Arts education project to engage primary children in STEM learning

Harriet Clifford
Thursday, February 11, 2021

STEM Sisters is a new arts-embedded outreach project which aims to engage both girls and boys in STEM learning and enhance the KS2 curriculum.

From 15 March - 11 April, a new musical show using puppetry and multi-media will be available to stream from home. Jina and the STEM Sisters and accompanying resources follows the story of a young would-be scientist who needs empowerment from historical STEM women to help her find her way.

Female pioneers featured in the show include Marie Curie, Ada Lovelace, and Hedy Lamarr, with areas covered including coding a digital soundscape, as well as curiosity, courage, creativity, persistence and open-mindedness.

The musical, initially created pre-Covid as a touring show for schools, is created by HMDT Music, written by Rachel Barnett-Jones, composed by Jenny Gould, and is £10 to stream per family.

HMDT Music’s creative director Tertia Sefton-Green said: ‘We’re delighted we’re able to make our new production available as a film for families and for schools - alongside a body of workshops and teaching resources - and hope that we will be able to achieve our original plans of a live theatre tour in the autumn, when venues reopen.

‘STEM Sisters enables us to extend our national reach to young people with our award-winning methodology of embedding the arts to inspire in this case, a thirst for science and maths.’

Due to start visiting UK schools during the Summer term 2021, the full STEM Sisters educational project will further bring to life the stories of diverse female scientists and mathematicians whose work was often unrecognised.

The project includes the STEM Sisters Gallery, a new Heritage Zone website introducing key women figures, as well as the Education Zone, which is a range of online teaching plans and resources for teaching KS2 science, maths and the arts.

In-school interactive workshops will also be available, as well as INSET training for teachers and talks from female STEM Ambassadors in school.

Sefton-Green added that the project ‘aims to stimulate learning and raise achievement using our award-winning methodology of embedding the arts across the curriculum to show how innovative, creative learning, can transform lives.’

Today (11 February 2021) is International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Find out more here.

The musical is recommended for ages 8-12.