres and museums, and a calendar of events.

3. Make science lessons relevant to daily life

Vectors, formulas, algorithms, the periodic table… To young students, these things may seem a world apart from daily life. Here are some ways to change their perspective:

• Scientix promotes Europe-wide collaboration among STEM education professionals, and many of its projects reframe science careers for children: for example, the Opening Minds to STEM Careers MOOC, co-created with SYSTEMIC and STEM Alliance, and open until 20 June 2018 (also available for perusal afterwards).
• NASA has a large collection of standards-based educational videos illustrating the sciences’ real-world connections. What does a moon orbiting a planet have in common with a spinning Ferris wheel, a yo-yo trick called ‘Around the World’, and the International Space Station?

• Math in the Real World teaches personal finance and economic concepts in the context of Maths lessons: see, for example, Break-Even Analysis for ages 9-12, or Exchange Rate Calculator for ages 6-8.

4. Full STEAM ahead

STEAM comprises the acronym STEM and an A for Arts, and so unites these two fields. In doing so, it encourages a different kind of creativity in scientific exploration and new perspective on real-world application.

May 2018 is STEAM month on School Education Gateway, and has yielded many relevant publications, including an expert article by Kristóf Fenyvesi and a practice article featuring three innovative projects.

Here are some resources:

• Scratch and Kodu are simple, visual programming languages that can give children a first taste of coding, combined with other useful skills, like creativity, problem-solving and storytelling.
• The website Musical fraction bars lets students make melodies with fractions, so they can glimpse the order and symmetry shared by maths and music.
• Mangahigh provides over 700 scaffolded, curriculum-aligned games, designed by Maths teachers and for Maths teachers. They allow you to gain immediate insight into your students’ understanding, track their progress and personalise their learning.