purplecat | STEM Induction

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On Thursday I was "trained" to be a STEM Ambassador. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and STEMNET is a national public engagement network, primarily aimed at working with children. As a result we all had to be CRB-checked during the session. Or at least our CRB check had to be put in motion, which seemed to involve a lot of confusion about identity documents and proof of address.

The session was actually a lot more useful than many training sessions I've been on. There was a fair bit of useful advice on handling groups of children, with a rider that you should never be left alone with them and so should always be able to hand over to a teacher if necessary.

Mostly STEMNET acts as a brokering service, linking the volunteers with schools, charities and other organisations who are looking for someone to help with a lesson, careers day or other event but they also provide resources containing ideas for demonstrations and so forth. In the induction session we were all encouraged to try out a "science busk" which consisted essentially of a quick science-based trick or demonstration. I think I'd want a rather better grasp of the science behind each one than was provided before I did it in public, but none of them depended on particularly esoteric science so that wouldn't be that hard, I think. I certainly thought I might volunteer to science busk at the upcoming Manchester Science Festival.

I was interested to note that of 13 people attending the session, 10 were female, including

the_ladylark to our mutual surprise. That ratio was striking considering that STEM is generally a male dominated area and I wonder if there is some cultural effect in play that makes public understanding work of this kind something of more interest to women than men.

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purplecat

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