Hello families,

Thank you to everyone who came along to the information sessions last week. Continuing from some of the conversation and queries, I have brought together the below information regarding STEM and how we teach it at St Joseph's, Kingswood

- Emma

STEM

Since starting here at St Joseph’s, Kingswood I have had a lot of conversations with people regarding STEM. I really enjoy these chats because before I took the position of Deputy Principal here, I was CESA’s Educational Advisor for Technology with a significant focus on STEM. Part of my role was to support schools with their implementation of STEM and supporting teachers to develop rich STEM tasks.

What is STEM?

STEM is an approach to teaching and learning that integrates the curriculum areas, Science, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics. This curriculum knowledge combined with the Design Thinking process allows children to solve real world problems. The most commonly used Design Thinking process both in schools and industry is the Stanford d.school Design Thinking Process.

It is important that STEM is not taught as a one off specialist lesson but instead a key part of the classroom learning. All teachers should be STEM teachers as this makes STEM and STEM subjects more appealing to students and leads to more students either selecting STEM-related university degrees or STEM careers.

Why is STEM so important?

The global economy is changing. Current jobs are disappearing due to automation and new jobs are emerging every day as a result of technological advances. The continual advances in technology are changing the way students learn, connect and interact every day. Skills developed by students through STEM provide them with the foundation to succeed at school and beyond.

Employer demand for STEM qualifications and skills is high, and will continue to increase in the future. Currently, 75 per cent of jobs in the fastest growing industries require workers with STEM skills. To be competitive, the Australian workforce needs people who can adapt to a changing workplace.

How do we teach it at St Joseph’s, Kingswood?

At St Joseph’s, Kingswood, our students benefit from STEM integrated in their classroom learning. We are proud to also offer further extension with projects like age-appropriate coding (whether it be via the Playgrounds app in Years 3 & 4 or programming an Arduino kit in Year 6), as well as children in Years 3-6 having the opportunity to be a part of STEM Club, meeting once a week to consider and create a STEM solution to solve climate change, homelessness or another real world question. Our Reception students are undertaking the significant project of designing the courtyard area that their classrooms open out to - including an entry into the Planet Ark's National Tree Day competition for school grants.

Our year 1 and 2 classes are soon to embark on a project about caring for the Earth's resources and will complete the process of recycling used paper to created new paper. Our teachers are passionate about equipping children with the foundations of a love of learning STEM in their primary years to benefit them well into the future.