Written by: Alice Kupara, STEM Insight participant and teacher at Thomas Deacon Academy
The school I work at, the Thomas Deacon Academy, specialises in STEM subjects and we are at a centre of excellence for the development and delivery of science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities.
We are always looking to develop the confidence, knowledge and quality of delivery for those leading STEM activities in the school.
As a computer science and ICT teacher, I enjoy inspiring students and raising the profile of these subjects. When I heard about STEM Insight, I jumped at the opportunity to go on a placement.
From participating in STEM Insight, I wanted to develop my skills and knowledge of STEM subjects and would cascade everything I learned back to our teams across the Academy. I hoped this would continue to strengthen our STEM provision and give us an up to date insight into STEM-related industry.
I attended a placement local to our school with Caterpillar, a world leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment. I found the factory tours and looking at ICT systems fascinating which is probably a result of my subject background! Looking at how technology, computer systems and solutions are used in industry and watching practical system demonstrations was most useful. I knew these experiences would form case studies and examples that we could use in our teaching.
The employees we spoke to at Caterpillar took time to highlight areas that their job roles made use of STEM skills. This was really useful in terms of learning about STEM-related careers and pathways and how we could guide our students back in school.
Following this experience we made lots of changes back in school, most notably we updated our scheme of work, improved how we raise awareness of computer science and continued developing industry links to support learning and STEM activities.
From this placement we:
- developed curriculum resources with a focus on STEM-related careers
- arranged for an employee from Caterpillar to visit our students
- presented my experiences in an assembly to year 9 students
- have had a meeting with the Caterpillar IT/ GIS team to plan specialist content and how they can support us to deliver practically
- provided informal careers advice to students in school using information gained during the scheme
- used our experiences from the placement as teaching examples
- organised a careers information event
- organised a ‘Women in STEM’ event (which included specialist talks)
- supported work placement arrangements for year 12 students
STEM Insight is a worthwhile experience with long term benefits. The insight into industry enables you to make use of real examples in your teaching based on your experience. It refreshes your knowledge, improves careers advice for your students and allows you to fully understand the local industry beyond what secondary sources publish.
As for the placement, it is what you make of it. Feel confident to shape the experience in process; talk to your host, reflect and feedback, ask for changes to be made if there is a need.
A log of my STEM Insight journey is available on my blog.