In this week’s episode of the STEM Learning Project’s weekly roundup, we’re going to take you on a global safari. We’re going to have a look at a few inspiring STEM education initiatives from around the world. We’ll start in WA, then wend our way through Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.
STEM Education Initiatives are about more than just STEM
To start with, I have to say that reading about all these initiatives got me really excited. There are a few themes running through the ones I found most inspiring. Many of them are focussed specifically on girls in STEM (In fact, I almost turned this into a post about STEM Education initiatives for girls because there were so many to choose from!). Also, they tend to pair STEM skills with other important skills, such as social networking (like Perth’s Innovator’s Tea Party) and creative thinking (such as Singapore’s Destination Imagination).
Most importantly, these initiatives are not really about STEM at all. They are social enterprises, dedicated to making the world a better place. The STEM skills are a tool that can help all sorts of different people to learn, grow, and contribute to the future of humanity. Sound exciting? Let’s get started!
Western Australia
There are plenty of great STEM education initiatives right across Australia, but WA does have some pretty impressive ones (what, I’m not biased! OK – maybe a little bit). One new initiative is the Innovator’s Tea Party. This Perth based not-for-profit aims to get women into STEM careers through a mentorship project. Their annual networking event for 2017 is coming up during National Science week on the 19th and 20th of August.
Heading out to the outback, we have Re-Engineering Australia’s Outback STEM Education Initiative. This initiative aims to start in WA, but then eventually to develop into the rest of regional and remote Australia, bringing cool engineering challenges to remote students.
Asia
Destination Imagination in Singapore is a social enterprise after our own heart here at the STEM Learning Project. It uses STEM, as well as other learning areas such as visual art and improvisation, to teach creative thinking.
In India, Qualcomm India recently launched aqriti, a STEM education initiative to help underprivileged girls. Read more about it here.
Europe
The Hypatia Project aims to make STEM more accessible to girls by creating gender-inclusive education modules. The modules are accessible online and support hubs in countries throughout the EU. They focus not just on reaching students with STEM but on transforming STEM education at every level, with the aim to produce a more equal society.
Africa
In Ghana, Soronko Solutions runs Growing STEMS, a rural-focussed STEM education program that equips whole communities to innovate and problem solve. They also run coding classes for girls through the Tech Needs Girls initiative. This initiative broadly aims to create gender diversity in the technology fields. At the moment their specific focus is on teaching underprivileged girls.
Projekt Inspire, in Tanzania, is a youth career development organisation. Their STEM education arm, Inspire STEM, works with secondary schools to provide cross-disciplinary, project based learning challenges.
The Americas
Continuing the theme of women in STEM, a new initiative has just launched in Detroit, USA in response to a lack of candidates for STEM jobs across the state. Find out about it here.
Let’s Talk Science brings university volunteers to schools across Canada to promote STEM skills and careers.
And finally, out of Brasil, we have Science Without Borders, a drive to increase Brasil’s standing in the world STEM sector. You can read more about that (in English!) here.
And back home…
I hope you enjoyed your grand tour of the world in STEM Education Initiatives. There was a lot more than we got to visit on this whirlwind adventure! To finish off, we’ll come back to Australia and right here to the STEM Learning Project! Don’t forget that we’ve got some more professional learning coming up that you can book into. Check it out on our PL page.