Setting up a STEM Club

Science, Technology, Engineering & Math’s (STEM) Clubs were set up and supported by two LEP fieldworkers during the pilot phase of the project. Now, schools run their own clubs working with a variety of partners including STEMNET, Young Engineers and The British Science Association. Schools can work in partnership with their local HEI to set-up and support clubs in their area thorough provision of resources, access to expertise they may not have in school, STEM days for club members and/or training session designed to help and support the clubs in school.

If you would like to set up an after school STEM Club or need details about activities that you could run with your students then please find below several organisations that support afterschool STEM clubs. 

STEM Clubs - http://www.stemclubs.net/

A free to join network of STEM clubs managed by STEMNET.  It is free to join, once you have registered you get access to project ideas, hints and tips on how to get your club up and running, a school dashboard, information about club leader CPD, club events as well as news about what other clubs are up to and resources.

Young Engineers - http://www.youngeng.org

 Another club network specifically for engineering focussed clubs, again it is free to join.  Once registered you can then have access to resources and ideas for setting up and running your club.

Young Engineers also run various national challenges and competitions that you might want your club to get invovled with such as the Royal Navy Challenge, the BAA Challenge and the Airbus Challenge.  They also run the Engineering Club for Britain competitions.

CREST - http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/ccaf/CREST/

CREST is Britain’s largest national award scheme for project work in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). It gives young people aged 11-19 opportunities to explore real world projects in an exciting way. CREST links closely to the curriculum and is a great way to make STEM creative and engaging – both in and out of the class.  These are ideal projects for doing as part of an after school club activity and in class.  The website has lots of ideas for projects and resoucrse links.

CREST Star Investigators - http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/ccaf/CRESTStarInvestigators/index.htm

CREST Star Investigators is a UK-wide award scheme that enables children to solve scientific problems through practical investigation. The activities focus on thinking about, talking about, and doing science. They are designed to be used primarily outside of class time as part of a science or engineering club, though some are suitable for use in the classroom. 

What are the aims of a Club?

• To give young people the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of challenges and experience the teamwork involved in science and engineering projects.
• To show that science and engineering involve solving problems and use a wide range of skills.
• To provide a meeting ground for like-minded young people and professional scientists and engineers.
• To see that science and engineering challenges are fun.

For further details of the Club leaders training, please write us an email with your requirements on HESTEM@raeng.org.uk 

The evaluation of these STEM Clubs Activities can be found on LEP Evaluation Report December 2009 - Pages 8-11 and LEP Evaluation Report Appendices - Appendix D.