Written by Finley Lawson
We are always looking for new opportunities to reach out to schools, teachers and parents who are interested in becoming research partners. We have recently started working with The Education People and the Careers and Enterprise Company reach out to schools across Kent, and may be coming to a CEIAG networking meeting near you soon! We believe that supporting and developing students’ understanding of science in real world contexts enables more students to see (perhaps unexpected) links between their interests and STEM or STEM adjacent careers. Whilst our work with the Schools & College Engagement team on the Inspiring Minds Programme at CCCU has always involved supporting students to understand the relationships between disciplines (epistemic insight) and what this means for the place of STEM in their futures, we are excited to be able to bring these opportunities to new audiences by working with other education partners.
We know from our conversations with research schools, that for some students developing their understanding of a discipline’s preferred methods, questions and norms of thought has helped them to see the multidisciplinary opportunities available to them post-16; or perhaps to recognise that they can combine their love of scientific methods and the questions of history to explore a career in osteoarchaeology. By enabling students to recognise the shape and unique features of disciplines as they exist beyond the classroom curriculum they are empowered to explore relationships and opportunities that they may not have realised were even possible, whether that’s a career as a games writer or animation scientist, or drawing from relationships between arts and humanities disciplines to pursue photojournalism or visual merchandising.
By supporting students to become epistemically insightful we enable them to become rational and compassionate thinkers, able to create their own trails through education drawing on the richness created though disciplinary interactions, rather than feeling that they have to be constrained by disciplinary boundaries. If you would like to know how you can support your students to develop their understanding of science in real world contexts, or how different ways of knowing interact, you may be interested in becoming a research partner for one of our 11-18 projects:
- Permeable Walls between curriculum subjects for Years 7-9 includes a series of 4-6 lessons to examine Big Questions about personhood, AI and the world around us; or short-term interventions to support students’ development of epistemic insight (this includes critical thinking & meta-cognition) – opportunities can be co-created to support your learners.
- Becoming insightful about real world problems offers live and asynchronous interactive webinars and short projects for KS4 and KS5 on moral and societal questions which are examined through the lenses of science, religion and the wider humanities – opportunities can be co-created to support your learners.
To register your interest go to https://tinyurl.com/hello-ei