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COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS2017

CATEGORY APPLIED FOR / Achieving Better Outcomes In Partnership
PROJECT NAME
(as you wish to see it published) / Collaborative Learning in Science – Re-inventing the Classroom
LEAD ORGANISATION(S) /

West Dunbartonshire Council
Glasgow Science Centre

DEPARTMENT/TEAM / Education, Learning and Attainment
PARTICIPANT NAMES OR PARTNER ORGANISATIONS / Laura Mason – Chief Education Officer / West Dunbartonshire Council – Education, Learning and Attainment
Alan Graham – Education Officer / West Dunbartonshire Council – Education, Learning and Attainment
Bridget Bean – Head Teacher, St Patrick’s Primary School / West Dunbartonshire Council – Education, Learning and Attainment
Dr Sharon McNab / Glasgow Science Centre
CONTACT NAME / Linda Butler
CONTACT DETAILS / / 01389 737517
CAN WE PUBLISH THIS APPLICATION FORM ON OUR WEBSITE? / YES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / In one short paragraph please describe this project is about, what it has achieved, and why it is delivering excellence.
Please note that we may use this summary for promotional purposes on our website and elsewhere.
This project is a collaborative partnership between West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) and the Glasgow Science Centre (GSC) and is transforming how Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects are taught to primary children. The project is based on early intervention with primary school children experiencing STEM subjects in an immersive learning environmentcreated in consultation with science professionals. The learning goes beyond knowledge-based teaching by allowing childrento direct their own learning through inquisitive and creative thinking. Through this approach, pupils embracethe range of skills a science professional would need, as well as the required knowledge. This is an ambitious long-term project which is the first of its kind in Scotland and is aimed at addressing a significant future skills shortage in the technology sector.The project demonstrates how partnership and collaborative working can be more broadly developed in areas not previously considered possible.
PLANNING and DELIVERING / What is your project about, and why is it important? What are you aiming to achieve, and how does this fit with the bigger picture? How have you carried out your project effectively?
In 2015, two national reports identified major challenges concerning STEM subjects in both employment and education. Engineering UK reported that engineering employers are projected to need 1.82 million people with engineering skills over the next 10 years. This means the number of engineering apprentices and graduates will have to double to meet the demand. Also, at the launch of Education Scotland’s “Building Society” reportthat year it was quoted that 76% of businesses think Scotland is in real danger of being left behind by emerging countries. The report stated that while learning in technologies is a key target for improvement for children aged 3 to 18,it highlighted the particular challengesfacing thePrimary School Sector.
It was clear to WDC education staff that STEM education had to become a greater priority in every educational establishment, but more than that, if it was to fully engage with pupils, it required a re-examination of how the subject could be taught beyond the traditional approach of knowledge-based learning which existed in primary schools.
Primary children in WDC schools already benefitted from an existing partnership between WDC and GSC through visits to the science centre,with schools taking advantage of the many opportunities that GSC had to offer within its own campus. What interested education staff was the notion of bringing the science centre’s methodology into all WDC’s primary schools to embed this into the wider educational setting.
As part of their research to examine how this might be possible, educational staff looked at GSC’ssuccessful input to the design of flexible, futuristic and interactive waiting areas in Glasgow’s new Royal Hospital for Sick Children. The waiting areasGSC created were welcoming, open and interactive spaces where playful activities could combine with absorbing games and challenges, providing an interactive experience for children visiting the hospital.
What WDC staff saw in this work was the opportunity todevelop the existing partnership further through a joint venture tocreateopen, flexible and engaging spaces within primary schools to enhance the teaching and learning of STEM subjects, and, subject to evaluation, to rollout this approach to other schools within the Authority. This approach was also consistent with the Council’s goal to change the culture and context of learning through repurposing areas of existing schools to innovate learning.
Discussions commenced with staff at the GSC to explore how the idea could be developed in the context of a primary school. Particular challenges however were emerging as the concept of the STEM Hub was being developed; that of how to provide the right support for teaching staff in an area of learning which, to some, can appear complicated and complex. Where the secondary sector has teaching staff with specific subject specialisms, the primary sector lacked this experience and knowledge in STEM subjects. In addition to this, it became clear that teaching staff would have to change their approach from the traditional teaching of knowledge to an approach based around facilitationwhich would fully utilise the new learning environment.
GSC staff already had considerable experience in facilitating highly interactive and structured learning sessions for schools visiting the centre. These sessions were carefully aligned with the Curriculum for Excellence and National Qualification stages and were approved by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Education.While these sessions were designed for delivery in the centre it was clear there was significant potential to develop a bespoke option through the partnership for use in schools to work within the proposed STEM Hub.
Working together,staff from St Patrick’s andGSC staff developed a teacher pack, entitled ‘Inspire and Challenge’ with lessons or ‘challenges’ based on three levels – Early, First and Second with 3 lessons for each level. GSC staff then delivered a professional development session for teaching staff together with a number of integrated STEM challenges in which the teacher would be the facilitator.The new learning approach which emerged focussed on teachers and pupils as scientists by encouragingboth groups to explore the unknown and through this to investigate and build their scientific awareness. All teaching staff within St Patrick’s have attended the development session run by the GSC and can now deliver the ‘Inspire and Challenge’ sessions.
Concurrent with this, colleaguesfrom the GSC continued to work with St Patrick’s staff to create a design brief to convert a large space within St Patrick’s Primary School to the Council’s first STEM Hub.
In August 2016, St Patrick’s Primary became the first school to operate with a fully developed STEM Hubwith all pupils in the school benefiting from the use of the Hub. Physically, the STEM Hub is made up of three zones – The Cave (used for instruction), the Tree (used for flexible learning) and the Lab (used for practical / experimental work.
The science subjects taught include physics, chemistry and biology, the technologies include ICT, business, health & food technology, textile technology, graphic communication, design, manufacture, electronics, programmable control, mechanisms, structures and energy. While engineering is not a discrete curricular area, engineering outcomes are included within the technologies curricular area.Mathematics includes numeracy.
To support raised attainment in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing,the ‘challenges’ within the teacher pack are designed to provide children with opportunities to apply the skills learned in traditional classroom lessons to real-life challenges in the Hub, such as the writing of regular functional pieces in their digital STEM log books, as well as numeracy skills developed through timing of experiments, measuring, weighing, coding, and the analysis of data.The teaching packs have been used in three schools with a positive impact on attainment and will be deployed to other schools within the authority.
West Dunbartonshire is an area of multiple-deprivation where children from a poor backgroundare much less likely to visit the GSC with their parents. The STEM Hub breaks down this barrier through its inclusive approach, ensuring that every child in the school is involved.
Through a phased-approach, and in continuation of the partnership, STEM Hubs will be rolled out to all schools within West Dunbartonshire. The design is flexible and can be scaled down where there is more limited space available for creation of the learning environment.
The considerable interest in the subject from children has resulted in the running of an after-school STEM club which is held every Tuesday. The club invites professionals in discrete areas of science to come and speak to children attending the club. Previous subjects have included Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and computer coding.
INNOVATION & LEADING PRACTICE / Why is your project innovative? How is it helping to prepare for the future? What is happening to help other organisations benefit from your approach?
Traditionally, the teaching of STEM subjects in primary schools has been knowledge-based through conductingsimple experiments in the classroom.The creation of STEM Hubs by WDC and the GSCarechallenging that approach through early intervention to create an immersive environment where collaboration and independent learning takes place and where the skills of the scientist, such as problem solving and evaluative skills, are as important as the outcome of experiments. The more traditional classroom design constrained the development of innovative ideas and in no way offered a solution to the immensechallenge facing employers in the technologies industries.
As mentioned above, the approach is inclusive and is designed to engage young people in subjects which are essential to community and society and where the challenges of the future have been clearly defined. Previous approaches had never envisaged this level of activity in these subjects taking place in a primary school. The staff at St Patrick’s however realised that primary pupils had a far greater capacity to gain from this type of learning than had previously been considered.
The work at St Patrick’s is not commonplace in Scotland. The STEM Hub has generated significant
interest with education officers from otherAuthorities as well as representatives from Education
Scotland visiting the school. In November 2016, a motion raised by Jackie Bailie MSP in the
Scottish Parliament acknowledgedthat theSTEM Hubwas the first of itskind in Scotland and on
13June 2017, the Hub wasrecognised by a visit from Shirley-Ann Somerville, Minister for Further
Education,Higher Education andScience.
The approach is capable of replication by other educational authorities and can be scaledto suit the
available space within any school.
RESULTS & IMPACT / What impact are you having, or expect to have? Are you delivering what you set out to achieve?How do you know this?
The long-term goal for the STEM Hub is to generate a high degree of interest in STEM subjects
with pupils who, at a later stage, will seriously consider a career in this field. While there is a high
degree of confidence the project to deliver on this aim in the long-term, the work has been subject to
evaluation and detailed scrutiny.To examine the progress of pupils, teachers set a series of maths
challengequestions for 312 pupils in primaries 2,3, and 6 across St Patrick’s, Edinbarnet and St
Joseph’sPrimary Schools. Previously, attainment information highlighted a gap in pupil
achievement in thearea of data handling. To address this, a series of maths lessons was delivered
in the morning. Inthe afternoon children used their learning from the morning to complete engaging
STEM challenges that involved recording information from science experiments, including the
creation of graphs. The resulting improvement from previous challenges showed and average
increase in score of 29% perpupil.
In December 2016, GSC staffran a focus group at St Patrick’s Primary to assessthe impact of the
new STEM Hub with threegroups of pupils taking part – P1, P4 and P7. Pupils were asked talk
about their experience of the STEM Hub compared to the classroom and were also given the
opportunity to interact with some of the lessons resources.
All groups said they enjoyed being in the STEM Hub with the following key reactions:
(P7) “I like itbecause we can do a lot more experiments and stuff and it’s more fun working in here
than in the classroom”. (P4) “As compared to the classroom, it feels more enclosed in a good way.
(P1) “Yeswe enjoy being here. I like to play with the things. I like the big things there”. (P7) “I want
to be aswimmer but I want to design my own goggles. When we were doing things in here and
makingmodels it gives you more idea of how to make things. And if you’re like working with a
group.Because if I’m going to end up making goggles, I’m not going to do it on my own”.
P7 pupils recalled how the teachers had progressed from the ‘delivery of a lesson’ to an ‘Inspire
and Challenge’ approach;
"Teachers have started leaving us because they said you should try and figure it out. Then you can ask each other about it. Last week, the teacher had explained and then she’d done all the explaining and then she said what questions you want to ask each other but we did not really need to ask each other because we’d already learned about it. Then she thought she would do a wee bit of teaching and then this week she left us to it, she gave us the equipment and just told us what to do and ask each other questions. We ask each other more questions; it’s more professional because we learned from each other instead of learning from the teacher all the time."
The STEM Hub at St Patrick’s Primary required funding of £120,000. This was met by a Scottish Futures Trust grant. The development and production of the learning pack cost £45,000. This may seem high, however the Pupil Equity Funding to Scottish Schools for the next 5 years makes this affordable to any primary school as the approach can be scaled down to suit the particular school’s physical environment. This was a key component of the partnership with the GSC; that the approach must be affordable through a flexibility in scale.

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