As the year cones to an end, in the Practical action Schools team we have been reflecting on our top five highlights of the year.  It’s been a great year so hard to choose, but here they are:

No 5 Way Back in January we launched our Ditch the Dirt STEM challenge.  This has been HUGELY popular, with children all over the country finding out about life In Turkana, Kenya and making their own water filters.  Over 1,700 sets of resources have been downloaded and used in schools around the world. We ran Ditch the Dirt workshops at The Big Bang fair …very excited pupils!

No 4Sharing work carried out as part of our Girls into Global STEM (GIGS) project.  This EU funded project combines global learning and improving digital skills with a focus on inspiring girls into STEM subjects. Great to be working with the University of Hull , and others on this. WE have an on-line Teacher Training Programme out soon.

No 3 In October this year we worked with Jersey Overseas Aid schools outreach to deliver workshops to pupils from around the island, and launch a competition. They took part in an amended version of our popular Stop the Spread STEM challenge…and they were fantastic!  We appeared on the Jersey ITV news, and were in the newspaper! @JOA

No 2 Thanks to a growing number of Teacher trainers who believe in our work we are reaching more teachers than ever through our teacher training programme launched last year. This year we have reached over 1,000 teachers! Huge thanks to all our great trainers.

No 1 We have enjoyed working with our colleagues at the British Science association on spreading the word about their great CREST awards, particularly because our STEM challenges and our Global Project Ideas can be used by pupils to gain awards. WE also worked with @3MUK on a new joint branded challenge, Fragile Freight, now part of their Young Innovators Challenge.  Well done to all the schools who took part this year, your pupils’ work has been amazing.