Made in Manchester - Rethinking the teaching of STEM

Aramco Europe is collaborating with the University of Manchester to advance the teaching of science in classrooms around the world’s first industrial city. 

On World Science Day, we celebrate the pioneering work of the university’s  Science & Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub (SEERIH) programme of teacher professional development and Professor Lynne Bianchi who helped to establish it more than a decade ago. 

Prof Bianchi grew up in a home where science was often discussed around the dinner table. The daughter of a paediatrician and a pharmacist, her childhood connection with the subject would help to shape her future career. 

After working as a teacher in her home city, she would go on to join the University of Manchester in 2014, launching a new centre upskilling teachers to improve the way science and engineering was taught. Today it is part of a longstanding collaboration between Aramco Europe and the University of Manchester, which aims to advance the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, through a number of targeted initiatives. 

The university has a long and proud tradition of pioneering scientific research with 26 Nobel laureates among past and present staff and students. Yet Prof Bianchi recalls being struck by the stark contrast between what she observed in the laboratories and lecture halls of this prestigious Russell Group university, and what she encountered in classrooms across Greater Manchester. 

The best of times, the worst of times 

“It was a tale of two cities,” she recalls. “There we were sitting in this university steeped in science and engineering history, in the home of the Industrial Revolution and with Nobel prize winners working down the corridor. Yet you take a walk through school corridors in our city, and the picture was very different.” 

Only about 5% of primary teachers in the UK come from a science background – and those that do can often earn higher salaries outside the profession. 

Prof Bianchi places great emphasis on offering teachers practical support by addressing the parts of the curriculum that they may be struggling with and by actively listening to their feedback through initiatives such as the Aspiring Teacher Champion program, which Aramco has supported.  

By helping teachers in the classroom, SEERIH is hoping to improve retention and enjoyment within the profession. The other half of the equation involves ensuring that the pupils are fascinated by their learning. 

Turning the tap of lived experiences 

There is a popular belief that teaching primary school science should be all about putting on a theatrical show, complete with explosions, rockets and astronaut suits, to capture the shortened attention spans of Generation Alpha. 

 While that may have its place, Prof Bianchi is a strong believer in connecting with the lived experiences of young people and making science relatable to their everyday lives.  

“You can go down the road of designing space suits for astronauts, but do the children really relate to that? Take a different tac and ask them what’s broken in their school, they’ll be very quick to tell you.  One class in Wigan did a fascinating project on taps – they explored the variety of taps across their school and homes, even making a ‘Tapestry’! By looking closely at the world around them they identified and discussed the designs, fitness for purpose of materials and functionality for different users. The simplest things, led to powerful engineering insights.” 

She notes that making the teaching of science relatable to all pupils is also key and she advocates for social justice and equity need to be high on agendas.   

Engaging pupils with purposeful projects 

Our pupils have changed and work in a different environment than we did, which is why science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) needs to respond to their lives if we are to develop the next generation of innovators. 

It is also one of the reasons that Aramco, through its global citizenship program, supports SEERIH and several initiatives that aim to improve the teaching and learning of STEM. These include F1 in Schools, STEM Learning in the UK, Devoxx4Kids in the Netherlands, and the FarU Science Picnic in Poland. 

“There’s a whole body of research around Science Capital which clearly indicates that if people don’t identify with science by the ages of 9 or10, then they are unlikely to change these views at age 14 when making their subject choices. When we work with Aramco, they really get that.” 

“We want the teaching of science to be holistic which is where we really get into STEM and how science interacts with technology, interacts with engineering and interacts with maths. Of these, it is the ‘E’ in STEM that is sometimes overlooked because engineering is not a subject at secondary level – yet it underpins everything that companies like Aramco do. 

“So, we really need to demonstrate its importance to young people and for them to develop the hearts and minds of engineers – not just the qualifications. That’s where we make an impact.”