The Successful Students STEM Project: A Medium Scale Case Study

Schools in Australia and internationally are responding to calls to offer new and innovative learning opportunities in STEM. STEM stands for Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Mathematics, but when amalgamated into the acronym ‘STEM’ can potentially mean more than the sum of the four parts. In choosing how to respond to the STEM ‘push’, schools must first navigate through the many ‘versions’ of STEM emerging within the education community, and then face the task of upskilling teachers in content and language, teaching approaches, and new technology and equipment. Professional development of teachers plays an important part in assisting teachers and schools in this period of innovation and change. This chapter describes one such professional development project where teachers from ten schools in regional Victoria, Australia, were supported in developing new knowledge, language, pedagogy, and curriculum to support their development of a ‘STEM vision’ for their schools. The activities developed by these schools are outlined to illustrate that they each have taken a different approach to STEM, with case studies showing how these activities were developed. The factors critical to the success of the program are outlined, which have implications for a policy response, as well as challenges that may threaten the sustainability of such initiatives.