The launch of Curiosity in Communities
In March 2023, youth workers, community learning and development workers, researchers and STEM engagement professionals gathered in Edinburgh and online to celebrate the launch of the Curiosity in Action programme.
“This feels like the start of something really special. To have STEM professionals and youth workers working together to create meaningful opportunities for young people is amazing!”
Curiosity In Action is a two-year programme building an evidence-base, capacity and network in Scotland to explore the impact of STEM in youth work funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).
The day kicked off with a welcome and introduction to the programme from Lewis Hou (Science Ceilidh). We were then joined by Ian Stewart (Education Scotland), Hilary Phillips (Youthlink Scotland), Sheena McDonald (Glasgow Science Centre), Claire McGinley (Young STEM Leaders) and Abi Ashton (STFC, Royal Observatory Edinburgh) for a panel discussion on “The Role of STEM to Support Youth Work”. From the panel and further conversations in smaller groups, several common themes emerged around the role of STEM in youth work including; promoting confidence, well-being, and resilience; making learning fun and enjoyable; fostering engagement, curiosity, and inspiration; and ensuring diversity, inclusion, and safe spaces for all learners. The panel discussion is available to watch here.
Amy Calder (YouthLink Scotland) delivered a workshop exploring the National Youth Work Outcomes & Skills Framework and how it could be used across sectors when planning and evaluating sessions with young people. We were then able to put this learning into practice through a hands-on engineering challenge, making spaghetti bridges in teams while reflecting on how the activity linked back to the framework. The teams all fed back that this particular activity strongly linked back to the framework across several of the outcomes including developing relationships, communicating effectively and creatively problem-solving.
We explored which of the outcomes in the framework felt the most important to those at the event and looked at how this varied between sectors. Those coming in from a youth work/CLD setting highlighted supporting young people’s confidence, fostering positive relationships and wellbeing as a priority. Researchers in attendance shared that their priorities were generating excitement, contextualising knowledge and encouraging the young people to try out new ideas. For those working in the STEM engagement field, building trust, inspiring young people and nurturing curiosity were highlighted as priorities. There was a shared emphasis across all sectors on the importance of making sure young people have fun when engaging with STEM. We rounded the day off with smaller group discussions focused on the interests of those at the event. The themes explored were; how to build confidence in youth workers around STEM; using digital games in youth work; youth activism; and how best to communicate STEM in youth work with academics and researchers. This has just been the start of these conversations with online communities of practice being planned for the network to further explore these topics and support each other where we can. You can read more about these discussions and catch up on any of the community of practice events on this padlet.
“It has been useful meeting new people with different expertise and learning from some of their experiences and work and making connections that could feed into future plans and development of ideas”
The Curiosity in Action launch event highlighted the importance of centring young people in STEM engagement and the need for collaboration between youth workers, researchers and STEM engagement professionals. By recognising and embracing the distinct priorities and perspectives of each field, we can create more inclusive, engaging and effective STEM learning experiences for young people. This has just been the start and we’re looking forward to seeing where these conversations and connections will lead. If you would like to be involved, you can sign up for the network mailing list here and/or join the network space on Community Lab to keep connected with other network members.
“The main thing that has been sparked is the realisation of how important youth work being linked with STEM is”
If you would like to learn more about the action research programme you can read about it here, we also send updates on the programme to the network mailing list.