Leura Public School has developed an integrated STEM curriculum that focuses on building student STEM capacity in creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and design processes. Their goal is to prepare today’s students for the world of tomorrow and support girls to become future STEM change-makers. A tiered system places a spotlight on skill acquisition and application. Their system is less about linear or singular activities and more about establishing an environment whereby STEM is an embedded part of the learning landscape.

Three-level process of delivery

Level 1: STEM skills. These are short, targeted activities to gradually model and build skills and dispositions needed to successfully engage students with more complex tasks and projects. For example, building a model bridge out of pop sticks to understand the strength of triangular formations or designing a boat to learn about 3D Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software.

Level 2: STEM design skills. This stage involves developing the creative and critical thinking skills needed to complete design processes. It often involves offering students task variables, such as designing a wind-powered car that can travel over 5 metres or creating the optimal parachute to safely carry an object to the ground from a height. The goal of a project is set for students, but the method gradually becomes more open-ended and less teacher-directed.

Level 3: STEM design thinking. This involves larger student-directed collaborative projects that tackle real-world problems. Student-generated inquiry questions drive projects. For example, how might we transform discarded items into something useful, beautiful, or upcycled? These challenges are inspired by their local context and broadly guided by the United Nations Sustainability Goals. Engaging with the local context encourages students to make real, positive, and tangible improvements that directly impact their community.

Timetabling

The school dedicates two hours per week to STEM lessons. However, the Tier 3 inquiry question may guide learning across multiple key learning areas (KLAs). For example, if students are focusing on accessibility in local shops, they may:

• read relevant newspaper articles (English)
• visit the local historical council to discuss the heritage listing of older shopfronts (history)
• interview shop owners and stakeholders to collect data on their experiences (mathematics)
• design ramp prototypes that require testing and the exploration of sustainable materials (science).

For this to be successful, little curriculum segues must be found that allow for the embedment of STEM across KLAs.

Student ownership

The school believes that by developing their inquiry questions, students become deeply engaged and invested in their design thinking tasks. This means that design challenges can change from year to year and may also overlap with other subjects. For example, if the design challenge relates to bushfires, the students may study reputable bushfire articles or learn how to plot and graph moisture levels and overlay this with temperature markers to determine the probability of a fire.

Students have partnered with fire management professionals to create bushfire awareness podcasts. These podcasts covered topics ranging from the periodic table through to the fire-resistant qualities of different materials, aiming to educate others about minimising the chance of fires.

Another student team designed a weather data station. Students interviewed emergency services representatives to gather information regarding needs. They found that collecting weather data could help determine if conditions were optimal for cool burns and that it would be useful to place stations in remote locations, collect data relating to fire conditions, and send information to the Rural Fire Service (RFS). The goal was fire prevention through data science.

Starting the initiative

The initiative was spearheaded by teachers with a personal interest and previous experience in STEM. Initially, the Stage 3 team delivered a transdisciplinary STEM pilot program underpinned by an integrated design thinking curriculum. Students were immersed in problem-solving tasks such as constructing prototype Mars rovers, engineering hydraulic robotic arms, and repurposing local recycled materials.

To meet the growing interest of students in Years K–6, staff engaged with the University of Sydney STEM teacher enrichment academy. This provided an invaluable opportunity to engage in specialised STEM training and led to researching best-practice in STEM education.

STEM lab

The school has found that often the small moments are the most memorable, such as when a girl positively shifts her perception about her maths ability or draws up her own blueprints at home and shares her desire to become an engineer. Hearing girls regularly use STEM metalanguage has highlighted the impact school initiatives are having. Words like prototype, hypothesis, analysis, statistics, and blueprint are now commonplace in classrooms. Staff find the rich STEM conversation that is happening amongst both boys and girls exciting. Staff say that 'discussing STEM careers has become part of the fabric of our classrooms. Student aspirations and dreams for STEM careers is a common discussion in class'.

At the students' request, an extracurricular lunchtime program called the STEM lab was launched. The STEM lab offered learners the opportunity to engage in a range of self-directed projects, including building vertical self-watering recycled gardens. The STEM lab is open to all students but the majority of attendees for all extracurricular STEM programs are girls.

Students participate in the department's Game Changer challenge and over 50% of participants are girls, with a school team being awarded the Mott McDonald incubation prize.

Additionally, the Schools Regional STEM Fest initiative saw students from 10 local public schools come together to engage in 'all things STEM', 60% of which were girls. This has allowed partnerships with primary and secondary schools in the region to produce positive STEM momentum.

Promoting STEM pathways

The moment the school began investigating STEM, it came across multiple research articles highlighting the underrepresentation of women in STEM industries. So, it set to work designing an initiative underpinned by equity and inclusion.

Part of this is creating an environment that encourages all students to delve deeply, inquire often, engage in meaningful debates, and forge real-world connections. This starts by fostering a classroom culture whereby all students feel happy, and confident working through challenges, taking on the unknown, and embracing ‘trial and error’ as part of the learning process. In doing this, it is their vision to support all students, to think for themselves, advocate for their ideas, and to dream big.

The value and impact of working with women in STEM is important. They engage with external partnerships as part of their lessons. Such as working with Engineers Without Borders who run school programs and have provided advice on classroom initiatives. Female engineering students who ran STEM workshops with their students were phenomenal role models. Students actively participate in many of DART's virtual excursions, which are hosted by female STEM professionals and use STEM T4L loan kits, which the school has found to be a wonderful way to engage students in high-calibre STEM experiences.