The following information is for schools that have been invited to participate in the AfRIS STEM Clubs project. In time, we would hope to expand support to all remote and island schools wishing to run a STEM Club for their pupils, but it the first instance, we will need to restrict our support to invited school clusters.

STEM Club Leader

In order to access FREE AfRIS support, partner schools will need to nominate a STEM Club leader to work directly with the AfRIS team. The nominated lead could be a teacher, classroom assistant, parent helper, community volunteer, or even a confident older pupil wishing to gain leadership experience.

Model of Support

The AfRIS team will provide STEM Club support to partner schools through one of the following models:

• Fortnightly visits from AfRIS staff to run the STEM Club.
• Monthly visits from AfRIS staff to assist with running of STEM Club, backed up by remote Zoom sessions & support from NSO team.
• One-off STEM Club training workshop (within cluster), followed by a single AfRIS visit to support first activity. Backed up by remote Zoom sessions and support from the NSO team.
• Dedicated online resources, guides, video tutorials and rewards, backed up with e-mail & forum support from NSO team.

The model of support offered to schools will depend on the science knowledge, experience and confidence level of school staff, and will be agreed with agreed with the partner school’s nominated STEM Club lead in advance.

STEM Club Activities

The activities undertaken by STEM Clubs are based on a recently created series of NSO STEM Club booklets that range from Bronze to Gold level at both primary and secondary education levels.

• Each level booklet (Bronze, Silver and Gold) contains 6 activities for participants to work through.
• Each stage comes with a comprehensive Leader Booklet to provide guidance and additional resources.
• With fortnightly club meetings, each booklet is expected to take around 12 weeks (or one term) to fully complete. Once completed, the club can move onto the next level of activities.

STEM Club Rewards

In addition to a completion certificate, clubs will also receive a participation reward for each different level they attempt, as follows:

• Bronze Award – pack of mini-meteorites
• Silver Award – Celestron Binoculars
• Gold Award – Celestron Astromaster 130 Telescope

Project Evaluation

As a primary goal of the project is to determine a best practice model for future STEM Club provision in remote/island communities, partner schools will be invited to participate in some light-touch evaluation that will allow us to identify the key challenges faced by schools, club leaders and pupils involved in the active STEM Clubs. Whilst participants are not obliged to contribute towards the evaluation aspects of the project, all feedback received will help to create a better experience for school STEM clubs that follow.