STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It is a project-based task that embraces teaching skills and subjects in a way that resembles real life. Children have to solve, design and create prototypes that cover different aspects of science: Biological, Physical, Chemical and Environmental. Each class has a completely different project that they complete.
The introduction of STEM projects across the school adds a further layer to our curriculum at Cleves, whilst giving all our pupils the opportunity to begin to further apply their scientific learning alongside the areas of mathematics, technology and engineering. The addition of STEM to our curriculum is an exciting and rapidly developing area this academic year. The curriculum follows a 3 year cycle to keep things fresh and exciting for everyone!
An interview with Year 3
How is STEM different to our standard Science lessons?
In STEM we have different roles in our groups. There is a Mathematician, Engineer, Scientist and someone that is really good with art and making things. With STEM, we are in charge of our project and we have to make sure we meet the criteria. We get to explore different materials and make our own decisions. We get to do practical work and carry out experiments. For our project, we tested different materials to see which one made the marble roll down the slowest.
What is your project on?
We have to make a marble run that makes the marble travel the slowest.
What new skills have you learnt?
We have learnt how low friction makes objects move fast and high friction slows down objects. We tested different materials to see which material had the highest rolling fiction against the marble.
Have you enjoyed your STEM project?
“We love STEM! I am the engineer in my group and I helped my group set up the ramps for the marble to go down. It took a lot of trial and error to position the ramps and make a marble run that works.” (Rifat).
Ahnaf, Rifat, Musa, Jonathan, Rayyan and Aliza – 3C
Here our Reception children working on a STEM project based on pirate ships