Igniting Inspiration: STEM Festival Events
This case study may be of interest to practitioners, settings or lead officers considering ways to increase STEM capital, raise awareness of STEM careers and/or engage learners in a wide variety of STEM learning experiences.
Prepared by Michaela Dickson
Primary STEM Development Officer (PSDO), East Dunbartonshire
Overview
Case Study - Igniting Inspiration: STEM Festival Events
Introduction
Primary 7 represents a crucial stage in shaping young people's attitudes towards Sciences, Technologies, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and influencing their future learning and career pathways. To capitalise on this pre-secondary window, and aligned with Scotland's national drive for becoming a STEM Nation, East Dunbartonshire’s Primary STEM Development Officer (PSDO) developed a high-impact STEM Festival model in partnership with Developing the Young Workforce - Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire (DYW LED).
This initiative was primarily driven by the need to strategically develop sustainable partnerships between schools and industry, connect classroom learning to the real world and significantly boost learner and practitioners’ STEM capital.
Case Study - Igniting Inspiration: STEM Festival Events
A view of learners engaging in short workshops at Kirkintilloch STEM Festival in September 2024.
The event model was designed with four key aims:
Rationale
Case Study - Igniting Inspiration: STEM Festival Events
The STEM Festival model was conceived as an energetic, interactive and engaging event designed to maximise participation and learning. At the time of writing this case study, the PSDO had co-organised two STEM Festival events in East Dunbartonshire: Kirkintilloch STEM Festival in September 2024 then Bearsden and Milngavie STEM Festival in March 2025.
Both events had a variety of 10-minute, practical activities which learners accessed in set, small groups of around 6-8 children. Learners rotated through several of the available workshops in a free-flow manner, facilitated by a diverse range of STEM industry partners and ambassadors. These engagements offered practical challenges in areas like coding, forensic science, engineering design, renewable energy, or health sciences. The stalls had space which meant pupils could interact with industry equipment, view demonstrations and chat informally with professionals about their jobs and pathways.
Both events were also hosted in large venues enabling learners to engage in simultaneous workshops, creating a vibrant atmosphere.
The STEM Festival Model
Case Study - Igniting Inspiration: STEM Festival Events
Costs may occur when organising a STEM Festival event, but there are ways to keep these to a minimum.
With both of the East Dunbartonshire STEM Festival events, the costs were covered by DYW LED. These were:
However, many exhibitors were able to come and deliver experiences for the learners involved through their employer’s community benefit hours. Several STEM Ambassadors also contributed to the event. You can find out more about how to request STEM Ambassadors here.
What Does It Cost?
Case Study - Igniting Inspiration: STEM Festival Events
Do you
Are you
Would you
YES!
If the answer is yes, then start organising a STEM Festival event!
want to enable learners to explore a variety of different STEM experiences?
looking for ways to help increase STEM capital and awareness of STEM careers?
like partners to deliver engaging, quality STEM learning that practitioners can also learn from?
Is It for Me?
To consider whether using these guides would be beneficial to you, you might wish to ask yourself the following questions:
Case Study - Igniting Inspiration: STEM Festival Events
Benefit | In what way? |
Ignite a passion for STEM subjects before learners transition to secondary school. | By immersing P7 learners in a dynamic environment filled with diverse, hands-on activities - from coding robots and tackling engineering challenges to explore forensic science or renewable energy - delivered by enthusiastic professionals and experts in their fields. This direct exposure to a breadth of real-world applications also helps build learners’ STEM capital. |
Foster connections and partnerships between education settings and industry. | The interactive workshops, informal networking opportunities and follow-up contact sharing provide tangible pathways for schools to integrate inputs from industry experts and, in turn, improve their curricular offer. |
Build practitioner knowledge and confidence in delivering a variety of different STEM learning. | By providing staff the opportunity to observe a range of different approaches to STEM learning through the practical workshops, practitioners can develop their understanding of what STEM learning can look like at different levels. |
Benefits
There are several benefits of hosting STEM Festival-style events, especially those who bring more than one school together to participate in the event.
See the summary of these benefits in the table below:
Case Study - Igniting Inspiration: STEM Festival Events
Impact
Overall, The P7 STEM Festival model, underpinned by a vital partnership with Developing the Young Workforce, has demonstrably succeeded in its primary goals of significantly boosting pupil STEM capital and forging tangible, sustainable partnerships between schools and STEM organisations.
Engaging over 600 pupils and dozens of practitioners from 16 schools (making up 50% of the local authority), the festivals provided inspiring, real-world context for STEM learning and directly supported schools' efforts towards the STEM Nation Award. The professional learning aspect for teachers and the positive, informal peer interactions were also significant benefits.
The success validates the dynamic festival format as a highly effective mechanism for achieving strategic STEM engagement goals at the crucial P7 stage. Future iterations will continue to focus on maximising STEM capital growth and partnership opportunities, potentially through themed events or enhanced follow-up support facilitated by DYW, ensuring these impactful experiences continue to benefit pupils and schools across the authority.
Case Study - Igniting Inspiration: STEM Festival Events
Testing items related to the story to find out if they float or sink.
When asked what the benefits of the event were, a practitioner said: “Interaction with a broad range of STEM professionals and organisations. Very engaging and stimulating learning experiences provided. Thank you for a fabulous experience overall. We would definitely like for this to become an annual event.”
When asked what the benefits of the event were, a learner said:
“It was so much fun doing the workshops. I really wanted to do some of them again. My favourite was doing the water rockets outside. Ours flew about 50 feet along the grass!”
P7 learners engaging with a workshop delivered by a PhD student from the University of Strathclyde at Bearsden and Milngavie STEM Festival.
A P7 learner engaging in an acrtivity delivered by British Gas/Hive at Kirkintilloch STEM Festival.
The morning session of the Bearsden and Milngavie STEM Festival saw approximately 300 P7 learners from seven primary schools in the area.
Kirkintilloch STEM Festival saw over 150 P7 learners from seven schools throughout the day.
The views contained in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the RAiSE Programme, Education Scotland and/or The Wood Foundation.
Get in Touch
@primarySTEMed on X
Social Media
If you would like to know more or discuss any of the content within this case study, you can contact the author via email using the address below.