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Tony Houghton is Educational Development Director at CCITE (Cambridge Centre for Innovation in Technological Education) working on iSTEM+ conceived in 2010 by CCITE Founder Professor Adrian Oldknow. Tony is responsible for collaborative problem solving and student perception of self and STEAM. He leads/led the KIKS project and CCITE contributions to the GeoGebra STEM, U of Cambridge ORBIT, IET and HP projects.
iSTEM+ is the abbreviation for integrated STEM and more. It is a cross-curricular approach to education and skills in STEM for ages 5-19, which brings together stakeholders including charities, commercial organisations, schools, colleges and academies.
Stakeholders’ activities are generally coordinated by a teacher in a “Skilful School”, forming an “iSTEM+ Hub” at the centre of an emergent and locally determined “iSTEM+ Cluster”.
iSTEM+ communities are active at local, regional, national and international levels. Increasingly, thematic activities are transcending geographical boundaries, with iSTEM+ Clusters organised virtually.
NB This content is taken direct from the iSTEM+ Moodle created by Philip Moffit. Phil is an engineer working in engineering and asset / facilities management at the Royal School of Military Engineering. He is also a STEM Ambassador and Schools Liaison Officer for the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Phil worked with us mainly on the KIKS project and it is appropriate to acknowledge his major contributions.
iSTEM+ promotes emergent, non-prescriptive and bottom-up communal approaches to learning. The dominant pedagogical models are project-based learning and networked learning. The inter-related elements of iSTEM+ are detailed at this download.
A number of instantiated examples of iSTEM+ activities are linked below, and the following indicative case studies show the configuration and running of iSTEM+ aligned activities in schools:
Primary: iSTEM+ and “gSTEM Thursdays” at Gomer Junior School, Hampshire, UK. gomerjuniorschool.co.uk/gstem/
Secondary: “iSTEM+ in Flight” at Hockerill Anglo-European College, Hertfordshire, UK.
International collaboration: iSTEM+ and “Kids Inspiring Kids” in Spain, Finland, Hungary and the UK.
The first known use of the term iSTEM+ was in 2010. Professor Adrian Oldknow, Emeritus Professor of STEM at the University of Chichester, conceived the notion in response to skills shortages in collaboration with UK STEM stakeholders and teachers when designing enhancement and enrichment interventions. Notably, it was acknowledged at the time that STEM education in UK schools was approached through stand-alone and often abstract subjects, as discrete from real-world problem solving perspectives.
From 2010 onwards iSTEM+ projects were progressively developed to integrate STEM education with more subjects, skills and people. Specific projects, designed to support whole-school approaches to embedding joined-up STEM education & skills in the curriculum for all learners, were commissioned and designed by Professor Adrian Oldknow and Doctor Tony Houghton. They were generally incubated by the Cambridge Centre for Innovation in Technological Education (CCITE), where Doctor Tony Houghton is the Education Development Director.
The following approaches and projects are related to iSTEM+, either lending themselves to its framework for effective delivery or directly influencing the framework itself. An early priority of iSTEM+ was to reform “with minimal disruption and expense, in the minimum time”, and as a result teachers and other stakeholders are encouraged to use and to archive community resources which can assist iSTEM+ aligned teaching and learning. Some examples of wider scale projects which have been approached using iSTEM+ include:
The following organisations, agencies and institutions have supported or are supporting iSTEM+:
Association for Science Education
Association of School and College Leaders
Association of Teachers of Mathematics
Centre for Innovation in Technological Education in Cambridge
Design and Technology Association
Engineering & Technology Education Partnership
Institution of Civil Engineers
Institution of Engineering and Technology
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Micro:bit Educational Foundation
National Society for Education in Art & Design
Alton Convent School
Apáczai Nevelési és Általános Művelődési Központ School
Bálint Márton School
Bohunt School
Brune Park Community School
Budapesti Fazekas Mihály School
Carisbrooke College
Children and Young Adults Derbyshire
CEMAST Fareham College
Comberton Village College and Sixth Form
Crofton School
De Sar School
Gomer Junior School
Hockerill AngloEuropean College
Huhtasuo School
John Cabot Academy
Laukaa School
Linton Village College
Lope de Vega School
Malmesbury School
Mankola School
Palokka KIKS Team
Park House School
Parkside Academy
Perins School
Raedwald Trust
Rainham Mark Education Trust
Reading College
San Jose School
Sánchez Cantón School
Sashegyi Arany János School
Sawston Village College
Sierra Sur School
St John’s College School
The Burgess Hill Academy
The Petersfield School
Torrente Ballester School
Twickenham Academy
UTC Reading
Vega de Toranzo School
Viitaniemi School
Wildern Secondary School
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