What is STEM? Emma Vanstone, the creator of Science Sparks and author of several books packed with fun science experiments for children, explores what is STEM, with easy ideas on STEM learning at home.
Learning Resources was presented with an Education Resources Award in the ‘Primary Resource or Equipment – Curriculum learning resources including ICT’ category for its STEM Robot Mouse Activity Set. Held on the 18th of March, the awards honour the quality and diversity of products, schools and the most dedicated members of the education sector. In their eighteenth successful year, the awards are organised by BESA, the trade association representing educational suppliers in the UK sector, and Brilliant Marketing Solutions. New for 2016, The STEM Robot Mouse Activity Set engages primary children as they build hands-on coding skills. Children create their very own maze using base tiles, tunnel pieces and walls and then programme Colby the Robot Mouse to find the cheese. Easy-to-use, Colby lights-up, makes sounds and features two speeds with colourful buttons that match coding cards for simple programming and sequencing.The judges, an independent panel of experienced educational professionals, most of whom are classroom teachers said, “the STEM Robot Mouse Activity Set would encourage children to build hands-on coding skills in a fun and enjoyable way. It was very easy to construct and represented excellent value for money!â€Caroline Wright, director at BESA, comments: “What makes these awards different is that they focus on the resources, services and people that really make an impact on learning and the day-to-day work of the teachers in the classroom. The UK education sector is currently in the unprecedented position of offering ever improving standards of excellence. Thousands of educators from across the world visit the UK each year to review and buy products from our suppliers because of the quality offered. We would like to congratulate Learning Resources for its outstanding resource.†Elements of STEM learning are highlighted within the purpose of study across the Science, Mathematics and Technology curriculum for Key Stages 1 & 2 in UK schools. The National Stem Centre has stated that the ‘government has long identified STEM education as a major priority at both school and HE level’ and that the ‘effective provision of STEM in schools requires a foundation of strong subject teaching.’ The STEM Robot Mouse supports parents and teachers to bring coding to life and create exciting learning experiences.Mrs Chimes from South Wootton Infant School tried the Robot Mouse with her class:“This product is absolutely fantastic for the new KS1 ICT curriculum and requirements for children to create a series of instructions and plan a journey for a programmable toy. The children could use the product without adult support and really enjoyed it.’â€Learning Resources were also finalists in the SEN-non ICT category with their All About Me Family Counter Activity Cards and the Primary- non ICT category with Plot Blocks Story Building Activity Set.
