Genesis and Nanogirl Labs have joined forces in a planned three-year partnership with the goal of making a positive difference to STEM education in every primary school in New Zealand.
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The jobs of the future - including in the critical Energy sector - require creative thinkers with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills.
Since 2006, through their School-gen programme, Genesis have supported initiatives to connect young New Zealanders with exciting STEM learning opportunities, particularly in schools.
Nanogirl Labs has been working with schools to provide Teacher PLD and spectacular live science experiences for students in schools across New Zealand since 2016, reaching up to 10,000 students per year.
Now, Nanogirl Labs and Genesis have formed a new partnership to transform STEM education in New Zealand schools and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.
The first initiative to come out of the partnership is Nanogirl's STEMSTARS, brought to you by Genesis School-gen - a STEM programme purpose-designed to enable teachers in years 3 & 4 to bring STEM learning to life, without any need for prior STEM experience, or access to any specialist equipment.
STEMSTARS is a direct response to the lessons in our whitepaper - specifically that teacher confidence is a significant barrier to STEM teaching happening in our primary classrooms. Currently, just 22% of New Zealand primary school teachers teach science regularly, and the latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study found that 80% of Kiwi Year 8 students are currently achieving below the desired level in science.
Through our partnership, this brilliant, purpose-built learning tool is available to schools right across the country. Working together, STEMSTARS has the potential to make a real difference, in schools where STEM just isn’t being taught today.
As a for-purpose business, Nanogirl Labs designs social impact into every one of our products. STEMSTARS will be available to schools on a ‘Buy One, Give One’ basis - for every copy purchased by or for a school, another copy will be gifted to a school which might not otherwise be able to afford it. With Genesis’ support we expect to gift more than 100 copies of STEMSTARS (a value of more than $100,000) to schools in the first few months, and many more as the programme continues.