The Successful Students – STEM Project, “Skilling The Bay”

Professional development program for Year 7 and 8 STEM teachers from 10 schools in the Geelong region. A ‘STEM Vision framework’ provided an overarching structure for the teacher change process. The PD involved four cycles of PD delivery, teacher design and implementation of STEM programs, then teacher reporting. Also part of the programs were: a STEM teacher network ran in partnership with BioLab; a national STEM education conference involving teachers, academics and industry people; a ‘STEM into Industry’ program where generative links were made between teachers and industry representatives, with partnerships brokered by Upstart; celebration showcase at the completion of the program; and teacher action research training to assist teachers in gaining evidence of change.

Team members:

• Dr. Linda Hobbs (Lead Academic),
• Dr. John Cripps Clark (Lead Academic),
• Barry Plant (Project Officer)
• Jorja McKinnon (Project Officer).

Funding: DEECD/Gordon Institute, 2015-1017

Publications:

• Hobbs, L., Cripps Clark, J. & Plant, B. (2018). Negotiating partnerships in a STEM teacher professional development program: Applying the STEPS interpretive Framework. In L. Hobbs, C. Campbell, & M. Jones (Eds.). School-based Partnerships in Teacher Education: A research informed model for universities, schools and beyond (pp. 231-246). Dordrecht: Springer.
• Hobbs, L., Doig, B., & Plant, B. (accepted). The Successful Students STEM project: A medium scale case study. In J. Williams & B. Doig, Interdisciplinary mathematics education: State of the art and beyond (pp. xx-xx). Springer
• Tytler, R., Williams, G., Hobbs, L. & Anderson J. (accepted). Challenges and opportunities for a STEM interdisciplinary agenda. In J. Williams & B. Doig, Interdisciplinary mathematics education: State of the art and beyond, (pp. xx-xx). Springer
• Hobbs L., Cripps Clark J. & Plant B. (2018). Successful Students – STEM Program: Teacher Learning Through a Multifaceted Vision for STEM Education. In Jorgensen R., Larkin K. (Eds.), STEM education in the junior secondary: The state of play (pp. 133-168). Singapore: Springer.
• Hobbs, L. & Cripps Clark, J. (2018). Making STEM professional development count. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Australasian Science Education Research Association, Gold Coast, 2018. (I’ve provided a PDF of the poster for the 2018 ASERA presentation Hobbs and Cripps Clark*. Also an image of the logo).
• Hobbs, L., Mcleod, & Plant, B. (2017). Sustaining STEM-based reforms in secondary schools: Insights into successful implementation. Paper presented to the annual meeting of the Australasian Science Education Research Association, Sydney, 2017.
• The 2016 STEM Ed conference was an outcome of this project. Here is a link to the site for access to the ppt presentations on the Program page. This is a great resource. http://stemedcon.deakin.edu.au/