STEM news

The National STEM Centre in York houses the UK's largest open physical collections of teaching and learning resources for STEM subjects. July 2010 sees the launch of the online resources and it starts with 30 collections from 20 partner organisations, for example the Institute of Physics and the Nuffield Foundation. The collection will expand over the coming years as more resources are digitised.

The National STEM Centre in York is a wonderful creation but not many schools or teachers can find the time to visit if they are not local. The eLibrary gives teachers the opportunity to visit one central place where resources are available. The centre will use its archive in piloting continuing professional development for career enhancement, working with the National Science Learning Centre and the Association for Science Education (ASE).

The centre will publish an e-newsletter highlighting recent additions to the site so that users are constantly aware of the resources available to them. The eLibrary should ultimately reduce duplication, identify missed opportunities and offer support for teachers.

Many children gain an interest in STEM subjects if they can understand it and relate it back to real life, and so because of this, the centre is gathering high quality resources to show the value of physics, and other STEM subjects, in the outside world.

The eLibrary also provides a unique opportunity to make available to all teachers, good resources from the past that are now out of print. For example the secondary mathematics resources 'GAIM' and 'SMILE' have already been digitised and so can now be used by any mathematics teacher in the country.

http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/ (opens a new browser window)