Release Date: 13 May 2022
Neon, a platform to bring the UK’s quality engineering outreach opportunities and inspiring careers resources in one place, has had a redesign to help teachers find the right experiences for their classrooms, specific to their education level. This means that both primary and secondary school teachers will be able to filter the experiences to discover those that work best for them and their students.
Primary teachers have always been in mind when designing Neon, however, analysis showed that the site was predominantly attracting secondary teachers. Neon ran focus groups with 2 separate cohorts of primary teachers before and during development to understand what would make the site more useful and attractive to primary teachers. Feedback showed that they didn’t see the website as primary teacher friendly, and this highlighted the key areas to focus on and update.
There have been many changes made to the Neon platform to support the distinct needs of primary teachers, including the following:
There are currently 126 experiences on Neon, of which 44 are for primary and 83 are for secondary. This move to make Neon more primary teacher friendly will see more primary experiences on the platform in the near future.
Neon is home to a wide variety of experiences, with some online, in-school and offsite. The Butterfly Effect by Jacobs is an online primary experience designed to create lasting behaviour change and habit formation. It covers topics such as plants, seasonal changes, materials and living things and their habits, and encourages pupils to work scientifically by asking questions and recording data.
LEGO computer control run by STEMworks is an in-school primary experience designed to help pupils learn how to program a robot to complete a series of increasingly difficult challenges. It covers the topic electricity and encourages pupils to make predictions and set up tests.
Dan Powell, Head of Neon at EngineeringUK, said: “I am delighted that Neon has been redesigned to make it easier for primary school teachers, as well as secondary school teachers, to find the experiences that best suit their classrooms.
“Neon aims to make life easier for teachers by curating the best engineering inspiration experiences so they can be confident they are good quality, and I am thrilled that teachers from all education levels will be able to find the right experiences for them and their students.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Find out more on the Neon website at https://neonfutures.org.uk/
Media Contact: Macy Richardson (MRichardson@engineeringuk.com / 07597 858947)
About Neon
Neon is unique in bringing together the UK's quality engineering outreach opportunities and inspiring careers resources in one place to help teachers bring STEM to life with real world examples of engineering.
Neon is powered by EngineeringUK, a not-for-profit which works in partnership with the engineering community to inspire tomorrow's engineers. Neon was developed with support from The Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund and is supported by British Science Association, Careers and Enterprise Company, Computing at School, Department for Education, Design and Technology Association, Institute of Physics, Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Engineering and Technology, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Mathematics Education Inspiration, Royal Academy of Engineering, Shell, Skills Builder Partnership and STEM Learning. www.neonfutures.org.uk
About EngineeringUK
EngineeringUK is a not-for-profit organisation, which works in partnership with the engineering community to inspire tomorrow’s engineers and increase the number and diversity of young people choosing academic and vocational pathways into engineering. EngineeringUK leads engagement programmes The Big Bang, Robotics Challenge and Energy Quest, helps schools bring STEM to life through real-world engineering via Neon, creates inspiring engineering careers resources and campaigns through Tomorrow's Engineers and produces a body of research including the flagship State of Engineering report. www.engineeringuk.com