Vertically integrated projects in primary

“Innovative science, engineering and technology are as fundamental to Scotland’s future economic prosperity as they have been to its economic development over the past two centuries, driving growth in the fast-changing world of the 21st century.” (Scottish Science & Engineering Advisory Group, 2012) The Vertically Integrated Project: STEM Education & Public Engagement resonates with a fostering of both interdisciplinary approach to learning and the development of enhanced communities of inquiry. Within the project students are involved in creating and sustaining STEM Education Clinics in schools and Public Engagement events within related local communities in Scotland. In so doing, the project not only develops students’ own STEM domain knowledge - and intra–professional and inter-personal skills sets - but also seeks to promote the development of STEM literacies acquisition of stakeholder communities in which these clinics are set. Although initial aspirations are towards developing all participants’ predicate socio-scientific discourse, it is also known that subsequent associated specialist STEM knowledge and skills set acquisitions this activity promotes are considered a much valued commodity in the wider political and economic spheres. It is envisaged therefore, that protracted iterations of the project will elicit these valuable STEM Literacies’ attainment across the longer term. To this end, the current project has taken the form of an evaluative study of STEM Education enhancement within a local community school. Emphasis here was placed on the development of participant argumentation within STEM through use of the Modified Toulmin Argument Pattern (ModTAP) Analytical Framework (Foong & Daniel, 2010). Crucially, the study is timeous in supporting the University’s drive towards bridging attainment gap and gender imbalance in STEM Education study, is aligned to much creative entrepreneurial thought regarding improving contemporary standards of STEM study in Scottish schools and chimes with precepts highlighted in the Scottish Government’s recent National Improvement Framework.