The focus of this thesis was to increase STEM (science, technology, engineering
and maths) skills in students across North Wales. Initially the research evaluated
local workshops that were designed to increase students’ engagement in STEM were also evaluated. However, the main emphasis of the research came from supporting one of the workshops on the academic side, by introducing Precision Teaching (PT) techniques, more specifically flashcards, known as SAFMEDS (Say all fast minute everyday shuffled).Chapter 1 of this thesis begins with a brief overview of the STEM agenda. This chapter examined the current educational system and assessed new ways of improving learning. Chapter 2 assessed
ongoing workshops aimed at raising motivation and learning in STEM topics.
10 workshops were assessed and found that the main impact of the workshops was an increase students’ real world perception. The results of this study suggest that the main elements of a successful workshop are hands on learning, opportunities for collaborative work, increasing confidence in STEM fields and real world application. It is evident that workshops alone are not sufficient in altering students’ perception towards STEM, therefore more research needs to be
conducted on increasing students’ abilities in STEM. Chapter 3 of this thesis comprised a set of studies aimed at evaluating the use of a low-tech procedure, of PT techniques into one of the workshops evaluated in Chapter 2. The researcher incorporated flashcards known as SAFMEDS into three Techno Camp
workshops: Internet boot camp (n=101), robotics (n=105), and wearable technology (n=9). The results looked at the boot camps without the
flashcards (control) and with the flashcards (experimental). The results showed that the students who attended the boot camps that incorporated SAFMEDS
cards, when compared to the control group scored significantly higher
. Due to the significant findings from chapter 3 this technique was then implemented into schools. Chapter 4 developed 5 studies that assessed the effectiveness of using SAFMEDS in primary school on a class-wide basis, to
increase maths skills (n=272). The results showed that the students in the experimental condition when compared to TAU scored significantly higher, students could maintain the information learnt after 1 and 6-months, students could transfer the knowledge learnt to real world scenarios, and could be sustained in a busy classroom. Chapter 5 comprised a small sample of 2
students, who had been highlighted as having maths difficulties, attending a
main-stream primary school, therefore the class pack delivered in chapter 4
was not suitable for their learning needs. Additional packs were created for the
2 students, which were more suited to their ability. The students completed the sessions with the rest of the class. Both students showed gains pre-to post-
test and maintained the information in the one month follow-up-test, providing further support and evidence into the effectiveness of using
SAFMEDS to increase students’ basic academic skills. Chapter 6 further generalised and provided support for the use of SAFMEDS to increase maths skills in primary school students by incorporating SAFMEDS as homework. The
same cohort from chapter 4 were used to assess the use of SAFMEDS as homework (n=122) and found that using SAFMEDS as thenew style for homework increased students maths skills and increased parental involvement.
Chapter 7 assessed whether the same method from chapter 4 could be utilized in a high school setting (n=48). The results of this study showed that the students who had the addition of SAFMEDS in their maths lesson improved significantly higher than their peers who had TAU.
Overall, the evaluative research conducted with the workshops, highlighted the
importance of students having interactions with industry to increase their real world acceptance of the importance of STEM: the studies reported in this thesis have provided preliminary evidence of impact, but a number of key questions require further research. The overall findings from Chapters 3-7 suggest that
the low-tech procedure of using SAFMEDS was successful in increasing students’ technology and maths skills on a class-wide basis. The 19 immediate implications of this work suggest that schools could make significant
improvements in learning of STEM subjects. Success in a subject is one key element in motivation to study further and possibly in decisions to focus on those subjects in higher education.