National STEM Centre formally opens

On Thursday 8 July, the National STEM Centre officially opened its doors to the public, and launched its new eLibrary - a treasure trove of education materials for STEM teachers and lecturers across the UK.

In the morning the Centre hosted the third annual STEM Partnership Conference, which brings together partners from professional bodies, charitable foundations, employers, government and academia. Addressing the conference, Helen Williams, Director of Curriculum and Pupil Wellbeing at the Department for Education, discussed both the progress made to date in boosting young people's uptake of science and mathematics, and the need for continued effort.

Delegates were challenged to put forward their views on how government should ensure further progress, and these lively discussions are captured in the five top action points prioritised by delegates:

Later in the day delegates celebrated the launch of the National STEM Centre, with addresses from former science minister and Gatsby founder, Lord Sainsbury, and the Chairman of the Wellcome Trust, Sir William Castell, who both spoke of the fundamental importance of STEM education for the economic future of the UK, with Lord Sainsbury introducing the role of the Centre in helping teachers and lecturers to enthuse their students:

"The Centre will bring together in one place all the best resources to support the teaching of science, mathematics, technology and engineering, with the aim of making it quick and easy for teachers to get access to the high quality resources they need - either by physically visiting the Centre or by accessing its eLibrary via the web."

In her presentation to delegates National STEM Centre Director, Jenifer Burden, outlined the Centre's vision for providing a sustainable infrastructure to support the work of the STEM education community.The Centre's eLibrary - which will be critical to meeting this objective - currently holds around 30 collections of teaching materials and will expand rapidly over the next three years. These online materials will build on the Centre's extensive physical library, which includes print, multimedia and practical teaching and learning resources from the 1960s to present day.

Housing a national resource collection was a key recommendation of the 2006 STEM Programme Report, which called for a 'British Library of STEM Resources'. Speaking at the launch, Lord Sainsbury, who had a leading role in the 2006 report, said:

"I am extremely pleased about the way that industry, schools, learned societies, charitable funds and Government have worked together in recent years to improve the service provided to teachers."

"But there is still more that could be done in terms of reducing the number of schemes that exist, increasing their effectiveness, and making them more inspirational, and I am confident that in the difficult years ahead the National STEM Centre will play a key role in this important task."