What is the Connecting STEM Teachers programme?
Connecting STEM Teachers (CST) is a national programme which supports teachers and STEM subjects leads of science, design/technology, engineering, maths and computing. We do this by helping teachers engage a greater number and wider spectrum of school pupils with STEM education and engineering careers awareness.
Through regional school networks led by teacher coordinators, the programme has been building project based pedagogy and teacher advocacy of engineering education to provide students with thought-provoking real world engineering projects, helping them to make informed decisions about following a career into engineering.
By providing practical, hands-on resources along with training opportunities to effectively use the materials, our teachers are able to develop valuable, real-world subject knowledge and creative problem solving skills in their students, giving them the knowledge and skills to progress to post-16 STEM subjects qualifications.
CST has created 765,000 STEM experiences in more than 6,000 schools since 2011, training 8,500 teachers and providing them with engineering focused resource boxes and packs.
How does the CST programme work?
Building our school networks
Central to the continued success of the programme are the Academy’s 48 teacher coordinators (TCs), who are teachers of STEM subjects and educational consultants. Many hold the STEM Learning CPD Quality Mark – Associate Facilitator and they lead local networks of STEM teachers across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
TCs establish large networks of schools, training teachers on a termly basis and providing them with continuous professional development and STEM-focused pedagogy to be used in their lessons and in STEM clubs.
They do this by:
- connecting teachers across STEM subjects and setting up peer-to-peer support networks for local schools
- and teachers
- promoting and facilitating cross-curricular working and collaboration
- delivering training on high-quality, curriculum-linked thematic classroom resources that link STEM in the
- classroom to engineering in a real-world context
- addressing gender imbalances and fighting stereotypes, for example by profiling female and underrepresented engineers and ambassadors at their meetings and events
- finding collaborative opportunities with STEM partners to deliver a unified experience for schools – STEM Learning regional schools’ networks and EngineeringUK’ s careers resources and in-school challenges.
What are the benefits to my school?
- Training and free STEM resources kits (engineering-themed STEM boxes) to enhance and add context to the curriculum
- Free professional development on the latest STEM pedagogy
- Opportunities to network with STEM teachers from schools in your area
- Information on grants and funding opportunities for schools
- Insight into innovations in STEM learning
- Improved knowledge of engineering careers
- Recognition as a leader in STEM learning and teaching
- Participate in enhanced learning experiences called collaborative projects
How is CST funded?
The programme, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, would not be possible without the generous support of its funders.
Special thanks to our strategic partner Shell, for significant support of the programme. CST is also generously supported by: Amazon, Boeing and the estate of the late Mr. John Gozzard.
Strategic partner
CST is also supported by:
