STEM and the Growth Mindset Growth Mindset is a term doing the rounds of education circles. The terms "Fixed Mindset" and "Growth Mindset" were coined by Professor Carol Dweck, a psychologist, when she explored why some students rebounded after failure while others seemed devastated by small setbacks. She formed the view that people have underlying beliefs about their ability to learn and their intelligence. Those with a Growth Mindset believe they can get smarter and they understand that effort makes them stronger. Therefore, they put in extra time and effort and this lead to higher achievement. It is thus that having a Growth Mindset is a valuable trait and one that is to be fostered. It is not desirable to praise a student for being smart for solving a problem but to praise their perseverance and highlight how their effort has produced an excellent outcome. When a student fails encouragement to try again is what is needed. What has STEM got to do with this? STEM can help foster the Growth Mindset. This is particularly true when learning to code. Miles Berry, an influential University lecturer from England, wrote about this in his blog post Debugging and the Growth Mindset. He points out that in music, sports and computer games the difficulty is part of the appeal. Coding is difficult and it rarely works perfectly the first time. Debugging is the process of finding errors in the code using Logical Reasoning and then fixing those errors. It takes time and usually many iterations to get the program running just right. As children persevere through this process and see their success at the end this will shift their mindset towards the growth end of the spectrum. More broadly in STEM, have you ever heard someone say "Its OK maybe your not a math person". This is the antithesis of the Growth Mindset. The following cartoon, I think, illustrates the problem. STEM is viewed as hard and if you don't fit the profile of someone from "The Big Bang Theory" you aren't going to get it. However, this is not true and with support and encouragement many students will be able succeed in the STEM subjects. What is needed is engaging well structured lessons which are challenging (hard but not impossible!) and rooted in the real world.

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Stuff in the news Fostering a Growth Mindset is Key to Teaching STEM - Sure STEM can be hard, but telling kids "not everyone can do it" may make both boys and girls less inclined to try. An article from US News 10 July 2015 Giving STEM meaning - STEM education is about more than playing with robots. An article from EducationHQ Australia 18 September 2017 How Janese Swanson Brought Tech Toys to Girls - An article from the Tynker Blog STEM critical, but not the sole solution - This professor agrees increased STEM skills are critical to the future of the country, but believes we need to ensure every student leaves education with a really solid skills mix. An article from theAustralian Financial Review 11 September 2017

Stuff to buy Littlebits Droid Inventor Kit - Kids can create their own custom Droid and bring it to life it with littleBits electronic blocks. *At this point in time I earn no money from any product I list and I am not affiliated with any other company.

Stuff in education School chosen for Federal STEM program - East Waikiki Primary School, which was selected by the Federal Government to take part in the Early Learning STEM Australia pilot, will see its preschoolers become involved with a series of play-based apps starting next year. An article from the West Australian 12 September 2017 SUBS in Schools program gets expert support - In support of Australia’s naval shipbuilding agenda, ASC Shipbuilding has backed the STEM education SUBS in Schools program, mentoring one South Australian high school team. An article from the Defence Connect website 12 September 2017.

Stuff to do Australia Wide Contemporary practices in STEM education - This will be a live streamed event of interest to teachers and parents. It is part of Monash University's "Engaging STEM Education. Keeping Teachers at the Cutting Edge" series. 9 November 2017 CSIRO CREST Program - CREativity in Science and Technology. Engage your students with open-ended science investigations and technology projects through the CREST program. - - - Bricks 4 Kidz® | Awesome Fun With LEGO® Bricks  Young Engineers Australia - Provides an engaging, hands-on learning platform using LEGO® and K’nex® assembly kits CoderDojo - A volunteer run programming club Code Club Australia - A global network of coding clubs for kids aged 9 to 11.

Stuff to do in Brisbane - - - SLQ Digital Futures - Each year the State Library of Queensland presents a theme of interest to the Queensland community. Throughout 2017, they invite you to join in exploring Digital Futures. STEM in a Box has ongoing coding, robotics and 3D printing activities Brisbane Library Service has purchased the very flash NAO Robot and is showing it off in various libraries. The Cube at QUT has a number of changing programs.  Brisbane Planetarium - Features entertaining and informative shows for adults and children STEMPUNKS STEM classes for kids in Brisbane STEAMPUNX - Not to be confused with the organisation above! Offers in-school and out of school workshop programs Flying Fox Studios - A studio offering programs in the arts, music and construction areas from babies to teenagers in Brisbane Building Block Studio | Learning Activity Centre in Brisbane For Budding Coders And Engineers Fun Chess Classes For Kids in Brisbane | Chess Mates Red Cat Science | Kids get to do what they can't at school It's Rocket Science School Incursions - Educational and fully interactive project based rocket science incursions for primary and secondary schools in a safe and empowering learning environment.

Local Australian Support for STEM in Primary Schools

Stuff this week - Local Australian Support for STEM in Primary Schools In Australia it is government that is the principal sponsor of the changing STEM education landscape. By sponsor I mean providing funding for resources and teacher training. This takes for form of grants, teacher training programs (often only online ) and awards such as the Peter Doherty awards for excellence in STEM education.  In the USA, however, there are daily news reports of corporations and others making grants for STEM.  In Australia not so much. There are some exceptions such as Social Ventures Australia who has partnered with Samsung to create the STEM Learning Hub, a new initiative designed to boost STEM learning in schools with the greatest need. Beyond that I have had little success in identifying organisations that are interested in assisting primary schools improve their STEM offerings. This dearth of support I think is illustrated by the call last year by the Federal Government for grant submissions as part of the Digital Literacy School Grants. My school applied for a grant in October 2016 which was supposed to be awarded by the end of January 2017 but due to over 1800 submissions the announcement was only made this week (No we didn't make the cut :-(  ). To be fair there is some non-grant assistance being made available. There is Australia's new Science online TV channel. ABC Splash (ABC's online education channel) has a dedicated STEM section. Universities such as QUT have ongoing teacher and student education programs some free and some for a small fee, typically though these are immediately sold out. Lastly the CSIRO administers the governments Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools (SMiS) Program. So I am not sure why the private sector is reticent to get involved with primary schools. Possibly it is a chicken and egg scenario. Schools may not be showing how corporations can assist and how they can be innovative and make the donations worthwhile. Equally corporations are not making their philanthropic intentions known. So what do you think. Should their be more corporate assistance to schools for STEM? What can schools do to attract sponsorship?

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Stuff in the news How Kids Benefit From Learning To Explain Their Math Thinking -  An article from KQED News 27 March 2017 Birmingham Covington: Building a Student-Centered School - It IS possible. You just need a vision and commitment. An article from Edutopia 6 April 2017 In One of Connecticut’s Most Innovative Districts, Belief in Every Student Comes First - Schools often state they are "child-centered" or that they are addressing the needs of "all children", but what does this really mean and how can the thoughts behind it be achieved. An article from Edsurge 4 April 2017.

Stuff to buy Bloxels - A hands-on platform for kids to build, collaborate, and tell stories through video game creation. It is a clever learning toy that lets children build their own video games and characters, one physical block at a time. *At this point in time I earn no money from any product I list and I am not affiliated with any other company.

Stuff in education Related Problems: Reasoning About Addition - A great video showing how year 1 students can be taught how to spot patterns in maths. Related to the video above 3P Learning has a blog post from 2013 along similar lines. Making sense of mathematics through reasoning.

Stuff to do Australia Wide Australian STEM Video Game Challenge - For grades 5+.The Australian STEM Video Game Challenge will ask participants to develop games in response to a central theme or idea. Registration open 1 May and submissions close 25 August. Young ICT Explorers -  A non-profit competition, which has been created by SAP to encourage school students to create their best Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related projects. Registrations are OPEN. See the YouTube video here! Edutech 2017 - EduTECH is the LARGEST education event in Asia-Pac and the Southern Hemisphere. 7-9 June 2017 in Sydney. - - - Bricks 4 Kidz® | Awesome Fun With LEGO® Bricks  Young Engineers Australia - Provides an engaging, hands-on learning platform using LEGO® and K’nex® assembly kits CoderDojo - A volunteer run programming club

Stuff to do in Brisbane It's Rocket Science School Incursions - Educational and fully interactive project based rocket science incursions for primary and secondary schools in a safe and empowering learning environment. Robotronica 2017 - Robotronica is a groundbreaking one-day event showcasing the latest developments in robotics and interactive design. QUT's The Cube 20 August 2017  - - - Brisbane Library Service has purchased the very flash NAO Robot and is showing it off in various libraries. The Cube at QUT has a number of changing programs.  Brisbane Planetarium - Features entertaining and informative shows for adults and children STEMPUNKS STEM classes for kids in Brisbane Flying Fox Studios - A studio offering programs in the arts, music and construction areas from babies to teenagers in Brisbane Building Block Studio | Learning Activity Centre in Brisbane For Budding Coders And Engineers Fun Chess Classes For Kids in Brisbane | Chess Mates Red Cat Science | Kids get to do what they can't at school