English and STEM Camp is an inspiring event, which is designed to motivate and enthuse learners of English and STEM to develop their English language and STEM capabilities through integrated, hands-on learning experiences.
32 English language and STEM teachers volunteered to be trained as English and STEM Camp leaders during a three-day workshop in August 2019. The programme introduced the concept of the English-STEM Camps and exemplified how these camps could inspire and motivate students through the integrated learning of English and STEM. The teachers worked collaboratively and developed their ideas for teaching English and STEM subjects in a more integrated way in both the camps and their classrooms. They developed their awareness of STEM-related terminology and their abilities to explain this terminology in English. They also carried out simple scientific tests and learnt how to train and support students in carrying out these tests for themselves.
During the school holidays in late October/early November the English-STEM Camp leaders conducted their first camp activities with students on the themes of:
- Electrifying
- Flying high
- On the move
- Fantastic light
All resources have been developed by the Centre for Science Education, Sheffield Hallam University and Shell Education Science for the Community Science Club ran within the Inspire project in Thailand. The idea belongs to Jen Smyth, the University of North London.
Remote English and STEM Camp
Since the Kazakh government has temporarily closed educational institutions to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, we switched to remote training of the English and STEM Camp leaders. Three live webinars were designed to continue the work started in 2019. English teachers and STEM teachers worked together and remotely in virtual classes and studied methodology of teaching scientific terminology in English through scientific experiments. This practice will be applied by the teachers in their schools either face-to-face or online in autumn.