This was the first funded filming of STEM Academy Video resources, and we were incredibly lucky to have the support of Hive Portsmouth. The short deadline for the funding period meant we had to get started sharpish in September. Luckily, we had an incredible team of educators and STEM professionals at the ready to get stuck in and design activities linked to the professions. Over a series of 6 development sessions, the educator, Candice, and Lynette explored and created activities suitable to be carried out at home, after a brief trial of these activities at Bohunt and Gosport and Fareham Multi academy Trust, we were ready to script.

Gavin of Voyage Creatives was ready with his extensive scripting knowledge and worked closely to support and prepare are amazing STEM professions, Emily, Conrad, and Dan. The UTC Portsmouth were quick to offer their brilliant learning space for filming, and then offered a fantastic group of year 10 students to complete the tasks and model the activity outcomes. I have to say that I was incredibly impressed at the embedding of Engineering Habits of Mind in the existing UTC curriculum, it meant we had some professional innovators in the class. I must make a particular mention and thanks to one student, Mia who did a great job of recording some extra materials to explain how to use the resources.

Gavin spent many hours of editing; the video edits were shown to various groups but some support all along the journey was provided by Andy Smith of the University of Portsmouth. Andy trained me as a teacher back in 2009 so his opinions were gratefully received. After a few style changes, some great graphics, a pedagogical review by Mike Fleetham of the Thinking Classroom, we were ready to go!

Onto the release, that was a bit harder than we expected, social media isn’t by specialism, and we really wanted these videos to reach far and wide across the city and beyond. That’s when we called upon the expect, local tech wizard, Sass. I think that this truly collaborative approach with constant support from professionals across STEM and educational fields has really been key to our success. I am so incredibly pleased with our final resources; my aspiration now is that these videos reach far and wide and inspire a whole new generation of inspiration STEM professions.

Before I sign off, I can hear you shouting, “Who are the STEM professionals? What do they do??”

Well, my much-loved reader, you’ll have to wait until the videos are released and watch them to find out, I promise you won’t be disappointed.