Let's Recap FIVE years ago Australia's Chief Scientist published the National STEM Strategy. Two years ago all of the Education Ministers endorsed the Australian Education Council's National School STEM Strategy. Last year the Queensland Government mandated that coding and robotics would be taught to all childrenfrom Prep to Year 10 from 2018. The Australian government has a policy and is providing support for STEM.  Yet as the article We have a national STEM strategy, but what we need is a successful one points out it is actually up to schools to embrace the opportunities that come with this. They make the point that some schools are moving ahead with innovating in the classroom while others are yet to start. All schools need a plan for what they want to do and how they want to do it. There is no one size fits all model so planning is essential. At the top of the planning list is teacher training. There are numerous free online resourcesfunded by the Government and organisations such as Google. Teachers need to be given time or incentivised to up-skill to deliver the new Digital Technologies subject specifically and improve their skills in the other STEM subjects generally. Additionally, lesson plans need to be reviewed to provide students opportunities to develop the 4 Cs - Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Communication. These concerns were addressed in the article STEM education in primary schools will fall flat unless serious issues are addressed.  The failure of schools to properly do this disadvantages our children as they grow up into an increasingly global, competitive and technologically advanced world. Concerned parents who have the means are turning to third party providers to bridge the gap but this means that poor kids are being left behind. Doing STEM at home is an alternative and one worth pursuing. If you are concerned about the pace of change at your school then start a dialogue and ask the school to come up with a clearly defined strategy which has SMART goals.

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Stuff in the News Australian of the Year choice highlights the need to talk about STEM education- The choice of a distinguished scientist as the Australian of the Year for the second year in succession has highlighted the major contribution people versed in science and technology make to our society every day. An article from the Brisbane Times 26 January 2018 Here's the best piece of advice Sal Khan received from Bill Gates - A short video for you to reflect on the question "How does your child feel about maths?" 19 August 2016 7 skills your child needs to survive the changing world of work - Education may be the passport to the future, but for all the good teaching out there, it would seem that schools are failing to impart some of the most important life skills, according to one educational expert. An article from the World Economic Forum4 Sep 2017

Stuff to buy Piper Raspberry Pi Computer Kit -  The Piper computer kit is a great package to build a real, general use computer and electronics programs. *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 We have a national STEM strategy, but what we need is a successful one- Schools need to set aside substantial professional development time for their staff to properly develop confidence and competence in delivering the Digital Technologies subject. An article from the Conversation 2 February 2018. STEM must include focus on literacy, critical thinking as much as hard skills- While much of the focus on STEM subjects has been on teaching students hard skills like coding, soft skills in areas like creative and critical thinking, communication and collaboration are much more important when it comes to producing graduates who are lifelong learners, capable of pivoting amid major changes in whatever career field they choose. An article from Education Dive22 December 2017 Top 5: tech trends in education this year - A blog post on EducationHQ Australia on what technologies could be taking centre stage in education this year. 30 January 2018

Stuff to do Australia Wide 5 Podcasts That Will Change The Way Your Kids See The World (and that you’ll enjoy too) - A list of five podcasts that will entertain your kids and they will learn something along the way! Give a Child the Gift of Science - A great collection of activities you can do at home 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 Stuartholme STEAM Residential Program - Stuartholme School together with Clearing Skies present the STEAM Residential Program, a three day residential for gifted girls currently in Years 5 and 6. The Residential will be held from Wednesday 11 to Saturday 14 April 2018. - - - 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.

Advanced Coding for Kids

Advanced Coding I have previously posted about the substantial array of resources available to get kids into coding. In time some kids will want more of a challenge. Well there is a huge array for them as well. The general purpose programming language with the greatest uptake in schools and universities at the moment is Python. This is a great language because it is powerful yet has some of the complexities of other languages removed. There are some great books for kids such as Hello Raspberry Pi!: Python programming for kids and other beginners and Python for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming. If you buy a Raspberry Pi the default operating system comes pre-loaded with Python and it also has a version of Minecraft that can be programmed with Python. So if you have a Minecraft obsessed child then this may be one way to show them how coding can open up new possibilities in the game. A language used extensively in webpage design is JavaScript. Kids can learn JavaScript through 3D game design software called Alice. Alice is an innovative block-based programming environment that makes it easy to create animations, build interactive narratives, or program simple games in 3D. If your child doesn't warm to Alice then perhaps Code Combat will inspire them. They will learn coding whilst developing a 3D combat game in Javascript or Python. .  For those that are keen on Microsoft products there is Kodu. Kodu GameLab is aimed squarely at encouraging children to engage with coding through a sandbox environment with numerous textures, sprites, terraforming, pathfinding and logic trees. For those in the Apple ecosystem you might like to look at Swift Playgroundswhich is Apple's introductory coding platform. They are pairing up with hardware manufacturers the same way Tynker has. That means young kids and students will be able to write their own Swift code to control any number of real-world toys and machines. Swift Playgrounds will soon work with a number of top toy and robotics companies including LEGO, automated BB-8 toy maker Sphero, and drone company Parrot.  Not matter what you choose continuing to encourage and inspire your child through exposure to any or all of these platforms will pay dividends. However it is preferable to find one platform your child likes and encourage them to master it before jumping off to something else.

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Stuff in the news State government scheme to fix woeful maths results by increasing specialist teachers has failed - A bold plan to multiply the number of specialist maths teachers in NSW public schools has been a massive failure for the NSW state government, scoring just 11 per cent of its target. An article from the Daily Telegraph 3 September 2017 3 Ways Coding Enhances Communication Skills - An article from the Tynker Blog

Stuff to buy Cubelets - Cubelets Robot Blocks make it fast and easy to engage children as young as four in learning by building robots. There’s no wrong way to build with Cubelets, so it is remarkably easy to transform these blocks into brilliant bundles of robotic curiosity. *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 Queensland Government unveils new STEM scholarship program - A new scholarship program has been launched in Queensland to support students studying STEM subjects at TAFE. An article from the Australian Mining website 17 July 2017 Who Says 6-Year-Olds Can’t Program Robots? Not This Pennsylvania First-Grade Teacher - A great article on how coding can make learning accessible to all and how a teacher took the initiative to upskill themselves to enable it. An article from The 74 website 27 August 2017 Schools have Dropped the Ball on Literacy - Primary school children are leaving school without the handwriting and keyboarding skills to thrive in writing tasks. An article from The Educator 1 September 2017

Stuff to do Australia Wide CodeCamp - Three day courses over the school holidays. Search for a school near you! 18-28 September 2017 LITTLE BIG IDEA -  The Big Competition for Inventive Little Kids (You could win a trip to NASA!). Closes 22 September 2017 NATA Young Scientist of the Year - Students are required to undertake an investigation around any topic relating to the theme of a sustainable planet. Closes 22 September 2017 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 Wizarding Workshops - Workshops are designed to accommodate Potter fans of various ages. Participants are grouped according to year levels and work in teams to complete projects at their ability level, challenged and supported by teachers. Paddington.23 September 2017 - - - 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.

Girls in STEM

Stuff this week - Girls in STEM If you are the average family you will have two kids with one boy and one girl. If you are not average like me you might have three girls! Either way you likely have an interest in girls and STEM. Many STEM industries are typically male dominated yet despite this women have made and continue to make significant contributions to the total of human knowledge. Since the 1800s women like Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie and Grace Hopper have been experts in their field. The recent movie Hidden Figures showed the critical roles women have played even in the face of overt racism. In the most recent times we can watch Physics Girl on YouTube, Ayeh Bedir is the CEO of LittleBits and Carrie-Ann Philbin started off as Geek Girl on YouTube, wrote some books and is now the Director of Education for the Raspberry Pi Foundation. (She is also doing the awesome Crash Course Computer Science YouTube series) What is interesting is that research shows that in school a high proportion of girls are interested in STEM yet only a small number go onto a career in these fields. This is not an Australian specific problem. There are a large number of incentives and organisations dedicated to addressing this imbalance. In Australia we have Tech Girls are Superheroes and Girl Geek Academy and there are Australian chapters of globals movements such as Robogals. Globally there is Techgirlz and Girls Who Code and many more. So there is plenty of support for your girls if they are interested in STEM. There are practical things you can do at home. Let the girls use the drill and the hammer; make a billy cart with them. Encourage them to make things with electronics. Have fun doing various science experiments. Include them when Mum or Dad is fixing something. There are some great pages on the Internet showcasing women in STEM which would be great to look at together. In my experience in primary school it is the girls who are more likely to be interested and focused during a STEM activity. We just need to maintain that passion throughout their schooling.

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Stuff in the news Getting Girls into STEM: The Power of Blended (and All-Female) Instruction - An article from Edsurge 21 March 2017. Bucking the STEM trend: one student's journey to success -  Imogen Low, who wanted to become a doctor, shared the perception of many other students that ICT was for “geeks and gamers”. However, that all changed in 2014 when her teacher entered her into the Young ICT Explorers (YICTE) competition. An article from The Educator 18 April 2017. How Do You Get Middle School Girls Hooked on STEM? Ask TechGirlz - Philadelphia-based non-profit TechGirlz takes on the challenge of getting young girls to stick with STEM education. An article from PC Magazine 18 November 2016 Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? - An article from BBC News 21 April 2017 Want to Break Stereotypes in STEM and Computing? Take a Look at Computer History - By sharing the history of computers with our students we can help break the stereotypes about gender and race in computing. An article from Edsurge 6 April 2017.

Stuff to buy New STEM Picture Books - STEM picture books introduce young children to science, technology, engineering, and math.  *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 A STEM revolution across the curriculum - Amid urgent calls for an enrichment of STEM education in Australia, Terrie Jones and her team from Ravenswood School for Girls in Sydney plotted a plan of action. An article from EducationHQ Australia 18 April 2017. The next generation of innovators is here—and they’re girls - An article about a technology competition sponsored by gemaker 9 January 2017.

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 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 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.