SSE and STEM: We are currently evaluating how we teach STEM in the school.
-How it ties into oral language…what language the children need when engaging in STEM projects., e.g, in 1st class, the children have roles in their groups “Builder, Director, Engineer, Supplier”… they needed to understand what each term meant before they could take on the roles.
-STEM and ICT: we reviewed it in June and decided we want to engage more next year with Beebots and Scratch
-STEM in Aistear…we try and build in a STEM lesson into each topic. Following on from this course, I will be recommending the use of the Curious Minds framework.
I would like to think that we provide many opportunities to the children to be active in their learning. However, I can see that there are gaps, particularly in infants. This course has opened up a lot of resources and information for me around space and the stars especially, to enable more hands on learning which I will share with colleagues in September.