Promoting excellence in STEM education

Junior College Utrecht Willem van Oranje College Waalwijk

Andrea van Bruggen- van der LugtEducational DeveloperChemistry Teacher

Outline

• WHY excellence in STEM education?

• HOW? Two example excellence programmes:– Junior College Utrecht (JCU - UU and 27 schools)– My school: Willem van Oranje College (WvO)

• WHAT? - an example JCU- module: Membranes - an example WvO- Business and Research College

• What can you do?

Why promoting excellence?

Talented students– are willing and able do more than the regular

curriculum– are at risk to lose motivation (‘boring lessons’)– are at risk to develop inadequate study habits

(tendency towards ‘mediocrity’)– can positively influence their classmates

Education should be challenging and adapted to students needs and capacities - differentiation

Why promoting STEM education?

• STEM is challenging• Need for more students and professionals in STEM • Many STEM-talented students lose interest during

secondary education• In the Netherlands:

– The government promotes STEM– Science faculties are interested to cooperate with schools– In some schools: science departments take the lead in

talent development, other subjects follow

How : byenrichment programmes

To selected students

• Enrichment in the school- Taught by interested school teacherse.g. Willem van Oranje College

• Enrichment in university– Meeting in university– Taught by university teachers– Students miss some lessons at schoole.g. Junior College Utrecht

HOW 1 : Excellence programme at school

Excellence programme (WvO)

Challenging projects in Business & Research College

www.20-80learning.nl- replacing regular lessons for excellence programme- needs compacting of regular lessons - needs planning and organisation by students- open-ended assignments- to selected students

Dissemination in the school

Changing the learning culture in the school

Excellence programme at WvO

- inside school - lectures by e.g. former students, teachers- open-ended assignments for differentiation www.betadifferentiatie.nl (designed by JCU)

- challenging projects - travelling labs at school- scientific olympiads

- outside school- masterclasses and webclasses at universities- excursions to universities and companies – DSM, ASML

and KPMG

• Foto’s van mijn schoolproject

How 2: Excellence programme at university

Excellence programme (JCU)An initiative of Utrecht University (UU)

and 27 secondary schools

- To offer challenging science education to talented 17–18 year-old students in an academic environment (U- talent Academy)

The network model of JCU

The JCU network

»

Output:

-STEM excellence programmes + modules for nation wide dissemination

- teacher professionalization programme for promoting excellence in STEM education

U-Talent Academy

for 150 selected talented studentes of 27 secondary partnerschools

2 years 2 days a month

Program:

-Introduction – community building

-Research oriented modules

-Excursion – CERN (Geneve) / Research institutes (Grenoble)

-Thesis in cooperation with researchers

U-Talent Academy

for 150 selected talented studentes of 27 secondary partnerschools

2 years 2 days a month

Program:

-Introduction – community building

-Research oriented modules

-Excursion – CERN (Geneve) / Research institutes (Grenoble)

-Thesis in cooperation with researchers

By who: teachers and scientists

• Scientists have few experience in education innovation

• Teachers have few knowledge of recent developments in science research

Cooperation between teachers and scientists is the key of the development of high-grade lesson materials

The ‘Membrane’ module

Example of a research oriented module (JCU): Membranes as target for antibiotics

(for grade 11 / age 17)

Cooperation between - JCU

- Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, Department of Chemistry, University of Utrecht

Moments of choice

Working in a community

Finshing with a product

Writing a scientific report

Inquiry based learninghigh grade lesson materials - Making vesicles of phospholipids as a

model of membranes- Reconstruction of the discovery of

the phospholipids bilayer of membranes

- Study of the influence of antibiotics on the growth of bacteria

- Determination of the composition of the different phospholipids in bacteria and yeast by thin layer chromatography (TLC).

Inquiry based learning

Characteristics of JCU modules

• Connected to research at University of Utrecht• Moments of choice - Repetition, Deepening and Extending,

Enrichment- Subjects

- Biology/ Chemistry- Physics / Mathematics

• Finishing with a product (poster, presentation, model, report….)

• Inquiry- based learning

What can you do? Recommendations

Excellent students needs to be challenged• Differentiation using excellence programmes

– Start in your own classroom, but also outside the classroom

– Use open ended assignments, e.g. from www.jcu.nl (examples in English)

– Cooperate with teachers from the own and other schools, by exchange of best practice in excellence programmes

– Cooperation with external expertise is the key for development of high grade lesson materials for an excellence programme

a.w.vanBruggen-vanderLugt@uu.nl a.w.vanbruggen@wvoranje.nl

Effect of promoting excellence in STEM education